Generative Artificial Memories: Teaching AI Text Generators as Rhetorical Memory Devices
Saved in:
| Title: | Generative Artificial Memories: Teaching AI Text Generators as Rhetorical Memory Devices |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | John J. Silvestro |
| Source: | Composition Studies. 2025 53(2):70-88. |
| Availability: | Composition Studies. Available from: English Department, UMass Boston. 100 William T. Morrissey Blvd, Boston, MA 02125; e-mail: compstudiesjournal@gmail.com; Web site: https://compstudiesjournal.com/ |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 19 |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Intended Audience: | Teachers |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Evaluative |
| Education Level: | Higher Education Postsecondary Education |
| Descriptors: | Artificial Intelligence, Rhetoric, Memory, Freshman Composition, Computer Uses in Education, Information Storage, Figurative Language |
| ISSN: | 1534-9322 1542-5894 |
| Abstract: | In response to the public release of and subsequent academic panic about ChatGPT, compositionists largely focused on two concerns. They focused on text-generator-engaging composing processes and on developing students' critical literacies for text generators and their development. This essay proposes extending and merging these pedagogies through the metaphor of rhetorical memory devices. Rhetorical memory devices offer a metaphor through which first-year composition students can learn about the development of text generators and then use their knowledge of that development as part of their composing processes. To articulate a text-generators-as-memory-devices pedagogy, this essay articulates a theory of memory devices, emphasizing how they center the deliberate storage of information for subsequent compositional support. Next, the essay outlines text generators' development processes and connects those processes to the theory of memory devices and their development. The essay then proposes framing text generators as memory devices that store human memories and then regenerate them to support specific compositional acts. To confirm this metaphor of text generators as memory devices, the essay then reviews a case study of writers using text generators. Finally, the essay outlines an approach through which writing instructors can introduce and engage text generators through the metaphor of memory devices. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2026 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1500235 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | In response to the public release of and subsequent academic panic about ChatGPT, compositionists largely focused on two concerns. They focused on text-generator-engaging composing processes and on developing students' critical literacies for text generators and their development. This essay proposes extending and merging these pedagogies through the metaphor of rhetorical memory devices. Rhetorical memory devices offer a metaphor through which first-year composition students can learn about the development of text generators and then use their knowledge of that development as part of their composing processes. To articulate a text-generators-as-memory-devices pedagogy, this essay articulates a theory of memory devices, emphasizing how they center the deliberate storage of information for subsequent compositional support. Next, the essay outlines text generators' development processes and connects those processes to the theory of memory devices and their development. The essay then proposes framing text generators as memory devices that store human memories and then regenerate them to support specific compositional acts. To confirm this metaphor of text generators as memory devices, the essay then reviews a case study of writers using text generators. Finally, the essay outlines an approach through which writing instructors can introduce and engage text generators through the metaphor of memory devices. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1534-9322 1542-5894 |
