Professional Writing
This section presents assignments that enable students to understand how computational writing technologies might be integrated into workplace contexts. Unlike academic discourse, professional writing is not grounded in an ethos of truth-seeking and critical inquiry; it tends to be grounded in an ethos of efficacy as well as constraints of legality and workplace ethics.
- Discover Your Own Voice and Centralize Inclusion with AI
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Wei Xu
Northern Illinois UniversityThe activity asks students to use the provided example prompts to feed ChatGPT for producing texts on a Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) topic, evaluate the GPT-generated texts, and then rewrite the GPT-produced texts with the author’s voice and considerations of inclusion. This activity is ideal to be used as a low-stakes experimental activity for students with an open-minded disposition who would like to explore the pros and cons of using GenAI in TPC. It also contributes to developing students’ critical GenAI literacy through evaluating and revising AI-generated texts.
- Organizational AI Policy Proposal Assignment
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Jessica McCaughey
George Washington UniversityThis assignment allows professional writing students the chance to consider and make recommendations on the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in specific workplace contexts. In small groups, students select and research a particular organization and consider the aims, values, internal and external stakeholders, and constraints that could impact the use of LLMs. They research both the larger standards and uses of AI within their chosen industry and the larger business and scholarly conversations taking place as these technologies rapidly evolve. They then develop a policy recommendations proposal for the organization.
- Introduce Yourself with a Professional Bio
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Traci Gardner
Virginia TechStudents in a junior- and senior-level technical writing course use generative AI to draft professional biographies based on their résumés. Students begin by reviewing examples of bios from industry websites and profiles. They then use their existing résumés to prompt an AI chatbot that does not cache students’ writing (such as CopilotEdu) to generate a first draft of a professional bio. The AI output becomes a starting point for revision and rhetorical decision-making, not a final product.After generating a draft, students revise the text for members of their collaborative writing groups in the course.
- Writing Situation-based Emails with and against ChatGPT
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Jainab Tabassum Banu
North Dakota State UniversityThis assignment invites undergraduate writing students to explore AI-assisted professional writing through a task titled “Situational-based Email Writing,” which involves drafting and refining workplace or academic emails using generative tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini. By working with provided prompt templates, students will reframe communication scenarios into audience-specific messages while assessing the effectiveness of AI-generated drafts. The assignment creates opportunities for students to critically examine how well these tools capture the nuances of tone, clarity, and rhetorical appropriateness required in professional correspondence. By evaluating and revising AI outputs, students will sharpen their own authorial voice, deepen their understanding of context-driven communication, and develop ethical awareness around the role of AI in writing.