Too many students are entering college without the writing skills that higher education demands. Nearly two thirds of students in the high school graduating class of 2023 who took the ACT did not meet the college readiness benchmark in English and Language Arts. In recent years, that gap has widened as COVID-era learning loss and the rise of AI tools have made it easier for students to generate polished writing without engaging in the thinking that writing is meant to develop.
Writing is central to how students learn and demonstrate knowledge in college—and to their landing a job after graduation. It’s present across nearly every discipline in higher education, from lab reports to reflection papers. At the same time, communication skills are among employers’ most sought-after skills for entry-level hires.
Most colleges have introductory writing courses designed to help students strengthen their skills early. Still, those courses alone cannot make up for years of uneven preparation. Students need more opportunities to practice writing in meaningful ways, and that responsibility can’t be left to writing courses alone. Instructors across all disciplines have an opportunity to be a critical part of that process. Here are three ways they can help.
Use Writing to make Thinking Visible.
One useful lesson comes from an unlikely place: remedial mathematics classrooms. In recent years, some math educators have begun redesigning developmental courses around active learning. Instead of quietly working through problem sets on their own, students explain their reasoning and write out the steps behind their solutions. Students are expected to show their thinking, not just submit a final answer.
Writing assignments in other disciplines can serve the same purpose. Instead of focusing solely on polished essays, instructors can ask students to briefly explain how they arrived at their mathematical or scientific conclusions. A biology student might describe why an experiment produced an unexpected result, while a sociology student might connect a theory to something they observed in the real world. These short explanations are often easier to assign and quicker to read than formal papers. More importantly, they give instructors insight into how students are actually working through the material.
Find Ways to Maintain Faculty Presence, Even in Large Classes.
Students notice when an instructor feels present in a course and when they do not. Addressing presence does not mean responding to every student individually, however. At the scale at which many instructors work, that would be impossible. A short video responding to common issues in discussion posts, a comment highlighting an insightful response or a quick follow-up question in a discussion thread can go a long way.
When instructors interact with student writing in visible ways, students’ approach to the assignment changes. Instead of seeing a discussion post as something to submit and move on from, students begin to see it as part of a conversation. Instead of writing into the void, they are writing to someone who is reading, responding and engaging with their ideas. When that happens, writing becomes less about producing a correct answer and more about explaining what they think and why.
Even brief, occasional instructor responses can signal that the writing is part of an ongoing exchange of ideas, which encourages students to take their contributions more seriously. A few visible moments of engagement can help establish the sense that the instructor is present and paying attention.
Utilize AI to Support Feedback, Not Replace Thinking.
The arrival of generative AI has sparked understandable anxiety about writing assignments. In my own research, however, I have found that AI tools can actually support, rather than hinder, the writing process. In one recent project, I examined how students and instructors used the platform Packback in non-writing courses, including subjects like psychology, learning technology and public administration.
The platform provides students with automated feedback on the more mechanical aspects of their writing, such as grammar and style, enabling instructors to focus on responding to ideas and guiding the conversation rather than correcting every sentence. Over the course of the semester, students improved the quality of their writing, with their final assignments scoring modestly higher than their initial submissions.
AI use among students, however, is a different story. Instructors say students are posting more frequently on discussion boards, often with longer and more polished responses. However, the writing can feel generic, and when instructors look past the surface, the underlying understanding is not always there. That’s because students have not only let AI do the writing but also the thinking.
To mitigate those risks, it’s helpful to think about AI literacy as being reliant on traditional literacy. Many students experimenting with generative AI are still learning how arguments work, how evidence supports a claim and how ideas develop through revision. When a tool can produce a polished paragraph instantly, it creates the illusion that those steps have already happened. A strong foundation in reading, writing and reasoning makes the difference between using these tools in active, generative ways and passive, uncritical ones. Students must understand that thinking still belongs to them.
Faculty in non-writing disciplines do not need to become writing instructors. They do, however, need to help students practice writing as part of learning how to think. In a moment when machines can generate text instantly, that role may be more important than ever.