31 Collaborative Writing and AI: A Research Assignment for an Undergraduate Professional Communication Course

Introduction to the Assignment

I created this “Collaborative Writing and AI” assignment for an in-person section of ENGL 2020, a new Professional Communication course at Utah State University (USU) that fulfills our second-level general education Communications Literacy (CL2) requirement. Because the term “professional” can suggest a dominant and normative identity or context, students and I discuss early in the semester how professional communication is not limited to or defined by a traditional white-collar workplace environment, but can be applied to—and shift rhetorically within—a variety of contexts, including community organizations, workplaces focusing on manual or outdoor labor, small businesses, non-profits, and volunteer work. This framing then guides all student writing and research for the course, including our investigation into the complexities of generative AI.

The assignment prompt for “Collaborative Writing and AI” asks students to 1) conduct outside research on a specific topic within AI, 2) conduct primary research with AI itself, and 3) make recommendations to their peers and future colleagues in the profession or community on how to navigate and respond to a range of interdisciplinary conversations and perspectives on the technology (refer to the Appendix for the full assignment prompt). Students are also asked to make recommendations as for which situations, purposes, and audiences they and their future professions should use or not use AI, limit or encourage its use, and document or cite their work with the technology.

Like most institutions, USU hosts a wide variety of perspectives on the use of AI, with some teachers fully incorporating the technology into all aspects of the writing and research process; others expressing deep concerns about the ethics behind the creation and use of AI; some open to using it, but not sure how to meaningfully incorporate it into student learning outcomes; and some fully banning its use for any purpose. My goal with this assignment is to have students conduct primary and secondary research on the technology so that they can make informed contributions to conversations related to AI, both in educational settings and in their future professional communication contexts. I also want students to practice documenting their use of AI so that they (and potentially their teachers or future colleagues) can analyze the ways in which the technology enhances, limits, or impedes their learning.

Our Process

Background Reading on AI

We began the project by reading some existing scholarship on AI to frame the larger conversations on AI. Because I am a co-editor of this collection, I used the opportunity to introduce students to the final drafts of five chapters now published within this book. Students read one chapter per group and then summarized the chapter’s main points and significance for our upcoming project for the rest of the class; students also noted which sources cited in the chapter might potentially be useful as sources to investigate further. Altogether, the class read and summarized the following chapters to begin our collaborative projects:

• Maha Bali’s “Cake-Making Analogy for Setting Generative AI Guidelines/Ethics.” This chapter provides students with a useful analogy to analyze the role AI could or should play in their learning and in what contexts. The chapter is written in a manner easily accessible to students, so it is a helpful introductory text to conversations on the technology.
• Michael A. Christiansen’s “ChatGPT Assistance in Creating Chemistry Practice Problems: Pitfalls, Positives, and Possibilities.” This chapter provides students with background information and language on how AI works; it then introduces students to disciplinary-specific applications of AI. The chapter also emphasizes how much content students still need to know in order to be able to use AI effectively in their future professions.
• Clancy Ratcliff’s “Revising LLM Text to (Re)Discover Rhetoric in a Graduate Seminar.” Although this chapter focuses on a graduate-level assignment, the author introduces and models a changelog, a concept from software development that documents changes—and revisions—between versions of software. Students can use this changelog process to document revision-based interactions with AI (and other types of revision).
• Franziska Tsufim and Lainie Pomerleau’s “More is Less? Using Generative AI for Idea Generation and Diversification in Early Writing Processes.” This chapter provides two sample activities where students engage meaningfully with AI to enhance and assess their learning; these activities serve as a model for the types of primary research with AI that students can do for a class project. The chapter also discusses the challenges and benefits of group collaboration.
• Lydia Wilkes’ “Some Ethical Considerations for Teaching and Generative AI in Higher Education.” This chapter introduces students to a range of ethical considerations related to AI, including concerns with standardized language, labor, and the environment. Many students are not aware of these conversations, so the chapter provides them with new concepts and keywords to research.

