1 of 35

GenAI Tools for Writing and Presentation

Transforming Your Research with Generative AI tutorial series

​

​

November 7, 2024

​

2 of 35

GenAI Tools for Writing and Presentation

Monroe Moody (they/them)

Lecturer II

Department of English

Sweetland Center for Writing

​

3 of 35

Agenda

Introductions and Discussion

Strategies for Working With ChatGPT

Challenges and Ethical Considerations

Additional Resources

Wrap-Up and Q&A

4 of 35

Introductions

Department, Research, Teaching, Staff Responsibilities

What (if any) experiences do you have using ChatGPT?

5 of 35

What Can ChatGPT Do?

Brainstorm Topics

Generate Text

Translate Language

Answer Questions

Outline and Organize

Information

Summarize and Paraphrase

Tailor Texts to Audience

Edit at Sentence Level

Explain Concepts

Edit for Length and Conciseness

Offer feedback

Learn Your Writing Style

6 of 35

What are ChatGPT’s Limitations?

ChatGPT may generate incorrect or biased information and its responses are based on the data it was trained on.

ChatGPT can sometimes produce incoherent or nonsensical answers, and it lacks real-world experience and common-sense reasoning.

7 of 35

Privacy Policies

​

U-M GPT Privacy Notice

​

OpenAI Privacy Notice

8 of 35

Strategies for Working with ChatGPT

9 of 35

Use Incremental Prompting

  • ChatGPT’s default responses tend to be generic and descriptive.

​

  • Incremental prompting trains ChatGPT to give you more tailored answers based on your interests, levels of understanding, and purposes.

​

  • Consider using a back-and-forth sequence with ChatGPT in which you start with general prompts that increase in specificity.

10 of 35

Example of Incremental Prompting

  • “What is voice in academic writing?”
  • “Please be more specific. I am a language expert who studies voice in academic writing.”
  • “Please rewrite your response using formal linguistic terms.”
  • “What do you understand about Ken Hyland’s theory of voice in academic writing?”
  • “Please describe Hyland’s complete theory of voice (register, stance, and engagement), using examples.”
  • “What other theories of voice have you not included in your response?”

Lingard L. Writing with ChatGPT: An Illustration of its Capacity, Limitations & Implications for Academic Writers. Perspect Med Educ. 2023 Jun 29;12(1):261-270. doi: 10.5334/pme.1072. PMID: 37397181; PMCID: PMC10312253.

11 of 35

Practice Activity

  • Using incremental prompting, brainstorm with ChatGPT:
    • Research questions for a future study

​

    • Implications of your research for a range of audiences

​

    • Topics for courses you might teach based on your interests and expertise

​

​

​

​

12 of 35

Provide Contextual Information

  • ChatGPT’s initial responses are generic in part because they are decontextualized.

​

  • Providing contextual information about the rhetorical situations, purposes, and audiences for which you are writing will assist ChatGPT in tailoring its responses accordingly.

​

  • Consider providing content-specific and writer-specific contextual information.

13 of 35

Examples of Providing Contextual Information

  • “I am revising and re-submitting an article to the Journal of Literacy Research and my reviewers have asked that I expand my analysis of the interview data I’ve provided to account for common patterns in participants’ language use. Describe at least 5 language-level commonalities in the interview excerpts.”
  • “Given the following case study on the application of tissue engineering in cartilage regeneration, discuss the challenges faced in achieving long-term functional outcomes and propose strategies for improving clinical translation.”

Giray, L. Prompt Engineering with ChatGPT: A Guide for Academic Writers. Ann Biomed Eng 51, 2629–2633 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-023-03272-4

14 of 35

Practice Activity

  • “I am working on/interested in X and need to draft a follow-up email to Y that does A, B, and C. I have collaborated with Y in the past and they are familiar with my work but I am also providing new information. Draft an email that…”

15 of 35

Set Clear Parameters

  • ChatGPT’s default response is often formatted in a bulleted list or outline.

​

  • Parameter setting provides ChatGPT with guidelines for how to specifically respond in the form you want.

​

  • Consider giving ChatGPT guidelines on purpose, genre, length, tone, audience, vocabulary, sentence-structure, etc.

​

16 of 35

Examples of Parameter Setting

  • “Tell me how X works in 50 words.”

​

  • “Behave as / Act as a higher education administrator and describe / explain / defend / advocate for / discourage the use of X.”

​

  • “Write a four-paragraph open letter about X tailored to a public audience with cursory knowledge about Y.”

