Inventing Anew: A Comparative Approach Encompassing Generative AI and Embodied Practices

Type of Presentation

Individual paper/presentation

Conference Strand

Critical Literacy

Target Audience

Higher Education

Second Target Audience

K-12

Location

Ballroom B

Relevance

My presentation situates generative AI technology as a new, viable means of invention for writing students to be explored alongside other creative approaches to invention, thus enforcing the perception of AI as one tool among many in a process wherein the author always retains authority.

Proposal

One of the challenges of generative AI for instructors of writing is the potential it offers students to off-load thought labor, specifically the labor of conceiving of and elaborating on ideas for their writing assignments. The “MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force Writing and AI Working Paper” states first on their list of the risks AI poses to students, “Students may miss writing, reading, and thinking [emphasis added] practice because they submit generative AI outputs as their own work….” Many instructors have chosen to face this challenge by encouraging students to embrace AI as a co-creator while others have sought ways to bar it from course work. Regardless of one’s stance on how AI should or should not be integrated into student writing submitted for a grade, I argue it has done our discipline a definite service by calling new attention to the rhetorical canon of invention. I will argue in this presentation that an effective way to introduce and situate AI in college first-year writing courses is as a tool of invention to be tested against other tools. In my presentation, I will discuss using generative AI as a starting point for a course-long inquiry into the invention process in first-year writing. While experimenting with AI, students also experiment with embodied invention practices like movement and improvisation. In addition, we use the comparison of means of invention to introduce the concepts of ethos and discernment.

Bertolt Brecht wrote, “The more we have been able to wrest from nature by means of great inventions and discoveries and the organization of labor, the more uncertain our existence seems to have become. We don't control things, it seems – things control us.” Brecht’s point is that things we have invented seeming to control us is only our perception. I believe it is the responsibility of writing teachers and information specialists to teach AI technology in a manner that reinforces the contrasting perception that human thought is always, ultimately, in control, and how we use any technology is a choice that we in a free society must retain and exercise. My presentation will explore the practice and results of experimenting with a comparative approach to teaching invention that includes generative AI and embodied practices in a first-year writing course.

Short Description

This paper argues that generative AI has done a service to writing instructors by calling new attention to the rhetorical canon of invention. I will examine using generative AI as a starting point for critically exploring the invention process by discussing the practice and results of having students experiment in invention with AI while also experimenting with embodied invention practices like movement and improvisation.

Keywords

AI, Invention, Writing, Rhetoric

Publication Type and Release Option

Presentation (Open Access)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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Feb 7th, 2:00 PM Feb 7th, 2:45 PM

Inventing Anew: A Comparative Approach Encompassing Generative AI and Embodied Practices

Ballroom B

One of the challenges of generative AI for instructors of writing is the potential it offers students to off-load thought labor, specifically the labor of conceiving of and elaborating on ideas for their writing assignments. The “MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force Writing and AI Working Paper” states first on their list of the risks AI poses to students, “Students may miss writing, reading, and thinking [emphasis added] practice because they submit generative AI outputs as their own work….” Many instructors have chosen to face this challenge by encouraging students to embrace AI as a co-creator while others have sought ways to bar it from course work. Regardless of one’s stance on how AI should or should not be integrated into student writing submitted for a grade, I argue it has done our discipline a definite service by calling new attention to the rhetorical canon of invention. I will argue in this presentation that an effective way to introduce and situate AI in college first-year writing courses is as a tool of invention to be tested against other tools. In my presentation, I will discuss using generative AI as a starting point for a course-long inquiry into the invention process in first-year writing. While experimenting with AI, students also experiment with embodied invention practices like movement and improvisation. In addition, we use the comparison of means of invention to introduce the concepts of ethos and discernment.

Bertolt Brecht wrote, “The more we have been able to wrest from nature by means of great inventions and discoveries and the organization of labor, the more uncertain our existence seems to have become. We don't control things, it seems – things control us.” Brecht’s point is that things we have invented seeming to control us is only our perception. I believe it is the responsibility of writing teachers and information specialists to teach AI technology in a manner that reinforces the contrasting perception that human thought is always, ultimately, in control, and how we use any technology is a choice that we in a free society must retain and exercise. My presentation will explore the practice and results of experimenting with a comparative approach to teaching invention that includes generative AI and embodied practices in a first-year writing course.