From ChatGPT to Consultation: How Writing Centres are Responding to the AI-Assisted Writer

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-521-8_23How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence; ChatGPT; Writing Centres; AI-assisted writing; academic integrity; digital literacy; tutor response; higher education

Abstract

The use of AI technologies such as ChatGPT into academic writing has generated both optimism and concern in higher education, presenting opportunities and challenges for Writing Centres. As students rely more on AI for ideation, drafting, and editing, Writing Centre tutors are at the vanguard of navigating this changing world. This study explores how Writing Centre tutors at a selected University of Technology (UoT) in KZN are responding to the rise of the AI-assisted writer, focusing on their perceptions, challenges, and emerging pedagogical strategies for supporting student writing while maintaining academic integrity and promoting deep learning. Underpinned by Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Learning, the study used a qualitative methodology with written reflections, providing detailed personal accounts of their direct encounters with AI-generated or AI-assisted student writing, their evolving pedagogical approaches in consultations, ethical concerns, and forward-looking perspectives on the Writing Centre's future role and function in an AI-infused academic world. The findings reveal that some tutors are using scaffolded ways to teach students to use AI critically, such as asking students to compare AI-generated drafts to their own work or to assess AI outputs for bias and inaccuracy. Tutors describe encountering students who submit AI-generated manuscripts without complete comprehension, and AI-assisted students frequently struggle with over-reliance on AI-generated writing, resulting in challenges with originality, voice, and deeper learning. The study provides specific, concrete recommendations targeted to the Writing Centre at the participating University of Technology, as well as potential value for other Writing Centres dealing with these fundamental developments. These recommendations include implementing emerging best practices, such as ethics-focused workshops, training tutors in AI literacy, and draughting explicit, adaptable AI use regulations during consultations. Writing Centres can assist students make use of AI's potential while preserving the essential ideals of writing as a critical, reflective discipline by adopting a proactive approach.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Nondumiso Shabangu
AU  - Patience Mutsvairigwa
AU  - Nozibusiso O. Mbava
AU  - Ntuthuko Mhlongo
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/29
TI  - From ChatGPT to Consultation: How Writing Centres are Responding to the AI-Assisted Writer
BT  - Proceedings of The Focus Conference (TFC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 375
EP  - 402
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-521-8_23
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-521-8_23
ID  - Shabangu2025
ER  -