Project Design

I designed and introduced students to five main areas (described in the Appendix below) that each group would research:

• How AI Works
• Researching AI’s Output
• Prompt Engineering and Revision
• Ethical Considerations
• Professional & Disciplinary Contexts

Each student ranked their top 2-3 choices and provided a brief description of why they were interested in that topic; I then assigned students to teams based on their preferences and rationale. Once in their teams, each group reviewed the specific questions asked of their team in the assignment prompt. After initial discussion, and guided by the preliminary research we had read and summarized as a whole class, they then selected a specific focus within their assigned area to research.

With this design, I provided the necessary framework for the class to begin researching specific conversations on AI, conversations that they will likely need to be able to contribute to and navigate in both their current educational setting and future professional contexts. Within each group, students were then responsible for designing their specific research project, which included selecting and investigating a narrower topic within their assigned area of AI. This design provided them with the structure and starting resources necessary to successfully engage in their first group project, while offering them significant choice and agency to select a research focus central to their group’s interests and expertise.

Timeframe

The students had three weeks to research, draft, and write the project. By this point in the semester, students had already written several reports where they found, evaluated, summarized, synthesized, and cited a variety of credible sources within their disciplines or professions; therefore, the new course concepts in this unit focused on writing collaboratively, engaging in primary research, and evaluating and synthesizing the conversations around AI itself. We utilized approximately eight hours of class time to work on the project, but students were also expected to work on the project outside of class (by conducting individual research, writing drafts of their assigned sections, etc.). Because this was a 2000-level course, groups were not expected to meet outside of class unless they chose to (which some did). After the written reports were drafted, groups then reviewed and provided feedback for another group—which helped them revise their own collaboratively-written project.

Written and Oral Products

For their final products, the groups wrote a collaborative recommendation report based on their primary and secondary research; they also designed and gave a collaborative presentation, one that incorporated the expertise of each group member. These presentations were required to be interactive in order to engage their audience, and students utilized a range of methods—including small group discussion, surveys, and analysis of human-created and AI-generated images—to help their audience think more carefully about the possibilities and potential concerns of AI. To provide students with practice in presenting for multiple audiences, I invited other ENGL 2020 teachers, as well as our Department Head, to attend the presentations. Creating interactive, collaborative presentations for multiple audiences allowed students to think carefully about the needs and experiences of different groups affected by the technology. The presentations also provided them with the opportunity to analyze and revise their written reports before turning in the assignment for instructor feedback.

Initial Results and Analysis

This was my first semester both teaching the course and this assignment, and I was pleased with how the students responded. Groups researched and made specific recommendations regarding awareness and potential mitigation of environmental impacts of AI, the possibilities and cautions for using AI to aid in medical diagnoses and interact with patients in healthcare settings, the creation and evaluation of national and institutional policies on AI, and how to ensure a broader population understands the algorithms used to create and train AI. Their recommendations were particularly meaningful to their classmates, as each group included a suggestion on how current college students—who are also current and future professionals and community members—could apply the research to help them navigate generative AI in their own lives.

The balance of secondary research on the technology and their own primary research using AI provided students with a way to synthesize outside research with their own experiences and observations—an intentional use and evaluation of sources that they can apply to any future research context. Selecting their peers as the primary audience and their future professions or community contexts as the secondary audience allowed them to make meaningful recommendations on AI usage, as well as learn how to navigate the needs of multiple audiences, both real and imagined.

While students did an excellent job working collaboratively and researching nuanced perspectives, one challenge they had with this project was creating a cohesive written report that effectively synthesized both their sources and their recommendations. In the future, I will revise this project so that students have more scaffolded instruction on collaborative writing and synthesis of sources. Students were actually more effective in these tasks during their oral presentations, so I will also revise the assignment so that I provide students with more guided instruction on how to translate their oral synthesis to their written recommendation reports.

