Writing, reading, and summarising with AI
AI tools can be used in several ways in your writing and reading process. They may help you improve your text or read course literature and other texts. If you use AI in a thoughtful way, it can contribute to your learning.
Writing with AI
Generative AI can support you throughout the writing process. It can help you get started, develop your text, and improve it. However, remember that you need to double-check all drafts to ensure facts and references are correct. You are accountable for everything in the text. Finally, the text must be your own.
To get started with writing, you may use AI to:
- Generate ideas and suggestions for topics to write about, which you then evaluate and work on yourself.
- Get started and avoid writer's block by asking AI to generate a few lines about your topic. You must then edit and develop the text yourself.
- Create an outline for your text, which you then evaluate, adjust and build on.
- Organise content by mapping concepts or creating mind maps.
To improve your text, you can use AI to:
- Structure the content so that it makes sense to you and your reader.
- Structure paragraphs.
- Fine-tune the language of your text by asking for suggestions on how to improve sentence structure or cohesion.
- Detect certain grammatical errors.
- Find a level of style adapted to the task, but also to your own style.
- Sharpen your arguments by asking for counter arguments.
- Get feedback on your text. Make sure you consider whether the feedback seems reasonable and whether the suggestions really improve the text or only seem to.
Alternatives: non-generative AI tools
Please be aware that there are alternatives to generative AI tools. There are also non-generative AI tools, meaning that they do not create new text. Grammarly and Instatext are examples of such tools. They offer features that allow you to check your text for grammatical errors and receive suggestions on how to improve your text. Just remember, you must still carefully check any suggestions and ensure the suggestions are reasonable before you change anything.
Quick facts
- The suggestions you get from generative AI tools are based on statistical probability, not on facts or rules about grammar or writing. Learn more about how AI tools work.
- AI often gives answers that appear reasonable, but do not accept them for that reason alone. It is your responsibility to exercise your critical thinking skills and carefully evaluate all answers.
- You have to vouch for everything in your text. Double or triple check that everything is correct!
- Your teacher must be able to assess what you have learnt. Your text needs to be your own work to assure that you have fulfilled the learning outcomes for a course.
Reading and summarising with AI
Generative AI tools can be used to support you reading long and complex texts, and facilitate your understanding of a text in various ways. However, using these tools cannot replace your own reading of the original text, only complement it.
Generative AI is often described as useful for summarising texts. However, these tools can only abbreviate texts. Reading only the abbreviated version of a text may lead to a limited or even incorrect understanding of its content.
You can use AI tools in your reading process to:
- Simplify and/or shorten a text to get an overview of a topic. You must then read the entire text, thus deepening your understanding of the text.
- Translate texts. However, do not rely blindly on the results, but double-check that everything is correct. Double-checking specialised terms is particularly important.
- Identify key concepts, themes and underlying ideas, but double-check that everything is correct! Read more about searching for information with AI here.
- Deepen your understanding of the text by formulating study questions. Learn more about creating quizzes and flashcards using AI.
Quick facts
- AI abbreviates text; it cannot summarise a text on a deeper level.
- If you only read an abbreviated and/or simplified version of a text, you risk having a limited or even incorrect understanding of the content.
- If you want to use a text as a source in your work, you must have read the whole text, not just an abbreviated version.
- Do not share copyrighted or sensitive material (e.g. patient data) with AI tools.
Prompt tips
How you formulate a question to an AI tool – that is, how you prompt it – impacts the answer you get. Below, you will find examples of prompts that work well and prompts that do not. By formulating your prompts clearly, including providing context and specific details, you increase your chances of getting useful and understandable suggestions.
Keep in mind!
You are always responsible for your own learning and what you produce in your studies.
Make sure you do so with academic integrity, that is, be transparent about how you use AI tools and do not use them more than is permitted for your course.
Do not share personal information, sensitive data or copyrighted material with the tools.
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