Research writing with ChatGPT: A descriptive embodied practice framework

Abstract

Research approaches that emphasize embodied practice and value the idiosyncratic uptake of writing technologies should be central to how writing researchers process the early moment of generative AI's availability to public audiences. Based on a qualitative analysis of 35 publicly available videos depicting the use of ChatGPT and Bing, the study offers a framework of descriptive codes that identify practices early adopters enact when integrating these technologies into research writing processes. The research contributes three key categories of practice that describe research writers’ interaction with generative AI across research design, writing research genres, and proofreading and editing: requesting, evaluating, and refining. This study is significant for providing an early descriptive analysis of the uptake of ChatGPT in research writing, while also identifying how disparate uses of generative AI technologies emerge from conflicting beliefs about writing, research, and invention. In particular, the study describes how experts in writing and research portray uses of and attitudes toward these technologies that often differ from students who are learning to research and write in their respective fields.