A Final Note: Adapting the Assignment for Your Own Teaching Context

As a writing program administrator, I mentor and interact with a wide range of teachers both within and outside of my department—including those new to AI, those who are cautious of the technology, those who have fully embraced it, or those who have not had the opportunity to think carefully and critically about the various implications of AI. My hope is that teachers from a variety of disciplines, teaching modalities, and institutional contexts will adapt this assignment to their own context. To guide teachers in this adaptation, I provide the full assignment description below in the Appendix. The prompt includes the project overview, including specific tasks for each group; the required components of the final report, including directions for a self-assessment, a group assessment, and the oral presentation; the recommended process student groups might take to complete the project; guidance on length, format, and AI use; and the course learning outcomes.

While this assignment was written for a lower-division professional communication course, it can be easily modified for a range of disciplines and levels. For example, students in an upper-division nursing course could investigate the specific ways in which AI can assist with patient medical diagnoses, serve as a “translator” when patients either do not fully understand the instructions for their care or do not feel comfortable asking questions, or seek out alternative perspectives if the patient is concerned about the effects of identity bias on the care they are receiving; nursing students can also analyze the importance of balancing the technology with human-centered care, conduct primary research on how patients interact with and (mis)trust AI in a medical setting, or interview nurses to investigate how medical professionals are responding to and/or utilizing generative AI in the workplace. For additional suggestions on interdisciplinary possibilities, I recommend teachers consult with some of the disciplinary-specific chapters in this collection, including Ruth Li’s chapter on creative writing, Ali Söken and Kysa Nygreen’s chapter on film and critical media literacy, Reba Wissner’s chapter on music history, Ha Nguyen’s mini-chapter on UX/UI design, Susan Codone’s chapter on K-12 curriculum and instruction for graduate students, Mudasir Mustafa’s mini-chapter on social statistics and data analysis, or the aforementioned Michael Christiansen’s chapter on chemistry.

Additionally, while the assignment was originally created for an in-person class, it would be easily adaptable for an online or hybrid course; rather than meeting in person during class, students could meet synchronously over Zoom or asynchronously in digital spaces to discuss their goals for the project, assign tasks, and communicate on their progress. Online or hybrid settings would also allow teachers and students the opportunity to investigate the role of AI in digital teaching and learning spaces. Regardless of the adaptation, I hope this assignment provides teachers and students with a meaningful model for researching and critically engaging with AI in your own course context.

References

Bali, M. (2024). Cake-making analogy for setting generative AI guidelines/ethics. In B. Buyserie and T. N. Thurston (Eds.), Teaching and generative AI: Pedagogical possibilities and productive tensions. Utah State University.

Christiansen, M. A. (2024). ChatGPT assistance in creating chemistry practice problems: Pitfalls, positives, and possibilities. In B. Buyserie and T. N. Thurston (Eds.), Teaching and generative AI: Pedagogical possibilities and productive tensions. Utah State University.

Codone, S. (2024). Using generative AI to perform stacked evaluations of educational documents: Provoking students to think on successively higher levels. In B. Buyserie and T. N. Thurston (Eds.), Teaching and generative AI: Pedagogical possibilities and productive tensions. Utah State University.

Li, R. (2024). “Language weaves its tapestry”: Crafting found poetry using AI tools. In B. Buyserie and T. N. Thurston (Eds.), Teaching and generative AI: Pedagogical possibilities and productive tensions. Utah State University.

Microsoft Copilot. (n.d.). Copilot: Your everyday AI companion. http://copilot.microsoft.com

Mustafa, M. (2024). Use of AI in teaching social statistics or data analysis. In B. Buyserie and T. N. Thurston (Eds.), Teaching and generative AI: Pedagogical possibilities and productive tensions. Utah State University.

Nguyen, H. (2024). Co-creating intersectional design narratives with AI. In B. Buyserie and T. N. Thurston (Eds.), Teaching and generative AI: Pedagogical possibilities and productive tensions. Utah State University.

Ratcliff, C. (2024). Revising LLM text to (re)discover rhetoric in a graduate seminar. In B. Buyserie and T. N. Thurston (Eds.), Teaching and generative AI: Pedagogical possibilities and productive tensions. Utah State University.

