Lara White

Lara White is a writer from Gardendale, Alabama. She is a lover of fantasy books, historical fashion and medieval literature. Her recent scholarly work examines the relationship between clothing and feminine power in medieval literature, which she presented at an academic conference.

GPT Chatbots and Academic Integrity: Why Generative AI Should be Allowed in the Classroom

The International Baccalaureate, a prestigious college prep organization, recently allowed students to use ChatGPT on the IB exam as long as they do not claim it as their work. This surprising development is the latest in the string of headlines related to generative AI. Many school systems have already banned ChatGPT out of fear of academic dishonesty. Turnitin has announced the development of an AI-detection software that will be rolling out in April. Generative AI has made many rapid improvements, but students will not completely forego traditional learning in favor of bot-generated responses. Educators should integrate AI into the classroom so students know how to use the developing technology effectively and ethically.

Limitations with AI

An educator’s biggest fear is that students will use ChatGPT to do their work for them. While this is a valid fear it is often exagerrated. Olya Kudina’s students were tasked with comparing their assignments with an AI generated assignment. They were initially blown away by “how quickly the chatbot rendered information into fluid prose;” that is until they reread the bot’s work. The students realized that the bot was using incorrect information and it was unable to provide sources for the things it was claiming . Kudina’s students concluded that “copying from ChatGPT wouldn’t actually net them a good grade.”

On the other hand, Pieter Snepvangers received a passing grade on a 2,000 word essay that was written by AI. While AI generated work is passable at first glance, it fails to produce high quality academic work. Snepvangers’ essay was very generalized and didn’t include any citations. The lecturer grading the essay said it had “fishy language.”

Many teachers are horrified at the thought that students will be able to type an essay prompt into an AI generator and submit a paper in about 20 minutes; however it is not always that simple. ChatGPT can only produce up to 365 words, meaning that the student must ask the AI multiple questions to meet a higher word count. Snepvanger asked ChatGPT ten different questions related to the essay prompt. After receiving the paragraphs, Snepvanger selected the best ones and “copied them in an order that ‘resembled the structure of an essay,’”  Even when trying to use Chat GPT, students must use fundamental writing skills to create a coherent paper.

An AI is unlikely to do well on any assignment that requires anything more than a surface-level understanding of the material.  AI can’t properly source an article, and it doesn’t tell its users where its information came from. Any analysis produced by AI will be far too shallow to receive a good grade because the AI is unable to understand the deeper themes of texts or form original perspectives.

AI and Academic Integrity

Many institutions are grappling with the ethics of allowing AI in the classroom. Some are simply requiring that students state when they are using AI generated text. Others are claiming that use of AI in any form is plagiarism. Kalley Huang equates the current status of ChatGPT to Wikipedia in the early 2000’s, which educators also saw as the end of traditional education. Villanova University’s Chair of the Academic Integrity Program, Alice Dailey, believes that schools should allow AI, but they should develop a blanket policy that covers a wide range of circumstances. The advancement of AI technology is going to force educators revolutionize the way they evaluate student progress.

Many schools are moving away from take home essays and are using “in-class assignments, handwritten papers, group work and oral exams” to combat AI plagiarism. Stephen Marche claims that the essay is the “way we teach children how to research, think, and write.” Though these skills are important, there are better ways to teach them in an AI world. Antony Aumann is requiring students write their first draft in the classroom and explain each revision. This method of teaching is not only teaching the students how to write an essay, but is also forcing them to think critically about why they are writing it in this way.

AI in the Classroom

Instead of banning ChatGPT because of its risk to academic integrity, educators should use it as a tool in the classroom. The technology is not going away and students will be unprepared for the future if they are not taught how to use AI efficiently and ethically.

Students can only know the limitations of AI by using it. Ethan Mollick is not only allowing AI in his classroom, but he is mandating it. Mollick’s AI policy requires students to assume the AI is wrong, adding that students will be responsible for errors and omissions on behalf of the AI. Mollick also requires his students to include a paragraph at the end of their work disclosing the use of AI, as well as the prompts used.

Contrary to popular belief, turning in a research paper is not the height of academic evaluation. According to Kathy-Hersh Paseck, it is more important that students develop writing skills, like how to write a thesis and support it, rather than turning in a paper. Students are able to learn these necessary skills by interacting with AI.

Donnie Piercey’s fifth grade class plays a game of “find-the-bot,” which asks students to pick the AI summary out of a lineup with peers’ work.  The students said that the exercise helped them identify proper capitalization and punctuation, as well as how to correctly summarize information. This exercise also led to a discussion on writing voice, and why the AI text sounds “stilted.”

