Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication

Bad Ideas about AI and Writing: Generative Practices for Teaching, Learning, and Communication—edited by Christopher Basgier, Anna Mills, Mandy Olejnik, Miranda Rodak, and Shyam Sharma—follows the model of Bad Ideas about Writing (Ball and Loewe, 2017) by examining the popular beliefs about artificial intelligence and how humans (and computers) write. The book is included in the Perspectives on Writing series, which is edited by Rich Rice and J. Michael Rifenburg.

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is changing the way we learn, teach, and practice writing. Amidst this communicative landscape, old myths about writing resurface and new myths emerge, from the old idea that good writing is only about surface style to the new idea that we must ditch all our writing assignments because GenAI can do them for us. We call these “bad ideas” when they are ill-informed, unethical, or harmful to students who seek to learn, think, and communicate. To counteract such bad ideas, the contributors to this edited collection offer “generative” ideas about GenAI and writing, ideas that spur creative new directions in the education and practice of writing. Collectively, they illustrate the ongoing importance of rhetorical awareness, critical literacy, and human-centered practices, with and without GenAI in the mix.

This book, like other books published by the Clearinghouse, will be available in a print edition from University Press of Colorado in the coming months. Thanks to Chris, Anna, Mandy, Miranda, and Shyam for their work on the book and for their decision to share it with us as an open-access publication. Thanks as well to the many chapter authors and the anonymous peer reviewers who contributed to its development.