Writing Lab: Human Intelligence * Generative AI Tools 2400-ZEWW1045
The course is an academic writing laboratory in which students develop an individual, literature-based essay through sustained critical engagement with generative AI. AI is used as a reader, reviewer, critic, and devil’s advocate.
The course is organized around four interrelated modules.
Module 1. Responsible and critical use of generative AI
Students discuss the opportunities and limitations of generative AI in academic writing, including authorship, academic integrity, and transparent disclosure of AI use. They establish a semester-long dialogue with an AI tool and develop rules for using it responsibly.
Module 2. Developing the essay and working with literature
Students select a topic, formulate a focused question, and develop a provisional position. Students learn how to narrow a broad topic into a focused essay question. They identify what they want to explain, compare, evaluate, or argue, and consider assumptions and alternative viewpoints that may challenge their initial position.
Students also learn to find and select credible literature, assess its relevance, and avoid cherry-picking evidence.
In this module, AI is used to question the scope of the topic, expose hidden assumptions, formulate objections, suggest alternative perspectives.
Module 3. Writing as deliberate decision-making
Students learn how to build and refine their essay step by step. They decide what the main argument is, in what order ideas should appear, how sections and paragraphs should connect, how sources should support the argument, and how sentences and individual words can be made clearer and more precise.
Particular attention is given to understanding why one idea should precede another, how sections and paragraphs contribute to the overall argument, and how small changes in sentence structure or vocabulary may alter meaning, emphasis, certainty, or the strength of a claim.
In this module, students use AI to question and improve their writing choices. AI may point out where an argument is difficult to follow, suggest different ways of organizing ideas, identify unclear connections between paragraphs, and offer alternative ways of expressing a sentence or claim. Students then decide which suggestions are useful and explain why they accept, change, or reject them.
Module 4. Revision, presentation, and reflection
Students revise their essays using peer feedback, and AI-assisted review. Revision is treated as a process of rethinking the argument, structure, and wording.
In this module, AI is used as a critical reviewer of the developing draft.
Classes combine discussion of writing examples, short conceptual introductions, human-first exercises, structured interaction with AI, practical work on students’ own essays, and reflection on the writing decisions made.
Course coordinators
Type of course
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, the student understands the opportunities, limitations, and ethical implications of using generative AI in academic writing. The student is able to formulate a focused essay question, select and evaluate relevant literature, develop a coherent argument, organize and connect ideas, integrate sources, and revise sentences and word choices for clarity and precision. The student uses AI critically as a reader and reviewer, evaluates its suggestions, and justifies decisions to accept, modify, or reject them.
Assessment criteria
Assessment is based on four connected components:
Final academic essay: the completed literature-based essay, assessed in terms of argument, structure, use of sources, coherence, and clarity.
AI interaction and decision log: records from the semester-long AI dialogue showing the writing problem, the student’s initial reasoning, the AI response, the final decision, and its justification.
In-class work and participation: engagement in writing exercises and discussions..
Reflective commentary and presentation: reflection on the development of the essay and the student’s use of AI.