AI text generators are tools that should be embraced in the classroom. Like other technology that was new for its time, AI will not go away. The best thing educators can do for their students is to teach them efficient and ethical ways to use AI text generators while still honoring academic integrity and learning essential writing skills.  

The New Art of E-Book Covers

A physical book has about seven seconds to sell the book before the consumer puts it down. In that time, the consumer is connecting to the art on the cover, the title, and other design elements, such as foiling. Simultaneously, the customer also connects with the book through its weight, texture and scent. If the reader likes what they see and feel, they may flip the book over or open the cover to read a synopsis of the book. All of the sensory inputs allow the reader to form an emotional attachment to the book, making them more likely to buy it.

The digital shopping experience cannot offer the immersive experience that brick-and-mortar stores can. The digital storefront is only capable of connecting with the reader through sight, meaning that e-book covers must adapt to a visually heavy digital storefront.

How are E-Books Presented?

In online storefronts, the cover is reduced to a thumbnail. In physical stores, the books are typically presented spine-first, with a few books cover out; however, in a digital storefront, every book is presented with the cover. Additionally, a thumbnail has no reverse, so even if a reader chooses to click on the book, they have to search for the information that is found on the back of a cover.

Shortform Content and the Rise of Visual Shopping

George Chrysostomou makes the argument that TikTok is influencing book cover designs because content creators want something that will grab the viewers’ attention. Shortform content relies on the visuals of a cover to sell it, much like digital storefronts do. A common BookTok trend is the “Books That” trend, where a creator recommends books that made them cry or that they couldn’t stop thinking about. Creators typically only show the covers of the books against a simple background. Sometimes they will provide a “hook” or a rating system for each book, but the majority of the focus is on the book cover.

The value of aesthetics in shortform content has carried over into digital storefronts as readers expect aesthetically pleasing covers when choosing what books to purchase. A successful e-book cover should be simple and offer a promise of what the reader will find behind the cover.

Creating for Smaller Screens

The first step is to make sure your potential readers can clearly see the cover at its tiniest. An e-book cover is vastly important because it is the first thing, and often the only thing, that readers see when browsing. Smashwords founder, Mark Coker says that “a poor cover creates unnecessary friction that prevents a reader from clicking [on an e-book].” You want your book title to be clearly legible on the cover, as you cannot always count on the platform to format the title correctly or show the complete title. On Kindle, the preview thumbnail is only 60×90 pixels, which is incredibly tiny. Many stylistic choices that work for print books or for larger images will not translate into the thumbnail.

Know Your Genre

Knowing the style of cover that is particular to your genre is imperative, especially in a digital storefront. You want your audience to immediately know that your book will interest them solely off of the cover. Kris Miller argues that one of the most important aspects of book design is a “harmonious cohesion between design elements and market. The art shouldn’t fight the typography. A romance novel shouldn’t look like a thriller or visa versa.” Beyond branding your book for a certain genre, your cover starts to curate your brand.

Develop Your Brand

Colleen Hoover’s branding strategy is clearly defined by her text placement, font, and cover colors. Most of her covers feature pink or blue backgrounds that often have an easily identifiable motif, such as floral accents, that integrate themselves into the other elements on the cover. Hoover’s books are bright, bold, and clearly advertising contemporary romance, except for Verity. Her 2018 novel, Verity, is the opposite of bright and bold, yet it is not completely removed from Hoover’s brand. The dark background offers a nice contrast to the desaturated gold of the title and central design element. More importantly, Hoover kept her name in her typical place at the bottom center of the cover. The success of Verity is dependent on the recognition of Hoover’s brand.

Color and Images

The color of the cover is often the first thing that readers recognize and can be a huge part of an author’s brand; however, different displays will show color differently. Light mode will generally work well with all colors. In dark mode, bright colors can induce eye strain and dark colors will blend in. The cover must also translate into grayscale since most e-readers do not support color. A high contrast between the background image and the text is a good way to make the cover “pop,” even without color. Coker argues that the image alone should convey the premise of the book. The cover art should promise the reader the experience they are searching out.

Typography and Text Placement

Though the color and art are the most easily recognizable part of the cover, the typography and text layout are key elements that can make or break a cover. Aside from the cover art, the text is the largest element on a book cover. It is important that the font categorizes the book into a specific genre and the text is easily readable in thumbnail form.

