Writing centers on college campuses have been around for a long time. More than 100 yearsand are both a resource for students doing homework and a symbol of the importance of learning to express oneself through text in higher education.
But as generative ai tools like ChatGPT become embedded in mainstream business tools, promising to write properly formatted texts from simple prompts and the click of a button, new questions are emerging about what role writing centers should play — or whether they will be necessary in the future.
Many writing centers are already embracing experimentation with new ai tools, demonstrating the continued importance of writing instruction and its place on campus as a hub for ai literacy instruction.
“I see this as a real opportunity for writing centers to demonstrate leadership if given the chance,” says Sherry Wynn Perdue, president of the International Association of Writing Centers. “It’s an important moment, and our role as leaders is to help provide resources to our colleagues so that we can be leaders in the conversation about generative ai.”
But some writing instructors worry that new tools could tempt colleges to rely too heavily on technology or even eliminate writing centers altogether. Writing centers are often run by non-tenure-track staff, which can make them especially vulnerable, says Genie N. Giaimo, director of the writing center at Middlebury College and an adjunct professor of writing and rhetoric there. And in the past, administrators at some colleges have replaced their services with one-stop tutoring centers or third-party organizations, Wynn Perdue adds.
Even some professors with PhDs in English question whether universities need to do so much today to teach writing skills in light of new ai tools. “Why do we need a required writing course if ai can do everything that external stakeholders want that course to teach?” asked Melissa Nicolas, an English professor at Washington State University, in a statement. and opinion article last year.
So where does ai leave the center of writing?
Finding a balance
Writing centers need to find a balance between introducing ai into the writing process and maintaining the human support that every writer needs, says Anna Mills, an English professor at the College of Marin.
ai can serve as a complement to a human tutor, Mills says. She encourages her students to use MyEssayFeedback, an ai tool that critiques the organization of an essay, the quality of evidence a student has included to support their thesis, or the tone of the writing. Such tools can also assess research questions or revise a student’s writing based on the assignment’s rubric, she says.
Mills says that by modeling these uses of ai, writing centers can increase students' understanding of the technology and alleviate their concerns about its inappropriate use. Many students come to college worried about being accused of cheating if they use ai for anything, she says. For example, many have seen the video on tiktok from a student who says she received an F on a paper for using a grammar checker that triggered an ai detection system her professors used. Providing guidance can help students feel more comfortable with the technology, she says. And understanding that ai suggestions can be wrong also boosts students’ confidence in their own abilities.
“Once they get the feedback, the student might say, ‘No, that’s not really what I want to do. Could you help me think about how to expand on this other part?’” Mills says. “That’s something I think we need to cultivate — that kind of trust and willingness to engage and to resist, because that’s how you get the most out of ai.”
Still, Mills requires her students to come to the writing center at least four times during the semester. Human interaction is essential to the writing process, she says. Tutors often motivate students and show a genuine interest in what they’re writing — something they can’t get from any chatbot, Mills says.
“Writing doesn’t make much sense without a human audience,” Mills says. “Meeting with someone while you’re developing your ideas is often the place where you feel like what you’re doing makes the most sense.”
Writing centers can play a critical role in retention at a university, Giaimo says. The resources can be especially important for students who historically haven’t received as much support from universities, such as first-generation students and those from marginalized communities, she adds. And working with a tutor might be the first one-on-one teaching interaction a student has in college, which is vital, especially for students coming out of the pandemic.
Giaimo says that while the use of ai tools is growing in the business world, students still need to learn how to write and organize their ideas. And without proper guidance, students can end up relying too much on tools like ChatGPT without acquiring the underlying skills to put their own thoughts on paper.
“We forget that most people who are involved in these processes, at least in higher education, are just starting out or learning,” Giaimo says. “The process part is important, and in fact, maybe even more important than what the final end product looks like.”
Fostering ai literacy
Writing center tutors play a key role in helping students understand how to use ai appropriately, says Sarah Z. Johnson, director of the writing center at Madison College. Many writing centers now train tutors in ai skills, which they can then pass on to the students they work with when the opportunity arises.
Johnson and his team train their tutors to teach students how ai can be helpful in the writing process. For example, if a student is struggling to organize an essay, a tutor could ask them to paste their draft into a chatbot and ask it to create an outline for them, Johnson says. The student can see where a paragraph or sentence might work better in the paper and save time during the tutoring session, he says.
This year, tutors will also learn a list of ai skills, such as how large language models work, issues with generative ai such as its cultural biases, or how to write prompts that can help organize information, Johnson says.
At Middlebury, tutors also receive training to navigate ai policies, which can differ among instructors, Giaimo says. Tutors also learn to talk to students who have used ai inappropriately — for example, by having a chatbot do too much work without giving them credit — and guide them in a more productive direction.
That way, Johnson says, mentors can help writers think through the “implications” of using ai, so they can make their own decisions about questions like, “Does this final product represent me? Does it represent my voice? Does it represent what I want to say?”
The most important thing, says Johnson, is to “realize that ai is a tool, but you have to know how to use it instead of it using you.”
Writing centers often have relationships with departments across campus, making them a great place to promote ai literacy, Johnson says. Students can come in with an assignment from an engineering class or a social sciences class, she says, which means writing center staff can make connections with colleagues across the university.
To prevent universities from replacing writing centers with ai, trustees and staff must be proactive and champion the role they play in promoting ai literacy, she says. Johnson and Wynn Perdue helped put together a list of ai literacies that are released Later this year, a joint working group between the Modern Language Association and the Conference on College Writing and Communication (IWCA) will launch it. The IWCA also has its own working group on generative artificial intelligence, which includes Johnson and Wynn Perdue, which plans to create additional resources to help writing centers adapt and train their staff.
“ai is not something we’re afraid of, but it is something that needs parameters,” Johnson says. “If we don’t help students figure out what those parameters are through tutors and things like that, I don’t know how it’s going to happen.”
