23 | January | 2026 | The Human Nature of Writing

Song of the day: Gutterpink – NoLoveWorld

After reading the article “AI Reveals the Most Human Parts of Writing”, it brought a new perspective of involving AI in writing. For me, I do not like my writing, or any writing, being involved with AI, especially creative writing. For me, it feels like the magic touch of the person’s creativity and imagination is gone or muddled when they include AI. However, in the article, it is mentioned that AI can be used as a tool to help push creativity. This can take place in the drafting stage, writing stage, or even revising stage. A common trouble a lot of writers have is writing/creative block, which I have experienced myself. From my understanding, AI can be a way to help the writer plan would what direction they potentially want their writing to go, that it doesn’t necessarily mean it should replace the writing.

Along with this, I was intrigued to see the perspective that maybe having AI to review the writing could help, as not all writers are willing to let others examine their work. That is something I can understand, it takes a lot to trust someone with something that is important, and I maybe I can understand feeling less pressure with AI reviewing it.

I am really so happy with our in-person (embodied) launch of the Human Nature of Writing “collaboratory”. I feel the shared enthusiasm in the room for the conversation and connections that lay ahead. It seems there are so many open possibilities for our collective exploration of A.I.’s impact on the writing process (and our shared world). I am glad we started the semester off with some thoughtful conversations and also some informal in class writing. You are definitely a diverse and interesting group of humans! I look forward to getting know you more as our time this semester passes together. And I hope my invitation stands to exercise your imagination – within this class, and in your life too, so that we can better connect our individual hopes to collective possibilities (rooted in justice) for all.

Class slides:

Moving forward

The significance of care, and the sense of trust in community, is critical to anyone’s capacity to learn. And so I am glad we are taking the time to connect as we settle into class together. We will continue the process of getting to know each other more each week, before we jump into our weekly content together. And we will also have a special visit from a beloved alumna of the MA in English, Writing Studies program – Maya Ostfeld. As I mentioned in class briefly, the seed of her MA thesis was born in this class (that she took a few years back as an undergraduate). I am looking forward to her sharing some of her insight with all of you.

I am glad we took a look an initial peek at our Reading Roster together (remember this a “live” document that can be expanded by your own contributions). We have also started “to fill out” the Course Calendar together. Next week, we will work together to settle your individual dates for the “pathfinding schedule”. And the week thereafter (by 2/4), I hope you will be able to share a topic (and theme, title, and reading/material) that you intend to cover during your own pathfinding session. **Please work on refining your theme and title and the content for your pathfinding session by 2/4. And for my undergraduate students, if you would like to work with a partner for your presentation, please be sure to connect with them to confer about your class theme and materials/readings. Our calendar should be settled with individual’s presentation dates (by 1/27) and the selected content (by 2/4).

Your to-do list for next class:

If you haven’t already, please set up your blog URL and submit this information by completing this form (if you have not done so already).
Please look at the Reading Roster more closely, and be prepared to let me know what your topic and theme title will be. You can also share with me any possible reading selection(s) you would like to integrate into the Course Calendar.
Watch: A.I. Revolution | Full Documentary | NOVA | PBS
Read: Nast, Condé, and @wired. “AI Reveals the Most Human Parts of Writing.” WIRED, 2 Dec. 2022, www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-writing-art.
Blog 2 due: Please write a reflection/response to “AI Reveals the Most Human Parts of Writing”. Include an introduction to yourself (if you haven’t done that yet).