Söken, A., & K. Nygreen. (2024). Empowering educators in the age of generative AI: A critical media literacy approach. In B. Buyserie and T. N. Thurston (Eds.), Teaching and generative AI: Pedagogical possibilities and productive tensions. Utah State University.

Tsufim, F., & Pomerleau, L. (2024). More is less? Using generative AI for idea generation and diversification in early writing processes. In B. Buyserie and T. N. Thurston (Eds.), Teaching and generative AI: Pedagogical possibilities and productive tensions. Utah State University.

Wilkes, L. (2024). Some ethical considerations for teaching and generative AI in higher education. In B. Buyserie and T. N. Thurston (Eds.), Teaching and generative AI: Pedagogical possibilities and productive tensions. Utah State University.

Wissner, R. (2024). Using generative AI in the music history classroom. In B. Buyserie and T. N. Thurston (Eds.), Teaching and generative AI: Pedagogical possibilities and productive tensions. Utah State University.

Appendix: The Assignment Prompt

Collaborative Writing and AI:  Project Overview

This project will provide you with the opportunity to investigate an aspect of AI and make recommendations about how, when, under what contexts, and for what purposes professional communicators might utilize AI—or decide when not to use AI. The project will also provide you with insights into how AI can facilitate team dynamics and collaborative work.

Your Common Task

Working collaboratively in assigned groups, provide your classmates (an internal audience) and future colleagues (an outside audience) with research-based recommendations on how to navigate AI usage and related conversations in the profession, field, organization, or community context. Base your analysis and recommendations on secondary research you conduct using credible sources; you will also conduct primary research with AI itself. As you research, be sure to seek, evaluate, and incorporate multiple perspectives surrounding the issues, concerns, possibilities, and questions surrounding your group’s specific focus regarding AI.

To document your research and analysis, compose a joint recommendation report that provides your audiences with the necessary information and insight to understand the complexities of your group’s AI topic and research questions. Additionally, prepare and give an interactive presentation, professional development segment, or mini-training session that provides your audience with an overview of your research and engages them in the conversations on AI.

Group Tasks

Each group will focus their research around one of the following categories:

How AI Works: Your specific task is to provide your classmates with a general understanding of how AI works. You might research the history of AI, algorithms (including potential biases in algorithms) and coding, what data AI was trained on, how the creators of AI acquired that data, the terms “generative” and “LLM” (large language models), what the AI output actual represents (intelligence? patterns?), user agreements for AI, data privacy options or best practices, and/or how users can train AI to assist them in their work. After your research, what recommendations can you make to your classmates and professionals in various disciplines to help them engage thoughtfully, critically, and effectively with this technology?

Researching AI’s Output: Your specific task is to help your classmates understand what types of questions they need to ask of AI’s output, including what additional research they need to do when using AI for writing tasks. What information from AI do they need to verify? How much information from AI appears to be accurate for various contexts (including specialized contexts)? What additional perspectives or stakeholders do they need to consider beyond what they learn from AI? What output from AI might they need to revise to ensure the information they use is cited accurately? How might they use AI to help with that process? What research do they need to do outside of AI? What recommendations can you make to your classmates about how to successfully utilize AI—as well as other sources—in research? What recommendations might you make for professionals in various disciplines?

Prompt Engineering and Revision: Your specific task is to help your classmates understand what types of prompts—i.e., the questions or commands—users can create to help them utilize AI effectively and ethically. What kinds initial prompts are helpful (or less helpful) for various tasks and purposes? What types of follow-up prompts and activities (e.g., additional research) do users need to engage in? What content knowledge should users have to be able to critically evaluate AI’s output? What types of revisions should users be prepared to make to effectively and ethically accomplish their tasks? What do users need to know about the writing and revision processes in order to effectively interpret and/or revise AI output? How might users document their use of AI in the writing process? (Note that your group may want to use a changelog or similar approach when documenting revisions.) What ethical considerations should be part of our prompts and AI use? What recommendations would you make for your classmates on the types of prompts and revision practices they might use with AI? What recommendations might you make for professionals in various disciplines?