The largest text should be what will get the reader to click on the book. For established authors with a loyal fanbase, the author’s name is typically the largest piece of text on the cover. For authors who haven’t developed name recognition, an interesting title should be given prominence. While teasers and reviews on the cover can give a print book credibility, the small text shrinks down into a blur on the thumbnails for e-books. The focus for e-book covers should be on hooking the reader with strong visuals.

Text hierarchy and font can also define your brand. Danielle Steele’s books are easily distinguished from other books in her genre because of the specific font she uses for her name, which is always positioned at the top of her cover over the title.

The success of an e-book is dependent on its ability to hook a reader from the search page. Credibility is no longer sought through reviews or a clever synopsis, but the aesthetics of a book cover. With the increasing focus on visual content in shortform media, e-books have no choice but to adapt.

From Fanfiction to Film: How Wattpad is Ushering in A New Age of Writing

Wattpad is an online community of authors and readers that hosts stories from typically unpublished authors. The site is unique in combining social media and a reading platform, which allows readers to interact with the books and the author. Wattpad was founded in 2006 by Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen as an e-reading platform where “readers could download an app to read and chat about fiction shared by professional and aspiring writers from around the world.” According to Lau, being mobile was the top priority. This mobility allowed for interaction on the site to skyrocket. Wattpad appeals to up-and-coming writers who wanted to distribute their work without going through a publishing process. 

Writers typically release the book a chapter at a time and readers can make in-line comments on stories, allowing the writer to adjust the book to the reader’s preferences. Wattpad readers are primarily young people who were drawn to the appeal of free books written by their peers instead of older, more established authors. Many of these young authors became success stories through the constructive criticism and praise they received from their fans.

Anna Todd and Happily Ever After

Wattpad has been a powerhouse for undiscovered authors in the past few years. Anna Todd’s After began as a Harry Styles fanfiction in 2013. Written under the name @imaginator1D, After became an almost overnight success, with the fanbase reaching the hundreds of thousands. Todd wrote the majority of After on her phone, with no outlining or proofreading before she uploaded the chapter to Wattpad. While some may dislike the lack of outline, Todd and her fans equally enjoyed the “social writing” model. Todd would listen to her fans’ feedback and adjust the story to their preferences in real time. Not only did Todd’s fanbase grow, but the relationship between the fan and the author grew as well. Readers felt like they had a say in the story, which increased their loyalty to the author, as well as their willingness to offer financial support. 

With the help of Wattpad, Anna Todd received a book deal with Simon and Schuster in 2014, just one year after she published her first chapter on Wattpad. After was also granted a movie in 2019, with three sequels to follow. Todd’s story is a testament to the power that her fans and Wattpad hold. The first movie currently holds an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, though fans give it a significantly better rating of 66%.

Wattpad to Movie Pipeline

Though Todd’s story is one of the most notable, it is far from the only success story that has come from Wattpad. At seventeen, Beth Reekles became the youngest Wattpad writer to score a book deal for her story, The Kissing Booth. Reekle later went on to earn a movie deal with Netflix, though that movie also did poorly on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite the abysmal critic reviews, The Kissing Booth garnered immense fan support. According to Sara Perez, this disconnect is due to the “built in audience” of Wattpad users. 

Readers don’t just read and watch these stories, they create them. Wattpad utilizes the fan base when adapting stories for film. In an article for Quartz, Adam Epstein discusses Wattpad’s story-to-film process. The fans are integral to the adaptation process, with some “superfans” gaining access to the script to provide feedback before the film hits the box office. This process seems to work well. Epstein writes,

Most books come with a built-in audience, but this one comes with a built-in audience that’s also invested in the development process itself. It not only makes them more inclined to watch the show when it comes out, but leads them to become evangelists for the project on social media, which helps build buzz. 

Adam Epstein, Quartz

Wattpad is unique in that its user base not only reads and shapes the stories on its platform, but also the way the stories transition off the platform. 

Story DNA

According to Aron Levitz, the fans’ engagement is part of the “microtrend,” which allows Wattpad to know what will sell based on the size of the fanbase and reader engagement. Macrotrends are made possible by Story DNA. Story DNA is Wattpad’s deep-learning AI technology, which, according to Ashleigh Gardener, “deconstructs stories into their elemental features, such as sentence structure, word use, and grammar,” This gives Wattpad further insight into what makes a story popular outside of comments, likes, and shares. As a result, up-and-coming stories are given a greater chance at being discovered and transitioning off of Wattpad. The development of this technology is leading to a future of reading that is not just consumed by the reader but also formed by them.

