Many of us compartmentalise different types of writing. Creative writing is for novelists, poets, playwrights, and so on. Research writing is done by people who are not creative writers. It consists of monographs, journal articles, book chapters, reports, and so on. Then there are a bunch of research tasks we don’t really think of as […] … learn more→

I’m a writing professor who sees artificial intelligence as more of an opportunity for students, rather than a threat. That sets me apart from some of my colleagues, who fear that AI is accelerating a glut of superficial content, impeding critical thinking and hindering creative expression. They worry that students are simply using it out of […] … learn more→

Are students who use AI at risk of losing some valuable writing habits for their thinking and creativity? They are aware that the new tools can change their style and they sometimes feel dispossessed of their texts. Investigation in the United States and Europe. When OpenAI launched its new AI program, ChatGPT, in late 2022, education experts […] … learn more→

Regular readers of my posts may have noticed that my postings have become less frequent of late. This is in part because I am now only working part time and, as part time people usually say, the workload doesn’t seem to have diminished one little bit. But it’s also because I’m temporarily dumbfounded. Patter posts […] … learn more→

I’m working on the second edition of ‘How to fix your academic writing trouble’ with Katherine Firth at the moment. We’re doing a new chapter on writing process, specifically how to think with generative AI tools. For inspiration, I am thinking about Artist Studios and how they support making work. Artist studios are filled with tools and materials […] … learn more→

“The times are bad, children have stopped obeying their parents and everyone is writing books,” lamented Cicero in one of his most epic harangues. And many today would be tempted to adopt this phrase from the famous Roman orator as their own. It is a phenomenon that repeats itself throughout history: each generation tends to neglect or […] … learn more→

The recent results of the PISA report have revealed the deficiencies of Spanish and European students, in general, in reading competence. The recent report of the Royal Spanish Academy on the teaching of language and literature in Spain is expressed in a similar sense . Part of the blame is attributed to new technologies that encourage reading texts and short […] … learn more→

I’ve been clearing out my book shelves. Getting rid of anything that I think I won’t actually look at again. It’s a pretty dusty dirty task as some of the books are quite old. They haven’t been opened for a long time. In order to work out what I want to keep I’ve found myself […] … learn more→

Writing a thesis or book is an enormous task that takes years and involves reading hundreds, sometimes thousands, of books, papers and articles. At the same time, you must produce your own words and make sure you don’t accidentally plagiarise other people. People end up with all kinds of home-brew solutions to solve this epic […] … learn more→

What do we think when someone asks us how we write? Probably, if our handwriting is legible or if we follow the spelling rules… but writing goes much further. Writing is representing thought through graphic symbols in a coherent, orderly and meaningful way, following a common thread and using language appropriate to the reader. Thus, the difficult […] … learn more→