Ethical Considerations: Your specific task is to help our classmates understand the role of ethics in AI usage. Some of the ethical considerations around AI include data privacy, standardization of language and language variety, cultural knowledge and AI, utilization of AI to solve various disciplinary and social problems, effects on the environment, the compensation (or not) of writers whose material was used to train AI, the effects of technology on the environment, regulation of AI, AI’s role in creating or eliminating jobs, plagiarism and academic integrity concerns (including the over-suspicion of writers re: plagiarism). You might introduce the class to a range of ethical considerations or focus more deeply on 1-2 concerns. What recommendations would you make for your classmates on how to engage ethically with AI? What recommendations might you make for professionals in various disciplines?

Professional and Disciplinary Contexts: Your specific task is to help your classmates understand how they might utilize and navigate AI in a variety of professional settings. For example, what are various disciplines saying about the role of AI in the profession? In what contexts might it be effective and ethical to utilize AI? For what kinds of tasks? What AI skills are employers or community leaders seeking? Are these skills consistent across professional contexts? What role does/should a person’s content knowledge and expertise play in this process? In what ways does confidentiality and proprietary information affect professionals’ use of AI? You might provide a balanced discussion across several professional contexts, or use a specific profession as a case study to help your peers think more deeply about their own professional needs. What recommendations would you make for your classmates on how to prepare to use (or limit their use of) AI in their future professions? What recommendations might you make for professionals in various disciplines?

Your recommendation report should comprise the following sections (note that the order of these sections should be determined by your group):

• Title information and table of contents 
  • The format of the title (e.g., a separate title page or a title on the same page) and TOC should be agreed upon by your group; the names of each group member should be included with the title.
• A division of labor section that describes how each group member contributed to the project.
  • Note that this might include how/if each member used AI, and to what extent, for their sections.
  • AI should not be a co-author on this project.
• An executive summary of your project. How will you introduce your readers to the key conversations related to your research? What key concepts about AI use/ethics/research should your audience know? What information will you include to provide your audience with a brief overview of the contents of your report?
  • This section should be collectively written by your group; we will use part of class time to write & revise this section.
• A section (likely multiple paragraphs/subsections) where you conduct and analyze outside research on AI (e.g., on prompt engineering, ethics, etc.).
  • Analyze the possibilities, challenges, and concerns of using AI, and the impact on various stakeholders. The group may decide to assign different research tasks to different group members.
  • You should strive to consult and incorporate at least4-5 sources; note that you may or may not be able to find peer-reviewed sources—but all the sources you include should be credible.
• A section (likely multiple paragraphs/subsections) where you use and analyze AI directly in some way; the way you use AI should support your group’s research question. For example, the group focusing on prompt engineering might use AI to experiment with writing effective prompts and evaluating AI’s output. AI should not be used to write the majority of the report.
  • • For this section, consider how you will document your use of AI (e.g., a changelog, screenshots, group member reflections on their learning, etc.). The group may decide to assign different AI tasks to different group members.
  • Remember that all USU students now have access to Microsoft Copilot through your USU account. You may also use ChatGPT or another version of AI.
• A final section for Recommendations. Based on your research and work with AI, what recommendations do you have for your audiences? In what ways should stakeholders be thinking both critically and carefully about the ways we engage in AI? How might we use AI to enhance learning? In what ways might an overreliance on AI impede learning, and what suggestions do you have to address that potential issue? What should various professions and disciplines consider as they engage with AI or make policies about AI? What can they learn from knowing more about AI? Based on your initial research, what recommendations for future research (your own or by others) do you have?
• A references page, formatted in APA, current edition.
• An appendix or appendices where you document your use of AI, as well as any other supplementary materials that do not belong in the body of the report.
  • • Label each screenshot of AI as a separate image with a brief title (e.g., Image 1: Initial Prompt); include the Appendix and the list of images/figures in the table of contents.
• An individual statement of learning. Refer below for guidance how to complete your self-assessment. Each team member will write their own statement of learning and submit it separately; it is not a part of the final report. However, you may include your individual statement in the same document as your Group Assessment.
• A group assessment where you thoughtfully evaluate the strengths of each member of the team and provide recommendations for their contributions to future projects (described below). Note that each team member will write their own Group Assessment and submit it individually; this is not a part of the final report.

