Introduce Yourself with a Professional Bio

Traci Gardner
Virginia Tech

Students 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. 

Learning Goals

  • Evaluate context and audience expectations for a specific purpose.
  • Adapt résumé content into a cohesive narrative that highlights relevant experience, skills, and values in a tone appropriate for a professional setting.
  • Use the conventions of the professional bio genre—such as third-person point of view, concise phrasing, and rhetorical emphasis—to organize and present information effectively.
  • Revise AI-generated content critically, assessing its rhetorical appropriateness, accuracy, and usefulness as a first draft rather than a final product.
  • Reflect on the ethics of using generative AI in self-representation, developing awareness of the boundaries between automation, authorship, and authenticity. 

Original Assignment Context: Upper-level Undergraduate Asynchronous Online Technical Writing Course. 

Materials Needed

Time Frame: About a week 

Overview: A professional bio introduces new employees to coworkers, updates staff when employees take on new responsibilities (like promotions), and provides the public with details on employee qualifications and interests. On a college campus, departments, schools, and colleges often post professional bios when they present awards and special honors in order to highlight students’ accomplishments. 

I’ve taught the professional bio assignment for more than 10 years, sometimes as a stand-alone assignment and sometimes in course discussion posts. I’ve taught this AI variation twice—in Fall 2024 and Spring 2025—at a land-grant university in Virginia, within a technical and scientific communication program. Upper-level students in this course typically have strong résumés when they come to the course, written to apply for internships and jobs. Because they already know how to write résumés and cover letters, those assignments are not useful for this course. This alternative professional bio assignment allows students to explore a new genre and examine how to adapt their résumé content for a new purpose.

For this assignment, students use AI and their existing résumés to compose first drafts of their bios and then revise to match the expectations of their audience, the members of their discussion groups. Both times I’ve taught this assignment with AI, students reported surprise at how much AI could generate from sparse résumé content, and more importantly, how revision was still required to meet genre expectations. The assignment also led to productive conversations about authenticity, authorship, and the ethics of using AI to represent oneself professionally.

Assignment

Step One: Preparing for the Project

  1. Review the trade articles on writing professional bios and the example professional bios. Identify characteristics of the genre that are appropriate for your own bio.
  2. Consider the audience and purpose for your bio, noting any specific kinds of information that will help you accomplish your purpose:
    • Audience: the classmates in your discussion group, whom you’ll work with most of the semester.
    • Purpose: getting to know one another so you can connect and collaborate smoothly.

Step Two: Creating Your First Draft

  1. Log into an AI chatbot tool that will not save your writing to train the system. Since you will share personal information with the tool, you want to be sure your information is not saved.
  2. Customize this prompt, or write your own:

Write a professional biography statement based on the résumé I have attached. Write the bio from a first person perspective and include the following details:

  • My name
  • My major
  • My career intentions (e.g., what kind of job am I aiming for?)
  • My social activities (e.g., clubs, Greek organizations)
  • My interests outside of school (e.g., hobbies, sports)

Aim for one to two paragraphs. If required information is not included add a list of information that needs to be added at the end of your draft.

  1. Paste your prompt into the question area of your AI chatbot and upload your résumé.
  2. Submit your prompt and résumé to the chatbot,  and wait for the response. Here’s an example response to a résumé from Virginia Tech Career Services.
  3. Save the chatbot’s response so you can revise it.

Step Three: Revising Your Bio Draft

  1. Compare the chatbot’s response to the characteristics you identified in the trade articles on writing professional bios and the example professional bios, noting the information in the first draft that needs to be updated.
  2. Keep the following requirements in mind as you revise:
    • Include strong, specific details that tell your audience who you are and that help them get to know you.
    • Use current information. Don’t make up anything. Your readers want to know who you really are.
  3. Follow any tips from the chatbot on information to add to the draft.
  4. Add a photo to your bio that connects to the info in your bio. It doesn’t have to be a photo of yourself, but it can be. You can include more than one photo if you want to. Here are some examples of kinds of photos that work:

Tips: Avoid photos from prom, graduation, and weddings. They look out of place because they are not from a setting that connects to your career field.

  • A business-casual or business photo of yourself.
  • A photo of a pet, and you mention the pet in your bio (especially useful if you are in pre-Vet or Animal and Poultry Sciences).
  • A photo of yourself doing something relevant to your career (like working on a construction site if you’re a Building Construction major or participating in an obstacle course with the Corps).
  • A photo of yourself participating in a hobby or special interests (like an outlook on a hiking trail for someone interested in hiking or backpacking—or majoring in conservation). Again be sure you talk about the hobby or special interest in your bio.
  1. Once you have finished revising, post your bio in the Introduce Yourself discussion forum, and respond to the posts of the others in your group.

Step Four: Discussing the Use of AI

  1. Invite students to examine how AI worked for this activity and the related issues that arose using the following questions:
    • What surprised you most about the AI-generated draft of your bio? In what ways did it succeed—or fail—to represent you accurately and effectively?
    • How did the genre of the professional bio shape your revision process? What changes did you make to ensure your bio aligned with characteristics of the genre?
    • Do you feel that using AI to help write a bio is a form of self-representation, co-authorship, or something else? Why?
    • At what point does a text become “yours”? If you started with an AI draft but revised it heavily, how would you describe your role as the writer?
    • Would you feel comfortable using a bio written (even partially) by AI on your LinkedIn or personal website? Why or why not?
    • How might AI outputs reinforce clichés, vague language, or assumptions about professional identity? How can you recognize and revise these patterns?
    • How did the AI handle tone and style? Did it reflect the voice you want to present in a professional context? Why or why not?