What can a digital writing buddy do?

When writing, we collect ideas, develop them further, put them into a good order, and discard them again. We write, rewrite, write anew. That is normal, because: writing is a thinking process.

Formulating ideas so that another person can understand them lets thoughts develop further. If a thought only remains in our mind, it cannot evolve in this way.

That is why, when writing, it can be helpful to share our – perhaps still unfinished – ideas with another person, whether orally in conversation or in a presentation, or in writing through drafts and text feedback.

Instead of a real person, you can also turn to generative AI. You can ask the AI

• to ask you questions you might not have thought of yourself,
• to critically evaluate your ideas,
• to look at your ideas from another perspective,
• to find gaps in your argumentation.

Formulating a feedback request

A good prompt you can use to get targeted feedback from an AI writing tool could look like this:

Example: Please analyze the following academic text passage with regard to style, clarity, and logic. Give me concrete feedback on possible improvements concerning the structure of the argument and comprehensibility. Also pay attention to recurring grammatical mistakes or unclear formulations.

Through this prompt, you can receive comprehensive feedback that improves both the quality of the content and the language quality of your text. Adapt the prompt to your needs.

AI as a writing buddy – The advantages

1. AI is available around the clock.
2. AI gives unbiased feedback, since AI has no personal preferences or emotions. The tool evaluates your ideas objectively and gives you clear feedback.
3. AI can take on different perspectives and thus help you to consider your arguments from different angles. This promotes a deeper understanding of your topic.
4. Through quick responses and targeted questions, AI can accelerate the writing process and help you work more efficiently.

AI as a writing buddy – The disadvantages

1. AI cannot understand emotional nuances or respond to your personal needs. It does not provide the emotional support that can sometimes be crucial.
2. AI lacks the deeper understanding and intuition that a human counterpart might have. Sometimes it can treat complex topics only superficially.
3. AI is based on existing data and algorithms, and is therefore often less creative than a human. It has difficulties developing truly innovative or original ideas.
4. There are data protection concerns. That’s why it is important to think about data protection and the security of your data. Sensitive information could potentially be at risk. Consider carefully what you enter into an AI tool.
5. AI hallucinates, i.e., its information can be false and imprecise.

Conclusion: Combine human and machine

Although generative AI can be a practical support in the writing process, it does not replace the valuable feedback of a real human being.

The best strategy is a combination of both: Use AI to develop first drafts quickly and efficiently and to identify gaps, and complement this with human feedback to refine and perfect your texts.

Your text, your responsibility. Even if AI supports you, you are still the one who decides which changes you implement and how.

Frequently asked questions

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Using AI tools

AI tools can be meaningfully used at various points in the academic writing process, for example to support …

• the formulation of the research question and narrowing of the topic
• the literature search
• summarizing and understanding academic literature
• structuring content
• generating text
• content-related and linguistic revision
• proofreading

AI tools will not take away the time-consuming and sometimes exhausting thinking work that is an important part of academic work. But they can complement your work and sometimes also ease the burden. The better you know your topic, the requirements of academic work, and the tools themselves, the more they can support you.

Always clarify with your supervisors whether you are allowed to use AI tools for your current academic work and how you should make this use transparent.

Elicit

Elicit is an AI research tool that supports you in finding and analyzing academic articles. The tool can provide a brief summary of articles or compile a research overview from several articles.

Searching in Elicit does not replace systematic literature research. The program only has access to part of the available literature on a topic. Older and print literature is not available.

For all Ohm students, there is the possibility to attend the workshop Literature Research with AI as well as to access the associated training materials here.

ChatGPT & Copilot

AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Copilot can support you with many tasks in the writing process. For example, you can turn to these tools for help when brainstorming ideas by asking a question or entering a topic. Let ChatGPT also suggest research questions and outline drafts and use them as a basis for your own research question, outline, or for narrowing down your topic.

ChatGPT can also generate entire text passages based on your input. Often, keywords and sentence fragments are sufficient as input. This function is especially useful if you are experiencing writer’s block and want to get into the flow of writing.

ChatGPT is also useful for making the language in your work more formal and academic – in German or English.

ChatGPT – like all other AIs – can hallucinate. More precisely: the answers AI gives are sometimes wrong, fabricated, or imprecisely worded. This is often difficult to recognize, especially if you are not yet very familiar with a topic. Academic work still requires you to build expertise yourself – by referring to the original texts. You are responsible for the content of your academic work.

For all Ohm students, there is the possibility to attend the writing workshop Microsoft Copilot: Limits and Opportunities in the Writing Process as well as to access the related Workshop materials.

The Language Tool / Grammarly

In times of AI-based language checking, your work should be perfect in terms of comma placement, grammar, and spelling. Tools like the LanguageTool or Grammarly correct your text for you and rewrite it if necesssary. This can also have a positive influence on the style of your texts.

There is no single academic style that is correct for all disciplines. You must decide for yourself whether the AI-revised text matches the linguistic style of your field.

DALL-E

If you need graphic representations, image generators like DALL-E can be very handy. They generate both simple and complex images and can serve as visual inspiration. In academia, DALL-E can be used to create visual representations of complex data or concepts that support and illustrate your work.

The images generated by AI tools are often subject to strong bias. This means: The images often show a lack of diversity and reinforce clichés. Take responsibility for the outcome of your images!

What does it cost me to use AI tools?

The use of AI tools can involve financial and other costs: Many tools offer basic functions free of charge, but fees are often charged for advanced features. Members of Ohm can use Microsoft Copilot free of charge for 30 requests per day.