​

  • “Revise my argument by providing a stronger analysis of the role of X in Y.”

ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: A Quick Start Guide. Published by UNESCO, 2023.

17 of 35

Practice Activity

  • You are creating a presentation for a course, conference talk, or departmental event. Provide ChatGPT a set of parameters to help organize the talk. Things to consider:
    • Length of talk
    • Audience
    • Words/images per slide
    • Key definitions
    • Main ideas
    • Interactive components

​

​

18 of 35

Request Alternative Responses

  • ChatGPT offers one response to an initial inquiry but is capable of generating multiple responses to the same inquiry.

​

  • Requesting alternative responses allows you to compare, discard, synthesize, and complicate information provided by ChatGPT.

​

  • Consider asking ChatGPT to regenerate responses in any phase of your writing process, but especially brainstorming and revising.

19 of 35

Example of Requesting Alternative Responses

20 of 35

21 of 35

Practice Activity

  • Provide ChatGPT with a few paragraphs of your writing (in any form) and ask Chat to re-write these paragraphs while retaining your ideas.

​

  • Or, ask Chat to add a logical next paragraph to what you’ve already written.

​

  • Or, ask Chat to synthesize your writing alongside another text.

​

  • Or, ask Chat for an answer to a question you have and then request an alternative response.

22 of 35

Prompt Meta-Cognitive Reflection Questions

  • Good writers self-assess their work, reflect on their writing processes and practices, and transfer writing knowledge to new writing situations.

​

  • Prompting meta-cognitive questions provides you an opportunity to reflect on your writing and solicit direct feedback from ChatGPT.

​

  • Consider asking asking ChatGPT for meta-cognitive questions at multiple stages of your drafting process.

​

23 of 35

Examples of Prompting for Metacognition

24 of 35

25 of 35

26 of 35

27 of 35

Practice Activity

  • Upload a couple paragraphs of your own writing and ask ChatGPT to generate reflective questions about your writing that are tailored to this specific piece.

​

  • Ask ChatGPT to generate a list of general writing-process questions in order for you to reflect on areas of development.

28 of 35

Challenges and Ethical Considerations

29 of 35

  • Should authors cite their use of ChatGPT? If so, how?

​

  • Should (can?) scholarly journal / publishing press policies regarding the use of ChatGPT be standardized?

​

  • How might ChatGPT impact the authenticity and credibility of academic research?

​

  • How might the use of ChatGPT further standardize linguistic expectations of academic writing?

​

  • How might ChatGPT reproduce algorithmic biases and inaccuracies?

Lund, B. D., Wang, T., Mannuru, N. R., Nie, B., Shimray, S., & Wang, Z. (2023). ChatGPT and a new academic reality: Artificial Intelligence-written research papers and the ethics of the large language models in scholarly publishing. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 74(5), 570–581. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/10.1002/asi.24750

30 of 35

  • Claude: https://claude.ai/
  • Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/ �
  • For email:
    • Chrome browser extensions such as Compose.ai and ChatGPT writer
  • For presentations:
    • SlidesAI for Google Slides
    • AI presentation maker for Canva
  • For meeting notes:
    • Otter.ai and fireflies.ai
    • Zoom AI Companion (formerly Zoom IQ)

​

See also:

​

NOTE: If there are any specific tools you have tried and would like to see made available for U-M users more broadly, fill out the software interest form to tell U-M ITS.

31 of 35

“Using Generative AI for Scientific Research: A Quick User’s Guide” includes guidance on using GenAI tools for academic writing

​

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

32 of 35

Q&A

33 of 35

Wrap-Up

  • What will you take away from today’s session?

​

  • What aspects of ChatGPT would you like to continue to explore?

​

  • Are there other AI tools you’ve tried and would recommend?

​

​

34 of 35

Scan the QR code or go to this link: https://myumi.ch/mZNwV

to provide feedback on the session

�Thank you!�

For past sessions, see videos at: midas.umich.edu/generative-ai-tutorial-series/

​

35 of 35

Upcoming tutorial sessions

Register at: https://myumi.ch/egyd2

​

Data Visualization and presenting information

  • Wednesday, November 20, 2024, 2:00-4:30 PM.
  • Room 3695 North Lecture Hall�

Medical Text Data and GenAI

  • Monday, December 9, 9:00 -11:00 AM
  • Room 3699 South Lecture Hall �

Data Analysis with Generative AI

  • Monday, December 16, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM
  • Room 3699 South Lecture Hall

Or scan here: