AI & How We Teach Writing

My new partnership with the publisher W. W. Norton

For the last couple of years, I’ve thought about AI all day, pretty much every day. I watch videos on it, try out new tools, read research and news articles, and talk with colleagues. Even with all of that, it’s hard to keep up!

In the midst of thinking about AI all the time, I’ve developed a renewed interest in writing. AI can produce outputs, sure. And our incentive structures in the academy are geared towards outputs. But what value is writing to me, as a writer?

Writing helps me to process the onslaught of information and developments in AI. And when I’m writing, it helps me to consider you all—the modest audience of this Substack. Thank you for reading. :)

I mentioned my joy in writing in this format, for this audience, to an editor I’d been working with at Norton (I’m coauthoring a chapter for Everyone’s an Author in the upcoming 5th edition). And she came up with a great way for me to connect with more teachers, through Norton: a newsletter geared towards teachers of writing.

So, I’m happy to announce a partnership with Norton for this spring. I’ll be writing posts twice a month on AI & How We Teach Writing. It’s meant for teachers of writing across a wide spectrum, including research universities, community colleges, liberal arts schools, and high schools. We’ll tackle technical details, ethical issues, and I’ll give practical tips on how to teach writing in an AI era. I’ll be writing less on this Substack, at least for the spring. So please find me over there and subscribe! (It’s free.)