For your Individual Statement of Learning, please respond to the following questions:

1. What did you learn about researching and writing collaboratively from this project? What did you learn from collaborative work that you might not have learned by working on this project on your own? What practices/strategies for effectively engaging in group tasks will you apply to future contexts?
2. What challenges did you experience in this collaborative process? What might you do in future team settings to help mitigate or navigate these challenges?
3. What did you learn about AI (about the conversations in the field, its potential as a technology, its limitations, ethical considerations, etc.)? Based on your research, in what ways are you considering using, not using, or moderating your use of AI in future contexts? How will you critically evaluate your use of AI? What will you do to ensure your use of AI is in accordance with the expectations, conventions, and ethical guidelines of your profession, organization, or community context?
4. In what ways did you use AI to help you brainstorm, draft, write, and revise on this project? In what ways did using AI help your learning? In what ways might it have prevented or limited your learning? What might you do in future settings to enhance your learning (regardless of whether or not/how much you use AI)?
5. What feedback would you like from me, your professor, on this project?

For your Group Assessment, please write a brief evaluation of each member of the group, including yourself.

1. In what ways did each member contributing meaningfully to the project? What were the strengths of each member on the project? (Consider both “soft skills” like communication, listening, problem-solving, etc., as well as the actual work of writing, researching, and revising the project.)
2. Did you have any concerns about each group member’s contributions to the project? What recommendations do you have for each member—again, including you—to improve on as they engage in future collaborative projects?

You will present the results of your research in groups to the class on Thursday of Week 9. This should be an interactive presentation that engages your audience with the material in meaningful ways. Your group should incorporate visuals (e.g., a screenshot of AI use) in meaningful ways to help supplement the oral communication.

Please note that “presentation” can be one of a variety of formats: traditional presentation, a mix of large group and small group activities, a mini-training session, a part of a professional development session, a teaching demonstration, etc. Because the presentation needs to be interactive, think about how you will involve the audience (e.g., through practice with AI, through individual writing time, small group discussion, drawing, movement around the classroom, etc.).

Each group will have 10 minutes for their presentation. Each team will have time in class the day before to finalize their presentation.

Recommended Process for Completing the Project

Step 1: Team Charter & Communication Plan

Step 2: Assessment of Group Member Interests

Discuss each group member’s interests and expertise with AI. What did you learn from each member? What does the group collectively want to know more about? How might your individual interests and experiences come together to create an engaging project?

Step 3: Initial Research & Development of Research Questions

Conduct initial research (both with outside sources and using AI itself) on your topic. Based on your initial research, what research questions do you have? What 1-2 research questions does the group want to use to guide this project? What questions will be most helpful for the team? For your class members? For outside audiences? What questions can you begin to answer given our timeframe of a 3-week project?

Step 4: Project Design

Based on your research and research questions, what will you do to create an engaging and insightful project? What will you do for the section where you work directly with AI? How might you document your use of AI—and your learning? What credible secondary sources can you find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize that will help us all learn more about the topic? How will you communicate the key concepts of those sources to us? How do you want to present your information? All in text? A combination of text, visuals, and/or tables?

Step 5: Task Assignments and Working on the Project

Communicate to determine who will spearhead which section of the project. As you divvy up tasks, remember that this is still a report authored by a group—meaning that that each section of the report should connect in some way. Note that the group can decide to do some tasks in pairs, some as a whole group, etc. As you assign projects, recognize that all group members should be working on at least one task throughout the project (in other words, do not assign someone to simply write the Conclusion at the end of the project). All group members might instead be assigned to do part of each of the main project tasks:

• Researching sources (e.g., each group member might research and write about one source)
• Engaging with AI
• Documenting AI use
• Writing (individually or collaboratively) sections of the report
• Formatting the project (e.g., one group member could create the title page, another document the division of labor, another create the references page, etc.)

