Understanding Student Writing Processes in the Age of GenAI
CEETL was awarded a grant to student students' writing processes. The study is entitled: Investigating How Students Write With GenAI: Co-Creating Innovative Curricular Materials for Writing Courses
Learn More About the Study
Contact the Research Team: Anoshua Chaudhuri and Jennifer Trainor
Investigating How Students Write With GenAI: Co-Creating Innovative Curricular Materials for Writing Courses
In this research project, we are investigating how students use GenAi in their writing process.
The study focuses on both lower-division and Graduate Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) courses. The grant will fund faculty learning communities who will discuss research findings and co-create teaching materials that address changing students’ writing processes and needs.
This study is led by Principal Investigator Dr. Jennifer Trainor and co-Principal Investigator Dr. Anoshua Chaudhuri.
Jennifer Trainor is a professor of English, a faculty director at CEETL, and the Director of First-Year Writing at SF State. She has written a book and several articles on the teaching of writing, including equitable and anti-racist approaches to literacy education. Anoshua Chaudhuri is the Director of CEETL and a professor of Economics. She has over 25 publications in peer-reviewed journals and books. She collaborates with community agencies in participatory research projects and has received many engaged scholarship awards and high-impact teaching awards as she involves her students in these research projects.
Understanding AI Usage
Discover how students are currently using AI tools in their writing processes and how students use AI outputs to facilitate their thinking and rhetorical work.
Addressing Concerns
Investigate whether AI outputs "override" students' thinking, as many educators have worried, and identify classroom strategies that may remove or lessen learning loss due to AI.
Generating New Insights
Develop new understandings of how AI is changing students' writing process to inform curriculum development and teaching practices.
SLO Recommendations
Make recommendations for adjustments to course and program learning outcomes for writing curriculum across disciplines.
Sample Materials
Create sample syllabus AI use statements, writing assignments, and custom GPTs, with emphasis on Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) and equity-mindedness.
Student Artifacts
Build an archive of student-generated artifacts (statements, podcasts, videos) that instructors can use to guide curricular decision-making about AI and writing.
The Importance of the Writing Process
At SF State, writing instruction at all levels includes Student Learning Outcomes that emphasize the writing process, defined as the recursive steps writers go through as they brainstorm, draft, and revise.
This approach is consistent with national recommendations and research, making the writing process a cornerstone of the curriculum in both lower-division General Education and Graduate Writing Assessment Requirement courses.
At SF State we teach both procedural knowledge about how to engage in a multistep writing process at all levels, and provide support for students as they practice these steps. This approach is supported by scholarship and national best practices.
Current Challenges
Research shows that novice writers often use a truncated, ineffective writing process, leading them to miss opportunities for critical and rhetorical thinking and analysis (Flower and Hayes).
Many faculty are concerned that GenAI tools may exacerbate this problem, offering students an even faster route to a final draft, and hence threatening opportunities for students to think critically about topics and engage in rhetorical decision-making.
These concerns have led many faculty to prohibit and police students' GenAI use in writing courses or writing assignments, creating a disconnect between classroom policies and real-world writing practices.
Brainstorming
Students report using AI "to get ideas" or for brainstorming, helping them initiate the writing process.
Catalyzing Writing
AI outputs "boost" or catalyze writing, providing new sentence structures or vocabulary that serve as models to imitate and build upon.
Revision Support
Students use AI tools to develop ideas, put thoughts into words, and revise, getting support for editing and formatting into appropriate genres.
Research suggests that a growing number of students already view "AI as normal technology" and understand that in the future, "a greater and greater proportion of what people do in their jobs is AI control" (Narayanan and Kapoor, 2025).
GenAI is now embedded into most reading and writing spaces that students encounter.
Helping faculty understand how GenAI is changing the writing process for students, and how to teach all students to use GenAI as a tool in the writing process, is critical.
This research will help bridge the gap between current teaching practices and the evolving landscape of writing in a world where AI tools are increasingly integrated into everyday communication.
Join the Conversation
The findings from this study will help CEETL make recommendations to campus AI literacy content developers in the tutoring center (TASC), library, and academic technology (AT).
Co-created artifacts will be discussed in workshops and communities of practice to help teachers redesign their curriculum for the AI era, ensuring students develop critical writing skills while leveraging new technologies.
Together, we can develop writing classrooms that embrace technological change while preserving the critical and rhetorical thinking that is at the heart of writing.
Co-Creating the Curriculum; Faculty Communities of Practice
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