Research and Course Guides: 10 Step AI Challenge: Step 3: Using AI to Outline Your Writing

Step 3: Creating Outlines for your Writing using AI

Greetings, and welcome to Step 3 of the Clemson Libraries AI Challenge!

The last challenge focused on using AI to assist you with your writing projects. Now, we'll look at how you can use AI to help you create outlines for your writing projects. Sometimes AI can help you see things you hadn't thought about before and can assist you in thinking through your arguments.

Challenge: Try Using AI to Outline Writing Projects

Use one of the tools below to create an outline for a ten page paper about the impact of COVID on higher education. Your paper should include an introduction, three body statements, and a conclusion.

OR

Complete the "Create an Outline" portion of the Gen AI Choose Your Own Adventure

The Tools

Copilot (Microsoft)
(formerly Bing Chat) Microsoft Copilot is a chatbot based on a large language model and able to cite sources, create poems, and write both lyrics and music for songs generated by its Suno AI plugin. It is Microsoft’s primary replacement for the discontinued Cortana. (Wikipedia) When Clemson users are logged in, personal data is protected through Commercial Data Protection (CDP); however, the web version is not FERPA or HIPPA compliant
ChatGPT (OpenAI)
ChatGPT is an AI language model developed by OpenAI, designed to understand and generate human-like text based on the input it receives, offering conversational capabilities and assistance across various tasks and domains. Should not be used to enter student information protected by FERPA.
scite_
Free for Clemson students and employees, scite_ is an award-winning platform for discovering and evaluating scientific articles via Smart Citations. Smart Citations allow users to see how a publication has been cited by providing the context of the citation and a classification describing whether it provides supporting or contrasting evidence for the cited claim. Use scite assistant to help generate outlines or bodies of text.
Grok
Chatbot developed by xAI and is an initiative of Elon Musk. For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok_(chatbot)

Reflect

What are the limitations when using AI for outlining your writing projects?
Did you notice any ideas that were left out?

Learn more:

Articles, Books & More

The Landscape of AI: Tools for Writing - University of Vermont
How to Write an Academic Essay Outline with AI in 5 Steps - Wordvice AI

Clemson Resources

Outlines - Clemson Writing Lab
How Clemson University Students Are Using Artificial Intelligence - EdTech article by Anne Marie Rogers, May 2024

Preparing for the next challenge:

Congratulations! You've completed Step 3 of the AI Challenge! We've reflected on how you might use AI to help you outline your academic writing. Next, we'll start to look at how you can use AI tools to help you locate resources for your research.

10 Step AI Challenge

Research Librarian & AI Literacy Coordinator

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