Writing and editing
Coding and data analysis
Creative projects

Writing and editing

Writing and editing are essential academic skills, that showcase your ability to express ideas clearly, critically engage with material, and develop your unique voice. GenAI tools can play a supportive role in these processes, aiding in tasks such as proofreading and editing, paraphrasing, and brainstorming. However, responsible use of GenAI requires careful consideration to maintain academic integrity and skill development. Remember that GenAI might change the meaning of text when editing or rephrasing it. Its suggestions may not always be the best choice. This guide explores how to responsibly integrate GenAI into the writing process, with a focus on these three key areas.

Enhancing grammar and clarity

GenAI tools can be used to identify grammatical errors, improve sentence structure, and enhance the clarity of text. You can request that they provide feedback (i.e., on syntax, tone, punctuation) on some sample text in order to polish your writing. However, these tools should be used as aids rather than crutches. While they can highlight areas for improvement, you need to ensure that your unique voice remains intact and that you understand suggested changes to your writing. Reviewing AI suggestions critically and revising independently helps develop a deeper understanding of grammar and style and ensure that your text retains its original meaning.

As an example, you can follow this process in order to use GenAI to help you learn how to improve your writing (rather than offloading the task to the tool):

Input a sample of your writing (1-2 paragraphs, or a few sentences) to a GenAI chatbot and ask it what suggestions it has to improve an element of your writing (i.e., grammar, clarity, conciseness, flow). State clearly that you do not want it to rewrite the text for you, but offer suggestions of how to improve it.
Review the suggestions and ask why it has suggested these (either all of them or particular ones you would like clarity on).
Review the response and ask follow up questions if needed.
Decide which suggestions you would like to implement and do this yourself in your original text.
As you continue to write, remember the suggestions (and reasoning behind these) and apply them as you write and when you edit.

Following this process, you can interact with GenAI as if it were a tutor and use it to help you learn how to edit yourself. See the Skills Centre on the Success Zone for guidance on editing, proofreading, and related skills for additional information on how to do these without GenAI.

Refining paraphrasing skills

Paraphrasing is more than rewording: it demonstrates comprehension and analytical engagement. GenAI can assist by suggesting alternative phrasings, simplifying complex ideas, and improving the flow of rewritten content, but it is important that you review all outputs to ensure that your work stays accurate, clear, and true to your voice. Semantic drift can occur when the meaning of a sentence changes slightly during paraphrasing and this can particularly occur when using GenAI tools. These tools are designed to rephrase content smoothly, but sometimes they unintentionally shift the original intent or key message. This can be a problem in academic writing, where even small changes in meaning can lead to misunderstandings or misinterpretation of the source. To avoid this, it's important to carefully review any paraphrased material generated by AI and make sure that it still reflects what the original text meant. To use GenAI responsibly when paraphrasing, you should start by ensuring that you understand the original material, and then use GenAI tools to help refine your phrasing, using the same steps as suggested above but with a focus on paraphrasing. Ensure the final expression is your own. It’s crucial to validate GenAI outputs for accuracy and to acknowledge the use of GenAI tools where applicable.

This approach not only maintains academic integrity but also builds critical thinking and paraphrasing skills over time. For additional information on how to paraphrase yourself, see Skills Centre guidance on paraphrasing in the Success Zone.

Supporting brainstorming and idea generation

Brainstorming is a vital part of academic work, helping you to generate and organise ideas effectively. GenAI tools can offer different perspectives, suggest creative approaches, and help structure thoughts. However, brainstorming begins with the your own ideas. GenAI can be used to expand on or refine these ideas, but should not replace the effort of independent thinking. Critical evaluation of AI-generated suggestions ensures relevance and originality, and transparency about GenAI’s role in the brainstorming process fosters integrity.

To build foundational skills and reduce over-reliance on AI, students can access resources like those available at the UCC Skills Centre. These include workshops and tutorials on paraphrasing, grammar, and academic writing, providing step-by-step guidance for skill development, as well as asynchronous resources on the Success Zone. By combining institutional support with responsible GenAI use, students can enhance their academic performance while adhering to ethical practices.

GenAI tools offer potential to support writing and editing, from refining grammar to generating ideas and enhancing paraphrasing. However, their value lies in how they are used. By starting with independent efforts, evaluating GenAI outputs critically, and maintaining transparency, students can integrate GenAI tools responsibly into their academic work. Writing and editing are not just tasks - they are opportunities to demonstrate understanding, originality, and analytical ability.

Coding and data analysis

Coding assistance

GenAI tools can be useful for assisting with debugging and learning programming syntax, but understanding the underlying code for yourself is crucial, as relying solely on GenAI can lead to misunderstandings and security risks.