Checking the AI-generated results can also cost you time, since AI tools do not always deliver error-free or suitable content. And last but not least, excessive use can impair your own writing skills – therefore, use AI consciously and purposefully.

If a website or an app is free, you usually pay with your data! Get used to replacing names, personal data, internal matters, and details of research projects in your requests with placeholders.

Frequently asked questions

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The stages in the writing process

The individual phases are interconnected and overlap. Writing is a recursive and reiterative process. You may frequently have to revisit and revise previous drafts, or restructure certain sections.

You should be familiar with the individual stages and plan enough time by creating time and work schedules. Please refer to our article: Planning Writing Time

Here is an overview of the individual writing phases:

1. Pre-writing: Topic, research question
2. Collecting material: Research, literature
3. Structure: Interaction between collecting and processing material
4. Draft: First text
5. Revising: Writing for the target audience
6. Editing: Checking, proofreading, designing layout

The individual writing phases in detail

Techniques for this: Freewriting, clustering, mind-mapping, limitation table, brainstorming.

Techniques for this: Freewriting, clustering, mind-mapping, brainstorming, mini-exposé, using a reference management program, e.g. Zotero.

Techniques for this: Mind-map, overview by writing, planning pentagon.

Techniques for this: Freewriting, writing multiple drafts, dictating to yourself, marking unfinished parts

Look at the following in more detail: Consider headings and topic sentences, check topics against your line of argument, overview the overall context.

Useful tools: Word processing programs offer useful functions such as headers, page breaks etc. – it is best to set these from the outset. It can also help to print the text, leave it to one side, and have others proofread it.

Literature: Grieshammer, Ella; Liebetanz, Franziska; Peters, Nora; Zegenhagen, Jana (2013): Zukunftsmodell Schreibberatung. Schreibberatung lohnt sich. Eine Anleitung zur Begleitung von Schreibenden im Studium. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren.

Frequently asked questions

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Fellow students

An important resource during your writing process is your fellow students. Students from higher semesters may be willing to share their own helpful experiences, while students from the same semester might have special insights or knowledge that complement your own. Talking about your topic can help you solve problems, clarify your ideas, and find appropriate expressions. You can give each other helpful tips. One particularly effective strategy is to provide each other with feedback on your texts.

Good text feedback is:

• specific – refers to specific parts of the text
• substantiated – explains why something is successful or unsuccessful
• prioritized – assesses individual criticism in relation to the overall impression
• worded appreciatively – and if not, accept it calmly, and do better yourself.

Writing groups

Productive writing groups are small – a good number is three to five participants. They focus on specific writing projects, such as a bachelor’s thesis. Agree on rules among yourselves describing how often you want to meet where, and what happens during and between meetings.

The Writing Center regularly supports the formation of writing groups through organizing kick-off meetings and also offers an open writing group.

Lecturers

Lecturers offer different types of support for writing a scientific paper. Find out what is available and make the most of all that is on offer. Refer to fact sheets, the seminar schedule, and if applicable the lecturers’ Moodle course rooms. Ask about the requirements for the scientific paper you are writing. Sometimes students hesitate to accept offered feedback, but it is a valuable opportunity: take the chance to view marked examinations, read the comments, ask questions.

Library

The library is there to help with any questions you may have about literature searches and literature management. Library staff also offer thesis consultations and an introduction to literature management programs like Citavi or Zotero. The library offers introductory events where you can learn the basics of literature research and borrowing materials, especially at the beginning of the semester, as well as an elective lecture on scientific literature research. Contact the library with any questions you may have about databases, journals, or interlibrary loans. Please don’t hesitate to ask the library staff for help and advice.

Detailed information, tailored to the various faculties, can be found on the library website: Library at TH Nuremberg.

Writing Center

The Writing Center offers workshops that teach the basics and encourage exchange. In writing consultations, writing tutors advise you individually on your text and writing process. You can also upload your text and receive written feedback on a few pages. And: Attend the Writing Day, where once a semester you can join workshops and write together with others for a whole day.

Details of all services offered by the Writing Center are available on the Writing Center website.

Other internet resources

The OWL cannot answer all questions about academic work and writing. On the internet and social media, you will find various resources that deal with academic writing. Don’t be confused by the many different conventions.

Follow the guidelines of your lecturers and the information in the OWL. For questions going beyond that, you may make justified decisions on your own.

Instructions, tutorials and courses for software

For academic writing, you need various programs, e.g. for word processing, creating graphics, researching academic literature, or collaborating with others. Mastering the software you use saves a lot of time and nerves. It’s best to start early with the software you plan to use for your thesis.

Support is available here:

• The Central IT of TH Nuremberg provides software via the intranet and offers instructions for installation and use.
• The library offers training and a consultation hour for the reference management software Zotero.
• The RRZE (Regional Computing Center Erlangen) of FAU provides software training courses, e.g. for LATEX or Word – also for students of TH Nuremberg.

If German is not your native language

Writing is especially challenging if you are not writing in your native language. Here are some tips for non-native speakers writing in German at university:

• Use a German-language word processing program.
• Use the spelling and grammar check of your word processor.
• Never copy full sentences word-for-word from literature without marking them as quotes. That stands out. Try to paraphrase the literature, even if it’s difficult at first. You must also cite the source if you express the idea in your own words.
• Have your text proofread by German-speaking fellow students or friends before submission.
• Don’t get stuck on spelling and phrasing in your draft text, but focus first on content. Before submission, the language must of course be checked and corrected again.
• Write simply and understandably. Don’t hide content in unnecessarily complicated phrasing. Academic texts are working documents and should be understandable on first reading.
• If you can express yourself better in English than in German, ask your examiners if you may write the paper in English.

Frequently asked questions

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