Students often struggle to engage with academic writing, expressing feelings of disconnection, discomfort and even dislike. Such feelings may lead some students to turn to AI, often employing it uncritically in order to complete their writing assignments, thus losing their voice. Humanizing the writing classroom through centering the element of voice may offer a great way to address these concerns. In light of AI concerns in particular, voice takes on even more importance as one of the aspects to writing that may distinguish human writing from AI writing. Focusing on voice may allow students to connect more meaningfully with academic writing as a mode of communication because it can make writing more personally relevant to them and expressive of their identities. Thus, it is our belief that by humanizing the writing classroom through centering voice, students may be less likely to rely solely on AI, and rather develop more critical approaches to their writing. However, providing effective instruction for students to develop their academic writing voice can be challenging. In this session, we will provide a brief background on voice in academic writing, and then share several activities that the presenters have tried with their students to help them (a) explore voice and its importance, especially in the age of AI, (b) reflect on their own developing voice constructions, and (c) develop more ownership over their writing.
Session Resources
- Slides
- Recording on YouTube (also embedded below)