Wattpad is unique in the fact that it is constantly reinventing itself to the benefit of its writers and readers. Wattpad has adapted from merely presenting stories to publishing them and promoting them outside of the digital platform. Wattpad not only publishes for fans but with the fans. The future of reading is driven by the reader, not the author or publisher. 

AI Writing, Self-Publishing, and the Culture of Instant Gratification

The digital age has ushered in a culture of instant gratification, where people expect to get what they want when they want it. This is especially true with the advent of AI writing and self-publication tools that make it easier than ever for anyone to become an author or content creator almost overnight. But while these new technologies have made creating and sharing content faster, there are some potential drawbacks as well.

The traditional process of publication is a lengthy one. The process from submission to publication can take an average of nine to eighteen months, or even upwards of two years. This time excludes the writing and editing process, which, depending on the book, can add months or years. In the age of instant everything, that is simply unacceptable.

Enter Self-Publication

Self-publication has gone through many evolutions in the digital age, with each iteration becoming more accessible to the public. Desktop Publishing, was introduced in the 1970’s with the adoption of word processing software. Though this form of self-publication was easily accessible by the masses, it was still costly. “Print on demand” revolutionized the self-publishing world. Publishers were no longer responsible for mass printing costs, inventory, and distribution, which further opened the world of self-publication to the public. The blog era allowed authors to reach the masses and publish their works via PDF, with even Stephen King joining in.

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing was introduced in 2007 to “democratize” the publishing industry. Amazon made it easier than ever to self-publish a book and offered authors 70% of royalties and has since grown to offer more incentives and opportunities to authors. In 2011, authors who gave full digital rights to Kindle were offered KDP Select. KDP Select members exclusively received a higher percentage of royalties and promotional tools.  Amazon expanded KDP again in 2016 to include print publishing and has added options for hardcover and lower-cost color printing in the following years. Amazon adapted to the bite-sized market and introduced Kindle Vella in 2021, allowing authors to publish “serial” style stories.

Self-publication and all of its advancements have reduced publishing time from a year and a half to five minutes. It makes sense that the writing process is next on the proverbial chopping block.

Instant Gratification and Independent Authors

In the age of instant gratification, authors are racing against the clock to produce content before readers move on to another writer. Jennifer Lepp, a self-published “cozy paranormal mystery” writer, gets about four months to produce a new work. That deadline is doable, barring any creative setbacks. When those setbacks do happen, it could be catastrophic for reader engagement. Enter AI, specifically Sudowrite in Lepp’s case. Sudowrite is an AI writing tool specifically geared to creative writers. Before we ask if we should use AI, we should understand what it is.

AI Writing

AI has gained increasing notoriety in the past few years by tackling everything from editing and proof-reading to content creation in a few minutes. Most AI geared towards writing has been trained with GPT-3, a program specializing in text completion. This AI program can “understand and generate natural language.” Proofreading, editing, and even writing can be given to most AI software with relative ease. In fact, the introduction paragraph to this article was written by Jasper, an AI program commonly used for text generation. AI is incredibly useful in writing shorter bits of text and it saves writers a ton of time, which is necessary in today’s fast-paced world that demands new content at all times.

The ethical question of AI writing

Just because something is useful does not mean it should be used. The ethical dilemma of AI writing is one that has hounded its users since its inception. In an interview with The Verge, Jennifer Lepp expanded on the ethical dilemma of using AI tools that the writing community is facing. Questions concerning authenticity and intellectual ownership are at the forefront of these debates.

Many authors fear that their work will no longer be original if they allow an AI to write for them. The Author’s Guild argues that human art and literature is advanced by individual experiences, and that AI works will stagnate without human input. AI learns from other people’s work on the internet and compiles that knowledge to generate new work. It could be argued that the writing is plagiarized because it is informed by other author’s works without giving them credit; however, every piece of media informs and is informed by other pieces of media. True originality is not possible, especially in a society that is so digitally connected.

Another concern with AI writing is ownership of the piece. Should the AI program be listed as the author? According to US copywrite laws, no, and others agree. The Alliance of Independent Authors added a new clause to their code of standards regarding AI. The code calls for the author to edit the generated text and ensure that it is not “discriminatory, libellous, an infringement of copyright or otherwise illegal or illicit.” The responsibility of legal compliancy falls on the author, not the AI.

