By Jim Shimabukuro (assisted by ChatGPT)
Editor
Introduction: I worked with ChatGPT on this article about a hypothetical college freshman struggling to pass a required writing course. See the prompt at the end of the article. -js
Prologue: The Boy with the Blinking Cursor
When Malik Thompson stepped onto the campus of Western Plains State University last August, he brought with him two duffel bags, a cracked iPhone, and a quiet but persistent fear: that he wasn’t cut out for college writing.
He had passed his high school English classes—barely—and had relied heavily on late-night cramming and the kindness of teachers who knew he was working two part-time jobs. But now he was in a required first-year composition course with a syllabus full of words like “rhetorical situation,” “synthesis,” and “MLA citation.” From day one, Malik felt like he was drowning in expectations he didn’t understand.
“I opened the first assignment and saw the phrase ‘thesis-driven argument,’ and I thought… what’s a thesis?” Malik recalls, half-smiling now. “It was like I was supposed to already know how to do this.”
That night, his roommate—a computer science major—watched him pacing the dorm room.
“Why don’t you try ChatGPT?” the roommate asked. “I use it for debugging code. It can explain stuff better than most humans.”
Malik hesitated. Wasn’t that cheating? Wouldn’t it write the paper for him?
But he didn’t want someone to do it for him.
He wanted someone to teach him.
Paper One: The Literacy Narrative
Assignment: Write a personal essay about a key experience that shaped your understanding of reading or writing.
Challenge: Structure and coherence.
Malik stared at the blinking cursor in Google Docs for over an hour. He had a story—writing rap lyrics in a spiral notebook to impress a girl in 10th grade—but didn’t know how to start.
“I just typed, ‘Can you help me write a literacy narrative?’ into ChatGPT,” he says. “It asked me questions instead of just giving me something to copy. That surprised me.”
ChatGPT prompted Malik to reflect: What was the emotional center of the story? How did the act of writing change how he saw himself?
“I didn’t think about any of that. I was just telling a story,” Malik says. “But it helped me see there was actually a message behind it.”
With each draft, ChatGPT highlighted transitions that didn’t quite connect, asked follow-up questions about character motivation, and suggested more vivid verbs. When Malik showed his final version to his professor, he got a C+—but also a handwritten note: “You have something to say. Let’s work on how you say it.”
Paper Two: Rhetorical Analysis of a Visual Text
Assignment: Choose a print advertisement, political cartoon, or public image and analyze its rhetorical strategies.
Challenge: Understanding rhetorical appeals and terminology.
Malik chose a Nike ad featuring Colin Kaepernick. It was a bold image—but his first draft read more like a personal opinion piece than an analysis.
“ChatGPT was the first to tell me: ‘You’re reacting emotionally, but this needs to be rhetorical analysis. Let’s talk ethos, pathos, and logos,’” Malik says.
He didn’t even know what those terms meant, but ChatGPT broke them down with examples. It also showed him how to structure his paper by walking through similar rhetorical analyses from online writing labs.
Using a recursive process, Malik would:
- Draft a paragraph.
- Paste it into ChatGPT.
- Ask: “Is this coherent? Does it analyze or summarize?”
- Revise based on the feedback.
By the final draft, Malik had learned how to identify visual symbols, intended audience, and underlying political appeals.
His professor circled “Clear improvement in critical thinking” on the rubric. Grade: B.
Paper Three: Annotated Bibliography and Source Evaluation
Assignment: Choose a topic and locate five credible sources. Summarize, evaluate, and reflect on each.
Challenge: Identifying bias, writing summaries, citing correctly.
Malik decided to explore the ethics of facial recognition technology—something he’d seen on a YouTube video that creeped him out.
He turned to ChatGPT for help locating sources, asking, “Are these peer-reviewed?” and “What’s the author’s bias?”
“When I tried to summarize an article, it kept sounding like I was copying,” Malik admits. “ChatGPT taught me how to paraphrase without losing the meaning.”
They walked through one source at a time, with Malik writing a summary, then comparing it with ChatGPT’s suggestions. The AI nudged him toward clarity: “You said ‘it talks about,’ but what exactly is the author arguing?”
By the end of the week, Malik submitted a full annotated bibliography—with citations generated through Zotero and formatted with ChatGPT’s help.
Grade: A-.
Paper Four: Argumentative Essay
Assignment: Write a thesis-driven essay that takes a position on a controversial issue.
Challenge: Constructing a cohesive argument and integrating sources.
This was the toughest one.
Malik chose to argue that facial recognition should be banned in public schools. He had passion—but struggled to organize his thoughts. His early outline was a jumble of claims, half-quotes, and repetition.
He asked ChatGPT: “How do I turn this into a real argument?”
The AI suggested a classical structure—introduction with background, a clear thesis, three body sections with counterarguments, and a conclusion. It also helped him map each body paragraph to a specific claim, supporting evidence, and cited source.
Malik learned how to blend quotes more naturally: “Instead of just dropping a quote, I started introducing it, explaining it, and then connecting it to my point.”
His final draft was coherent, well-supported, and ethically cited.
Grade: B+.
Paper Five: Reflective Portfolio Letter
Assignment: Reflect on your growth as a writer over the semester.
Challenge: Synthesis and metacognition.
This was Malik’s favorite—and the moment he realized how far he’d come.
He began the letter with a confession: “At the beginning of the semester, I didn’t know what a thesis was.” Then he traced each paper, each struggle, each night he sat in his dorm talking to ChatGPT like it was a writing coach.
“I didn’t just learn how to write,” he wrote. “I learned how to think about writing.”
ChatGPT, in turn, had learned his style—offering feedback in a way that made him feel heard and capable. It never wrote for him, but always pushed him to do better.
His professor’s final comment on the letter: “Malik, this is thoughtful, honest, and a joy to read. You’ve found your voice.”
Final course grade: B (87%).
Epilogue: A Writer Emerges
As fall turned into winter and finals week gave way to a long Christmas break, Malik packed up for home with a folder of papers he was proud of—and a sense of confidence he didn’t have three months before.
Now, in his second semester, he still uses ChatGPT. But differently.
“It’s not a crutch anymore. It’s more like a sounding board,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll write a paragraph, then ask it: ‘How can I make this stronger?’”
He laughs. “It’s like having a tutor who never sleeps.”
Postscript: The Larger Story
Malik’s journey isn’t unique—but it’s often untold. Many students come to college underprepared for the demands of academic writing. And while concerns about AI and academic integrity dominate headlines, the deeper truth is that tools like ChatGPT, when used transparently and ethically, can be powerful scaffolds for learning. Not just to pass a class—but to become a writer.
Prompt: Write a 1,000 to 2,000-word documentary-style article by a hypothetical writer about a hypothetical college freshman at a large state university who is having difficulty in passing a required first-year composition course and is relying on ChatGPT to mentor him through the course. Walk us through the five typical college papers that were assigned for the semester. He has problems with basic mechanics and coherence as well as incorporating quotes and sources in his papers. Let’s assume a happy ending where he passes the course with a strong B and learns how to use an AI-assisted writing process for future papers. -js
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