The AI Playbook
Why use this Playbook?
Cognitive offloading, or the outsourcing of some mental effort in order to “engage in more meaningful and complex intellectual tasks,” may result in cognitive decline when we outsource not just “extraneous” but also “germane” mental effort (Brookings 57). The Playbook helps you practice active cognition.
Discerning readers like teachers, professors, journal editors, the informed public, etc. demand complexity of argument and originality of thought. Inept use of AI results in flattened writing and statistically probable patterns of content that rarely pass for interesting, robust ideas. The Playbook helps you write for a discerning audience.
Do:
Write first; then involve AI. Handwrite notes when consulting AI; then, put AI aside.
Use “Ask Me” Prompts to generate topic-specific guiding questions. Then, freewrite.
Prompt AI for relevant background information and keywords/concepts. Then, confirm with credible sources.
Prompt AI to suggest counterarguments. Then, engage.
Prompt AI for feedback on clarity, structure, or thesis coherence. Then, revise.
Prompt AI for variations on organization, structure, or framework.
Prompt AI examples, models, or options you can learn from, but not copy.
Prompt Starters:
Propose three ways that…
Ask me guiding questions to help me… [Ask me one question at a time.]
Suggest strategies I could use to…
Don’t:
Don’t prompt AI to write a paragraph, thesis, or sentence. Word-by-word writing is your greatest source of cognitive friction (and you need friction to “fire” the spark of an idea). But you can use the “They Say” Technique to learn from–and advance–what AI offers you.
Don’t prompt AI for ideas before you’ve done some brainstorming yourself. Brainstorming generates cognitive friction, because you are rubbing ideas together, triangulating sources, and comparing/contrasting perspectives. But the Rule of One Lead will help you use AI to augment, refine, or organize your brainstorming.
Don’t prompt AI to “revise” your text by allowing it to rewrite large portions of it.