Using AI to Cultivate Superior Writing Skills
By Dr Leah Zitter
Discover how teachers can transform AI from a threat into a tool for learning, using it to enhance students’ cognitive and writing skills.
For teachers of creative writing, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) presents both challenges and opportunities. No longer limited to chatbots handling simple inquiries, AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are now capable of generating entire student essays. This shift has sparked concern among teachers, as students who rely on AI to write for them risk losing essential writing and cognitive skills. Tech pioneer Paul Graham warns that, over time, this reliance could create a stark divide between “Write-Nots” and “Think-Nots”—a prospect with profound educational and societal implications.
However, teachers need not view AI as the enemy. By leveraging AI as a tool for learning, teachers can help students enhance their writing skills and develop critical thinking abilities, much as calculators have supported numeracy skills in mathematics.
Twenty years ago: Here’s how we did our homework…
When I taught students how to write years ago, I’d split them into small groups in class, give them compositions and ask them to dissect those essays. Compositions could be expository (informative) or argumentative, fictitious or non-fictitious. Often, they would represent different genres. I’d give each student a rubric with categories and questions that would include: How did the author phrase X? Which passages stood out as being effective? How does the overall piece work together? What stylistic choices did the author make?
We’d then review the group’s evaluations in class, discuss their findings and write key points on the blackboard. Students would highlight, annotate, maybe jot comments in the margins of their handouts.
Then came the task few students liked. They’d write their own essays at home and place them on my desk the next day for checking.
There would be the regular excuses. “Mother gave birth” or “Just one more day” they’d plead. Every so often, someone else would write their essays for them or essays would be partly plagiarised, but I could readily identify those offences. These days, as compatriots tell me, students give their essays to robots instead. And seemingly more than half of secondary students use AI for their homework, according to multiple media sources (BBC, Guardian and Daily Mail). Worse still, it’s a growing trend. Worst of all, teachers are unable to tell the difference.
I tell teachers who prohibit AI that they’re fighting a losing battle. The use of AI by students will inevitably affect English language teaching. Rather, let’s beat AI at its game and instead use it to help students improve their essay-writing skills instead.
Using ChatGPT for writing is like using calculators for Maths
Warnings that ChatGPT can erode students’ writing skills remind me of those warnings in the 2000s, when Maths teachers were cautioned that allowing their students to use calculators could lead to low numeracy standards and stop children from thinking. Far from it, as subsequent research shows: calculators aid mathematical skills and can even make arithmetic more fun.
That’s because learning Maths isn’t just about performing the operations that a calculator does; it’s also about knowing what to input into the calculator and when. Students need to understand the mathematical problem. They need to know which operations to use (whether it’s +, -, *, and so on). They need to understand how to interpret the results and apply them effectively. Everything depends on using calculators in the “proper” way.
As Lucy Mycroft-Smith observed, today we’d find it ludicrous to suggest that the ubiquitous and humble calculator downgrades student’s thinking. It’s not the technology, per se, that improves student learning. Rather (she added): “It is the curriculum in which it is embedded, and the accompanying pedagogy, which may determine the ultimate effectiveness of technology implementation in mathematics classrooms.”
Rather similar, isn’t it, to the debate over whether AI, in general, and ChatGPT, in particular, corrodes students’ writing skills? It all depends on how we use that tool.
Using AI to enhance student writing
Creative writing teachers of 16 to 18-year-olds can use AI with their students in one of three ways.
Firstly, they can allow students to “let it do their homework” for them, in which case both writing and cognitive skills could atrophy, according to Paul Graham. Secondly, teachers could let students process their rough draughts through AI, using AI to polish the essays before submission. Cognitive skills remain unimpaired (students have done the initial research and heavy-lifting), but their writing skills may suffer since students rely on AI for flawless grammar, style and sentence structure.
Lastly, teachers could use AI – much as their Maths colleagues use calculators— as a tool, to help students analyse their writing skills and to become superior writers.
It’s a three-step process that can be done in or out of the classroom:
- Students conceptualise and draft their essays
- Students process their essays through AI and ask AI to improve them
- Students analyse and assess the results.
Questions students ask include: Why did ChatGPT make that change, and is it really an improvement? Did it fix a spelling or grammatical error? (If so, it’s important to understand what the original error was.) Did it enhance the clarity or conciseness of a sentence or paragraph? Did it improve the logical flow of the writing?
Finally, students put the AI draft aside and rewrite their essays using what they learnt.
AI prompts that will make students better writers
For this option to work, we need effective prompts that guide AI to edit the writing without changing the voice of the essay. Some of the best prompts I’ve found include the following:
- “Fix grammar and syntax.” Act as an experienced writer with a strong command of grammar, syntax, and style. Review and correct any grammatical errors in my [content].
- “Do line editing.” Simplify sentences while preserving meaning and nuance. Apply proper punctuation, streamline language, and eliminate unnecessary jargon or filler.
- “Review and proofread.” Correct typos, grammatical errors, awkward phrasing, and other minor issues. Enhance readability and flow.
For narrative writing, I like to use this prompt:
- “Add descriptive elements.” Analyse the provided [piece of text] and pinpoint areas where the writing can be enhanced using the principles of “show, not tell.” Offer specific suggestions for rewriting sentences or paragraphs to evoke emotion, engage the reader’s senses, and provide deeper character insights without explicitly stating the information.
AI can also tangentially help students improve their writing skills in other ways, such as:
- Helping them find the right word, write dialogue that mimics the speech patterns of a specific region, or refine a character’s dialogue to make it sound more natural.
- Offering inspiration for plot points, character motivations, scene settings, and more, helping students to overcome writer’s block.
- Providing clear answers to complex questions that Google might answer inconsistently or that are difficult to research, such as what foods were commonly eaten in a specific year and location.
- Suggesting character and place names, or a variety of title headings, saving students significant brainstorming time.
This is where human intelligence merges with artificial intelligence. It’s a collaborative partnership where AI helps students improve their writing skills, much like calculators help users improve their numeracy skills.
It’s Not the Tool, It’s How You Use It
In math, students don’t just use calculators to generate answers. They’re expected to explain their reasoning and show their problem-solving process. The same can be true with AI. Teachers can require students to submit both their original drafts and the final versions edited with AI support. Students should identify key changes AI made and explain why those changes improve the essay.
This approach ensures that students engage with both the process and the product of writing. Instead of becoming “write-nots” or “think-nots,” students become critical thinkers and skilled writers. Far from eroding cognitive abilities, AI—when used effectively—can enhance them.
It’s inevitable that students will use AI to support their writing—the “writing on the wall” is clear. But this shift need not signal the end of student thinking. If teachers embrace AI as a teaching tool rather than a threat, they can ensure students continue to develop essential cognitive and writing skills. By requiring students to engage with AI’s feedback, reflect on changes, and refine their work, educators prepare students for a world where human intelligence and artificial intelligence work hand-in-hand.