• Draft, analyze, and revise throughout your research process.
• Consult with your peers, the Writing Center, or me during office hours or in class when you have questions or want to discuss ideas. Remember—professional writing is collaborative!

Length and Format

For this project, I am asking you to make more of your own formatting decisions (especially regarding font, page numbers, spacing, heading design, etc.). This means that you may choose to follow APA formatting, modify APA, or use/create another formatting style—with the exception of in-text citations and your references page. Regardless of your choices, your project should still include the following:

• Title information (each member’s name should be included with the title)
• A table of contents
• In-text citations that adhere to APA format
• A references page formatted according to APA that lists each source cited for your project
• An appendix (or appendices) that documents your AI usage and results
  • Create a heading and title for each figure, image, table, or chart in the appendix to include in the table of contents
• An accessible sans-serif font (such as Calibri), size 12

The length of each project will vary depending on each group’s approach. We will discuss possible length guidelines in class.

AI Use in Composing the Project

Main Project: You will need to use AI throughout many aspects of the project! Most notably, you will (unless your group decides otherwise) conduct primary research with AI to help you answer your research question.

In addition to engaging with AI for your primary research, you may use AI for brainstorming, drafting initial sections of your essay, and revising. If you use AI in these ways, please document your use. That said, this is still a project for a writing class—I want enough of the written project to be yours so that 1) you learn from this project, and 2) the feedback I provide you is meaningful for your learning.

Truthfully, I have no desire to spend any of my time giving feedback to AI! However, if you document where you used AI, I can give feedback on whether that usage of AI appears to be effective for your purpose and audience.

Self-Assessment: I ask that you do not use AI for this task.

Group-Assessment: I ask that you do not use AI for this task.

Ethical Considerations

Some students may not want to use AI due to ethical concerns; additionally, your research focus might make it challenging to conduct primary research with AI in meaningful ways. If you as an individual member of the group has concerns about using AI for this project, you have the option of asking your group members to assign you the outside research tasks. If the entire group decides not to use AI, that choice can still work; in that case, please meet with me to discuss options for fulfilling the assignment through other means (e.g., researching the work with AI done by others).

Learning Outcomes

• Analyze communication contexts rhetorically by understanding, acknowledging, and addressing multiple audiences, purposes, and situations
• Identify and examine the communicative genres and conventions of various fields and contexts
• Analyze how communication genres are socially and rhetorically constructed

• Research, analyze, and negotiate the relationships among language, knowledge, and power on written and oral communication
• Negotiate the influence of positionality, background, and personal bias on communication
• Synthesize multiple perspectives through the use of primary and secondary research

• Develop and investigate nuanced research questions for specific audiences and purposes
• Seek, analyze, and evaluate credible and relevant primary and secondary sources to research and recommend solutions for a variety of problems
• Demonstrate academic integrity by accurately and effectively summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting, and citing a variety of texts and perspectives

• Work collaboratively to solve problems and communicate effectively, both in writing and orally
• Design and create clear, accurate, and effective communication in both written and oral forms for a variety of audiences
• Respond to collaborator and stakeholder feedback, identify additional opportunities to revise, and incorporate feedback and self-assessment into revision

About the author

name: Beth Buyserie

institution: Utah State University

Beth Buyserie is the Director of Composition and Associate Professor of English at Utah State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education from Washington State University. Her teaching and scholarship focus on composition, writing program administration, professional learning, and critical pedagogies. Dr. Buyserie teaches graduate pedagogy and undergraduate composition courses, mentors all teachers in USU’s Composition Program, and has received multiple awards and recognitions for her commitments to teaching and inclusive excellence. As a proponent of interdisciplinary dialogue, she provides pedagogy workshops to faculty across disciplines, and she chairs USU’s interdisciplinary committee for all communication literacy and communication intensive courses.