I am a writing professor who believes that AI is an opportunity for students, not a threat.

This sets me apart from some of my colleagues who worry that AI is accelerating superficial content, hindering critical thinking and hindering creative expression. They worry that students just use it because of laziness, or worse, cheat.

Maybe that's why so many students are afraid to admit that they use chatgpt.

In the New Yorker magazine, historian D. Graham Burnett describes whether his undergraduate and graduate students in Princeton have ever used Chatgpt. No one raised his hand.

"It's not that they are dishonest," he wrote. "It's that they are paralyzed."

The belief that students seem to use AI for their courses is wrong. But, whether my colleagues like it or not, most college students are using it.

A report from the UK Institute for Higher Education Policy in February 2025 found that 92% of college students use AI in some form. Back in August 2023 (just nine months after Chatgpt's public release), more than half of the first-year students at Kennesaw State University, a public research institution I teach, I think they think AI is the future of writing.

Obviously, students won't magically stop using AI. So, I think it's important to point out that AI is actually a useful tool that enhances rather than reduces the writing process.

Help busy

A February 2025 OpenAI report using CHATGPT among college-age users found that more than a quarter of roommate conversations related to education were found.

The report also shows that the top five uses of students are centered on writing: starting papers and projects (49%); summarizing long texts (48%); brainstorming creative projects (45%); exploring new topics (44%); and revising writing (44%).

These numbers challenge the assumption that students use only AI to cheat or write entire papers.

Instead, this suggests that they are using AI to free up more time for deeper processes and metacognitive behaviors – intentionally organizing ideas, honing arguments and refining styles.

If AI allows students to automate routine cognitive tasks (such as information retrieval or ensuring verb tenses remain consistent), this does not mean they are thinking less. This means their minds are changing.

Of course, AI can be abused if students passively use the technology and can reflectively accept their outputs and ideas. Excessive reliance on Chatgpt can erode students' unique voice or style.

But as long as students intentionally learn how to use AI, this transformation can be seen as an opportunity, not a loss.

Clarify creative vision

It is also obvious that AI can enhance human creativity when used responsibly.

For example, science comedian Sarah Rose Siskind recently spoke to Harvard students about her creative process. She talks about how to use Chatgpt to brainstorm joke settings and explore various comedy scenes, which allowed her to focus on making punched lines and perfecting the comedy timing.

Note how Siskin uses AI in ways that cannot replace human touch. Instead of replacing her creativity, AI amplifies it by providing structured and consistent feedback, giving her more time to polish her jokes.

Another example is the rhetorical cues method I developed with researchers at Kennesaw State University. Designed for college students and adult learners, it is a framework for talking to AI chatbots that emphasizes the importance of agents in guiding AI output.

When authors use precise language prompts, critical thinking for reflection, and intentional revisions to engraving inputs and outputs, they guide AI to help them generate content that is aligned with their vision.

There is still a process

The rhetorical tips approach reflects best practices in process writing, which encourages writers to revisit, refine and revise their draft.

However, when using chatgpt, it's all about well thought out re-examined and modified tips and outputs.

For example, say students want to create a compelling PSA for social media to encourage campus compost. She thinks the audience. She prompted Chatgpt to use less than 50 words to draft a short optimistic message, which is 50 words for college students.

When reading the first output, she noticed that it lacked urgency. So she revised the prompts to emphasize direct impact. She also added some other details that are important to her message, such as the location of the information meeting. Final PSA read:

"Every scrap is OK! Join campus compost in the House of Commons today. Your leftovers are not garbage - they are tomorrow's garden. Help our colleges bloom, composting trash cans at a time."

The verbal prompting method is not groundbreaking. It has been improvised during the process of being tested in writing research for decades. But I found it works by instructing the writer how to knowingly prompt.

I know this because we asked the user about their experience. In an ongoing study, my colleagues and I surveyed 133 people who used rhetorical promotion methods to write academically and professionally:

• 92% reported that it helped them evaluate writing choices in and out of the process.

• 75% say they are able to keep a real voice while using AI aid.

• 89% responded that this helped them think critically about their writing.

Data show that learners take writing seriously. Their responses show that they are thinking carefully about their writing style and strategies. Although these data are preliminary, we continue to collect answers in different courses, disciplines and learning environments.

All of this is to say that while there are different perspectives on when and where AI is used, students will certainly use it. and provide a framework that can help them think more deeply about their writing.

Therefore, AI is not only a useful tool for trivial tasks. It can be an asset of creativity. If today’s students (actively using AI to write, modify and explore ideas) see AI as writing partners, then I think it’s a good idea for professors to start thinking about helping them learn the best way to do so.