Using GenAI as a quick fix when stuck might seem helpful, but over-relying on it can limit genuine learning. Taking time to understand why a solution works, instead of just copying it, helps strengthen your logic and builds confidence in tackling problems on your own.

Data visualisation

GenAI tools can guide you through creating charts and graphs in tools like Excel or Tableau. They can help explain functions, suggest the right type of visualisation for your data, or even walk you through step-by-step instructions. This can be especially helpful when you're learning how to represent data clearly and effectively.

While GenAI tools can simplify tasks like data visualisation, it is important that you balance this with responsibility. Sensitive data should not be entered to GenAI tools where it is not protected. Equally, you need to ensure that outcomes are accurate yourself, which requires careful evaluation.

Accounting and finance

GenAI can be a helpful learning companion for accounting and finance tasks, supporting drafting and offering personalised explanations when you're feeling stuck. This can help foster an analytical mindset by encouraging you to ask more insightful questions and think critically about financial information. However, it is important to remember that AI is not a calculator or an auditor; it can make simple mathematical mistakes, such as balance sheet errors or incorrect journal entries. It also tends to offer surface-level explanations and lacks the professional judgment needed for areas like taxation or auditing. Use AI tools to deepen your understanding of concepts, not to complete assignments or verify calculations. Always cross-check AI-generated content with reliable sources such as your textbook, lecture notes, or accounting standards, and confirm with your lecturer whether AI use is appropriate for a particular assignment.

Automating tasks

Before implementing automation, it is essential to understand the underlying concepts fully. Understanding these ideas ensures that the automation is effective, aligns with your objectives, and diminishes potential system errors.

Creative projects

Creative projects involve a number of activities, such as composing music, designing artwork, writing, and creating both audio and visuals. Sometimes these are done digitally and can be assisted by GenAI. However, such projects should still demonstrate the creativity and vision of the individual behind them. Remember, there are copyright issues with AI-generated content, so consider the purpose of your creative use of GenAI and if you will need to hold copyright over the output, which may not be possible if it is AI-generated. The following focuses on how GenAI can be responsibly integrated into creative projects, focusing on three areas:

Images and visual content

It is important that AI-generated visuals complement your original ideas instead of replacing or overshadowing them. GenAI can either be used to produce visual content, relying on the creativity and iteration of your prompts, or to suggest ideas for content that you then produce yourself. Consider if you need to use GenAI to produce visual content. If you just need a generic image, you may be able to find an existing one from available stock images or graphics, and this will save on the energy usage from GenAI. However, if you want to create something specific and aren't able to design it on your own through another medium, AI image generators can help with this. Make sure that you acknowledge your use of GenAI for full transparency.

Videos, podcasts and audiovisual content

Some GenAI tools specialise in creating videos or podcasts. If you do not have access to video or audio editing software, or are unsure how to use it, and would like to express yourself through these mediums, GenAI can be a useful tool for assisting with this. Equally, if you learn better through these mediums, you can ask GenAI tools to turn your notes into these formats. If you are creating videos or podcasts using GenAI it is important that you do so responsibly. Part of this is ensuring that they do not take the form of deepfakes (i.e., impersonating someone) or spread misleading information. You should also ensure that you are in the "director's" seat, determining what you want in the output, rather than being led by the tool. Finally, as is the case with any use of GenAI, you should not input copyrighted material as part of your request and you should be transparent about your use.

Music composition

There are GenAI tools that can output various types of music, based on prompts or reference text. This may be useful as part of a performance or content creation. Remember, you may not hold copyright over AI-generated music. To use these tools responsibly, you should ensure that the output is original and not infringing on the copyright of other artists, and that you are transparent about your use.

REMEMBER:

Use GenAI tools in creative projects to inspire or help in the creative process. Do not let GenAI overtake your own creativity - use your own ideas first. Never present a GenAI product as your original work.

References

Bell, S. (2024) ‘Firefighting the ChatGPT storm’, University of Bristol - Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. 11 September. Available at: https://accountingcafe.org/2023/07/31/ai-in-accounting-coursework/

ChatGPT vs accounting students: who comes out on top? (2023) University of Auckland. 24 April. Available at: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2023/04/24/study-finds-ChatGPT-fails-accounting-exams.html

Zhou, J., He, Y., Raganato, A., Sileo, D., Bevilacqua, M. and Navigli, R., (2024). A Semantic Similarity Evaluation of Paraphrase Generation with Large Language Models. Proceedings of the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers), pp.6404–6420. Available at: https://aclanthology.org/2024.acl-long.357

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