AI-Enhanced Writing Support—myProse

What is it and how does it work?

myProse is an AI-enhanced online environment with a suite of tools supporting the writing process from initial-phase writing to the final draft. Built on research-based pedagogical principles, it enhances students' awareness of their composing choices (e.g., tone, organization, lines of argument) and how these choices relate to context and audience. Specific areas of focus include:

• Metacognitive awareness: Helps students understand their writing processes and composing choices, and how these choices are influenced by context and audience
• Genre and rhetorical knowledge: Develops understanding of discipline-specific writing conventions and reader expectations across different writing tasks
• Strategic writing process management: Supports higher-level planning and organization while reducing cognitive load during drafting
• Self-assessment and revision skills: Enables students to evaluate and improve their writing from multiple analytical perspectives

Transfer of writing knowledge: Builds understanding of underlying writing principles that students can apply across different contexts, disciplines, and future writing situations

Core features

Ideation—Instead of starting with a blank page, students using myProse are supported with a common outline and a set of reader expectations specific to a given writing task (e.g., proposals, literature reviews, etc.).

Drafting—myProse's notes-to-prose tool translates the writer's notes into prose without adding new ideas, reducing the cognitive load of sentence crafting and allowing writers to focus their attention on higher-level planning and organization.

Reviewing/Revising—myProse offers AI-based assessment tools featuring automated feedback and the interactive visualization of the writer's composing decisions. These tools allow students to evaluate their drafts from multiple perspectives. 

Benefits

Instructors in the disciplines can make myProse available to their students to draft and revise their text before submitting the final document. myProse can guide students on content and style choices through multiple drafts, much like a writing tutor. This built-in guidance allows instructors in the disciplines to focus on the substantive aspects of the writing assignment. 

Instructors of writing courses can utilize myProse in various learning activities both in and outside of the classroom. For example, myProse may be used as a guide for peer-review assignments or to demonstrate how model texts for specific assignments are written.

myProse also serves both disciplinary instructors and writing instructors as a tool for reviewing student writing.

Which skill(s) are targeted?

• Prepare coherent and clearly organized oral, written, and visual products based on purpose, genre, context, and audience.
• Develop independent processes for setting communication goals, seeking and incorporating feedback, and revising to improve effectiveness.

Who else has used it?

myProse has been piloted in 20+ courses, both writing courses and courses in the disciplines, across 10 universities.

At Carnegie Mellon, myProse has been piloted in several courses, including:

• 76270: Writing in the Professions
• 82184: Linguistic and Cultural Equity
• 67373: Information Systems Consulting Project
• 51705: Master of Design Thesis Prep.