[Edling] Refusing GenAI in Writing Studies

[Martin P.J. Edwardes via Edling]

I agree with the principles involved in this initiative. However, I 
would rephrase the ten premises as follows, to assist comprehension.
 
1.            By personally writing studies, teacher-scholars gain an 
understanding of the relationship between language, power, and 
persuasion. 
2.            By personally writing studies, teacher-scholars gain an 
understanding of the broad purposes and uses of writing in the world. 
3.            Personally writing studies as a discipline maintains the 
personal aspect of writing and encourages new language practices, both 
of which are suppressed by GenAI.
4.            Personally writing studies as a discipline reduces the 
need for punitive approaches to unintended plagiarism and encourages 
fairer plagiarism surveillance. 
5.            Personally writing studies as a discipline encourages 
explicitly argued, ideologically fair approaches to writing; 
technologies, including GenAI, often rely on ideologically non-neutral 
arguments which are not made explicit. 
6.            Personally writing studies as a discipline relies on 
understanding the whole history of writing conventions to provide 
important context. GenAI often relies on internalised and anodyne 
writing conventions which do not themselves evolve. 
7.            Writing teachers are well-poised to understand the range 
of writing issues that GenAI introduces into a text. 
8.            As well as the writing issues, writing teachers need to 
understand the rhetorical and economic contexts surrounding GenAI, 
including the various ways that GenAI is promoted and marketed.
9.            All technology users need to consider the environmental 
impacts of using digital technologies that rely on massive datasets, 
such as GenAI.
10.         Refusal to publish texts produced with GenAI is a 
principled, pragmatic and necessary response to the incursion of GenAI 
technologies in college writing courses.
 
I hope this helps.
 
Martin P.J. Edwardes
BSc MA PhD, FRAI AKC
 
------ Original Message ------
From: edling at lists.mail.umbc.edu
To: edling at lists.mail.umbc.edu Cc: fmhult at umbc.edu
Sent: Saturday, July 12th 2025, 09:52
Subject: [Edling] Refusing GenAI in Writing Studies
 
Refusing GenAI in Writing Studies
This guide positions refusal as a disciplinary and principled response 
to the emergence of Generative AI (GenAI)3 technologies in writing 
studies. We created this guide to add to ongoing efforts to think 
through approaches for responding to GenAI in writing studies, and in 
higher education more broadly. When we say GenAI “refusal,” we are 
talking about the range of ways that individuals and/or groups 
consciously and intentionally choose to refuse GenAI use, when and where 
we are able to do so...To situate refusal as a disciplinary position, we 
offer ten premises that ground refusal as a disciplinary response to 
GenAI technologies.
Full text:
https://refusinggenai.wordpress.com/ 
<https://refusinggenai.wordpress.com/>

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