Values, Ethics and IPR Written Report: ChatGPT Essay Commentary and Research Essay (Information Studies), Singapore

This individual written assignment for an information studies course turns ChatGPT into an object of critique. You pick a lecture topic, such as values, ethics or intellectual property rights, ask ChatGPT to write an essay on it, write a 1,000-word commentary on that output, and then produce your own researched essay of 2,000–3,000 words that goes beyond what the AI generated.

The Written Assignment

The written assignment gives you a chance to explore one topic in far more detail than is possible in the lectures. Choose one of the lecture topics and from it develop a question that you would like to have answered or a problem that you want to explore. Research the answer(s) to your question using a variety of peer-reviewed journal articles and books (for topics such as those discussed in this course, books are an essential resource). Write an essay that explains why you chose the question you did and provides an intelligent overview of the answer.

ChatGPT Component

Rather than banning AI, the course builds it into the written assignment so that information professionals understand how ChatGPT works (and does not work).

1. Examine the writing assignment and compose a query asking ChatGPT to generate an essay on your selected topic.
2. Write a 1,000-word commentary on the essay the AI produces. You may note the accuracy of the piece, the nature of the references the AI uses, gaps and omissions in the work and anything else that strikes you as important (a rubric for improvement is provided). Use your critical and imaginative faculties and show evidence of your own thought.
3. Write your own essay of 2,000 to 3,000 words. Use the ChatGPT output as a foundation for your work and go beyond what it provides. You cannot copy and paste the ChatGPT text, which would be plagiarism; rewrite in your own words and extend the ideas beyond what the AI has produced.

Suggested Essay Structures

• Comparative: take two phenomena and compare and contrast them systematically using your sources.
• Interrogative: ask a question about a phenomenon and use your sources to provide a coherent, logical answer, staying on target and avoiding extraneous detail.