Some writers fear that the AI will take over their writing. In a Plagiarism Today article, Jonathan Bailey goes as far as to say that writers are completely powerless when using an AI. Jennifer Lepp certainly experienced this power imbalance in her writing. She would give Sudowrite an outline, press expand, and keep feeding the algorithm until it spat out a finished product. This process led to a disconnect between herself and the stories she was creating. Now, Lepp offloads certain details to the AI, like the description for a hospital lobby. With her current system, she is still seeing an uptick in productivity while still being much more connected to her work.

The integration of AI is unavoidable if self-published authors are going to keep up with the demand of readers steeped in a culture of instant gratification. Though there should be self-imposed limits to the use of AI, authors should not avoid using it entirely. It is the responsibility of the author to inject the humanity into the writing.

What Publishers Can Do to Increase Learning in Digital Textbooks

Focus, comprehension, and critical thinking are shallower when one is reading on a digital device rather than on paper. An Insider article with Patricia Alexander and Lauren Singer showed that reading is faster on a device than on paper. Most people tend to skim through the text in order to find the “answer” rather than closely reading the text.

Despite the overwhelming evidence in favor of print books, we live in a digital age. Many students use free, or even illegal sites to get their textbooks because of the rising costs of education. While e-textbooks are significantly cheaper, that price cut simply cannot compare to a free resource when the student is getting the same experience. Digital textbooks must go beyond simply offering the text and give students an immersive and intuitive approach to learning that has adapted to the digital world.

Limit amount of text on a page

One of the biggest obstacles to close reading in a digital format is text overload, especially when it is formatted as a big block of text. Something that gives digital textbooks an edge over sites like Project Gutenberg is the ability to break up text. Project Gutenberg is popular among students for its free and legal access to many required readings; however, the site is clunky and the HTML format means that the student is forced to read through a wall of text.

Scrolling

Scrolling is one of the worst things a student can do when trying to read online. Even if the student has put away their phone, scrolling through their required reading is one of the biggest distractions for a student. In a study done by Pablo Delgado, Cristina Vargas, Rakefet Ackerman, and Ladislao Salmeron, “scrolling may add a cognitive load to the reading task by making spatial orientation to the text more difficult for readers than learning from printed text.” The mind diverts attention that could be used for comprehension to tracking the text as the reader scrolls, telling the finger to scroll, and when to stop scrolling.

Length

If scrolling is bad, how do publishers fit all the information on the page? Well, they don’t. The best way to help a reader digest information is to limit the amount of information on the page. According to Laura Singer, any more than 500 words on a digital “page” will overload the reader and impact comprehension. You eliminate text overload by fitting a section to a page. This also carries the added benefit of geospatial recognition that is similar to print books.

Headings

The physicality of print books is something that has been increasingly hard to replicate on the digital scale. The geographical place of text within a codex is a key point in how students remember details and it is extremely difficult to digitally replicate. This is where headings come in. Headings and subheadings help to position the reader in the text and break up the text into easier-to-digest sections.

Remove Distractions

The biggest edge that print books have over digital books is their lack of distractions. Many digital textbooks must be accessed online, which requires the student to navigate to a search engine, type in the name of the publisher, log in, and access the textbook. Not only does this limit study time to times where the student has access to the internet, but there are so many opportunities for students to get distracted. It would be easier for students to access their text through an app that allows offline access.

The use of flashy colors and animations can succeed at grabbing a student’s focus, but they can also steal attention away from the material. This is the same concept as scrolling. When the brain has to take in any kind of movement and read a text, comprehension is going to be compromised.

Offer Customizations

The largest benefit over both print books and free websites is customization. The ability to customize the textual space goes beyond aesthetics. Accessibility is easiest in the digital format, where one can quickly change between fonts, colors, and text size. A student with dyslexia can change to a font that better supports reading. A visually challenged student, or a student that learns better through auditory input, can use a text-to-speech feature.

The ability to take notes in the margins is an important part of gaining a deeper understanding of the text; however digital textbooks are unable to provide comparable in-text note taking features. The options are so abysmal that the UNC Learning Center suggests creating a word document for each individual chapter, or writing notes out on a separate sheet of paper. These options take away valuable time and focus from comprehending the text. Furthermore, these options will quickly become bloated and confusing. Publishers must develop an in-text note taking and annotation system in order to have an edge over print books and free resources.

There are benefits and drawbacks to every type of textbook, but the purpose behind every one of them is the same: To help students learn. Education is rapidly moving towards a digital model and students demand textbooks that can keep up.