I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see, and what it means.
— Joan Didion
Writing is not one thing, but instead uses many parts of our thinking and creative process.
We write to discover what we think, to figure out how to represent and communicate our ideas, and to argue against or add to the ideas of others from our reading, learning and research. We also write to express ourselves, to speak up, and to use our voice.
We keep coming back to our writing as our thinking changes, as our ideas grow, and as our sense of our own voice and style increases.
Can working with AI mess this all up? Yep!
Does that mean you shouldn't work with AI? Not necessarily.
Instead, this guide, based on Michigan Tech's GenAI Responsible Use Matrix, 2026 , walks through the different stages of the writing process and suggests ideas about where AI might be helpful, and where relying it may cost you growth and rob you of your voice.
1
1
Planning & Invention
2
2
Research & Reading
3
3
Outlining & Drafting
4
4
Revising
5
5
Reflecting
Note: Although we talk about writing stages here with the numbers 1-5, writing is not neat and organized like that! You probably already knew that, right? We often skip around, fast-forward, rewind, and zig-zag. With that said, this is a helpful order to visualize how we move through writing, and it is a way to organize where we are at any moment in the process and how AI may - or may not - be helpful!
Stage 1
Planning & Invention
Start with your own instincts and build your own understanding, then use AI to expand.
✅ Responsible Use
Ask AI to to confirm that you understand the steps and goals of an assignment.
Have AI ask you questions to push your thinking further
Help you brainstorm angles on your ideas and thinking
⚠️ Watch Out For
Asking AI to plan your topic or paper. Your interpretations and planning are your skills
Letting AI's suggestions replace your own initial ideas
Skipping the messy, generative work that makes the ideas your own
Your initial instinct about a topic, even a vague one, is where your essay's energy comes from. Protect it.
Stage 2
Research
AI can help you find background on your topic, and it can help you brainstorm search terms. It will also confidently make up sources and include links-to-nowhere.
✅ Do This
Ask AI: "What keywords or search phrases can I add to my list [paste list] to find academic sources on [your topic]?" Then take those terms to your college library database or Google Scholar.
⚠️ Careful of This
If you ask AI to find or list sources for you, it may fabricate author names, titles, and journal entries that look real but don't exist, it maybe make up quotes or misquote, or cite a real paper, but misrepresent its contents.
🔍 One Rule & Its Benefits
Only cite sources you've read and choose to use. If you can't find a source, it may not exist! Research involves some trial and error and we learn so much for the process!
Stage 3
Reading
AI can help you here, but if you let it do the reading for you, you may misinterpret, misrepresent, misunderstand, and lose skills and knowledge. The deeper thinking happens when you engage with the words and ideas yourself.
✅ Helpful Use
Ask AI to create a reading guide to support your reading of a text.
Use AI to define unfamiliar terms before diving in
Ask AI to help you through a passage you're struggling with.
Ask AI to summarize several texts so you can choose which ones to read.
⚠️ What You'll Miss if You Let AI Read For You
AI summaries flatten nuance. They can strip away tone, subtext, and the author's choices, all things which might spark ideas in your as you're reading. Think about watching a movie or show versus someone summarizing it!
The skill you're building: critical reading. The skill of how to work through passages of text and uncover complex ideas is a huge one and will lead to deep and lifelong knowledge. You lose all of that if you outsource it.
Stage 4
Drafting
This is the clearest line in the matrix. Your draft must be your words. This is where your voice, argument, and thinking take shape. And guess what? We learn what we're thinking as we write!
Your Words Only
Do not ask AI to write your paragraphs, your thesis, or your introduction. Submitting AI-generated prose as your own will rob you of developing and practicing writing-thinking skills. Responsible AI use means you know what you're thinking and you know what you wrote.
You Can Ask for Models
Stuck on how to structure an argument? Ask AI: "Show me an example of a well-structured body paragraph." Don't ask it for an example on your topic, but you can ask it for an example on something you know about or even something fun and casual, like why In & Out fries are overrated.
And Mini-Models
Blocked? Ask AI: "Give me five ways to start a paragraph about X (not your topic)." Read them and then write from your own head. Use AI as a model for structure, to give you ideas about how to approach your writing, and as a jumpstart.
If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.
- George Orwell
Stage 5
Revising
Revision is one of the most powerful writing skills you'll develop. It's where you continue to clarify and refine your thinking and figure out your own voice. AI can coach you, in small doses, but if it does the work, you lose so much!
✅ Smart Ways to Use AI
Ask: "What revision strategies help strengthen argument essays?"
Ask AI to identify areas that might need more clarity or evidence
Use AI to generate a checklist for your specific assignment type
⚠️ The Trap to Avoid
Don't paste your draft and say "make this better." The AI will return something smoother, probably more bland, and definitely less you. Your voice, your sentence rhythms, your way of thinking will be replaced with generic writing and your essay and voice will no longer "sing." Also, some of your meaning or ideas may inadvertently be changed.
Stage 6
Reflecting
Reflection is thinking about your own thinking which is, obviously, something only you can do. AI can support the process.
✅ What AI Can Do
Ask AI to generate reflection prompts tailored to your assignment: "Give me five questions to help me reflect on my writing process for a research essay." Take what resonates with you and use them as launching pads for your own reflection.
⚠️ What AI Cannot Do
AI cannot think about your experience, your struggles, or what you learned. Metacognition is human. A reflection written by AI is more of a performance or checking a box. Better to keep your reflection brief, focused, even playful, than have AI write something that is not true to you.
💡 The Why For You
Genuine reflection builds self-awareness as a writer. You start to understand your writing and your thinking process more deeply, a skill that transfers to every course, every job, every piece of communication you'll ever produce. An AI reflection may start to distort your own self-view.
The Big Picture: A Quick Reference
Scan this anytime you're unsure. Green means go! (With intention). Yellow means slow down and think about what you stand to lose with AI at this stage and for this purpose.
You've Got This! Come Back Anytime 😊
You can return to this guide throughout the semester as your writing tasks get more complex. Bookmark it. Share it. Use it when you sit down to write.
Your Voice is You
AI can generate words. Only you can generate your ideas, shaped by your experience and your thinking. You, as a person, and your voice, has unique value. Cherish it.
Growth Takes Struggle
The hard parts of writing, like the blank page, the messy draft, is something that everyone experiences, and it's where we build our "brain muscles" so to speak.
Ask When Unsure
Not sure if a specific AI use is okay? Ask your instructor. The answer may often be more nuanced than "yes" or "no" and you may both learn just from the conversation.
Based on the GenAI Responsible Use Matrix, Michigan Tech University First-Year Writing Program (2026).