The Writing Center’s main purpose continues to be helping PC students improve their writing. Across higher education we know that some institutions are in a hurry to teach students how to “write with AI,” and we understand there are trends in writing instruction moving aggressively in that direction. But we are not yet persuaded by calls to dilute the sharp practical and conceptual distinction between writing and data processing. Writing is a human practice based on personal experience, situational awareness, and critical reflection, while data processing that automates syntax involves none of these things.

Our aspiration at the Writing Center is to help PC students stay committed to embodied writing practices, using their own minds as opposed to asking machines for automated syntax. Such a commitment will equip them with a command of language that leads to self-confidence. We endorse the longstanding observation that learning to write is learning to think. It is primarily through reading and writing practices that students develop their linguistic capacity to formulate thoughts that are worth having, worth considering, and worth sharing.

With help from faculty and staff, we will keep making this case, and we will continue encouraging students to schedule in-person writing conferences with our tutors. Students are much better served in their development as writers when they produce their own work and then communicate with other humans about their ideas.  

Dr. Philip Perdue
Writing Center Director