AI Policy for a First-Year Writing Course on Attention and Distraction
Ethan King is an assistant professor of English at UVA. He teaches a first-year writing course titled "Writing about Attention and Distraction," and in this course he prohibits the use of generative AI by students on both formal and informal assignments.
AI Policy for ENWR 1505: Writing About Attention and Distraction
In this course, you may not use generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or Gemini) to compose, paraphrase, summarize, revise, or conduct research for any assignment. This includes formal assignments, in-class writing, peer feedback, reflective writing, and email communication with me. Violations of this policy will be treated as breaches of academic integrity and handled in accordance with the Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Policy above.
To be clear, I am not anti-AI. In fact, I teach a course on “Writing in the Age of Generative AI,” so I think seriously about what these tools can and cannot do. But that familiarity has only strengthened my belief that this first-year writing seminar needs to be a space where you do your own thinking and writing. When you think through a difficult idea, decide how to organize your thoughts, or search for the right word to describe something, you are actively learning, with writing itself becoming a form of thinking. It is worth remembering that AI tools are not all-knowing oracles that retrieve “knowledge” or “truth,” but rather are probabilistic word-predicting algorithms trained on a lot of writing. They have no access to the world as you actually experience it. Writing, at its most basic level, is how we figure out how to communicate our experiences—what we saw, thought, or felt—and that process only works if the seeing, thinking, and feeling is yours to begin with. AI has nothing at stake in what it writes. You do.
That said, I am not naïve. Some of you may already incorporate AI regularly into your academic workflow, and there may be moments in this course when you are tired, behind, or staring at a blank page and the idea of asking an AI to help you get started feels very appealing. That feeling makes complete sense. But reaching for AI in those moments means handing off the most generative part of the writing process: the struggle to figure out what you actually think. And this course is specifically designed to support you through that struggle. The grading philosophy here is built around process and engagement rather than perfection, which means the pressure of your grades does not rest on any single polished essay. This gives you the room to try things out, get things wrong, and learn from the process in a way that allows you to develop as a writer on your own terms. If you are stuck or struggling with any of the work in this class, reach out to me instead of an AI tool. That is what I am here for.
It is important to acknowledge that people are turning to AI not just for academic help but also for emotional support, especially when they feel stressed, overwhelmed, or unsure of themselves. These tools are designed to be agreeable and validating, and that can feel comforting in difficult moments. But that same quality means they are poorly equipped to genuinely support your wellbeing. They will not challenge an unhealthy thought or notice when something you have said warrants real concern. Because they are designed to keep you engaged rather than to help you grow, they will often tell you what you want to hear instead of what you need to hear. There is growing evidence that over-reliance on AI for emotional support can quietly deepen distress rather than relieve it. If you find yourself using AI as an emotional support system, I hope you will come talk to me, or reach out to one of the campus resources listed below.
