by Reza Etemadinia, Doctoral Student of Film and Media Studies, English Department
22 October 2025
Teaching with AI in the Composition Classroom
When I was assigned to teach Seminar in Composition, I anticipated a particular challenge: although the University has clear policies against the use of AI-generated essays, I knew my students would inevitably experiment with these tools. Rather than ignoring that reality or enforcing a blanket ban that would only push the practice underground, I decided to incorporate structured discussions of AI into my teaching. My aim was to help students understand both its affordances and its limitations, and to use it responsibly as a supplement to their own critical thinking.
First, I suggested that students treat AI as a kind of reading companion when they encountered particularly dense or difficult passages in our course materials. By asking AI to “unpack” a section, students could see a plain-language rendering of the idea, then compare it with their own interpretations. We discussed the importance of verifying these summaries against the text itself, using AI not as a substitute for close reading but as a tool for scaffolding comprehension.
Second, I encouraged students who felt uncertain about the clarity of their drafts to experiment with AI as a diagnostic tool. They could submit a paragraph and ask the system to “revise for clarity.” By comparing the revision with their original draft, students could see where even a machine struggled to interpret their meaning. I reminded them that AI often misreads nuance, but that very misstep signals an area in their writing that likely needs refinement. In this way, AI became a mirror for them to recognize where their prose might confuse human readers as well.
As our class continued into the semester, I invited students to generate an essay response to one of our official prompts using AI. At first, they were intrigued—and a bit unsettled—by the fluency of the result. But then we analyzed the output together. What quickly emerged was that while the text was coherent, it was mostly generic. It lacked the critical thinking, originality, and engagement with the materials (whether that was an assigned chapter or a photo to do a close reading of) that I expected in their work. This exercise helped students see not only the limitations of AI but also the strengths of their own essays. Many realized they were already producing more thoughtful work than the machine could.
By reframing AI from a threat into a point of inquiry, I found that students gained both practical literacy with the tool and greater confidence in their own intellectual contributions.