2025-8-23 Jenkins, Blog Post #1 - Topic Interests

One thing I have been interested in recently is the pros and cons of AI in technical writing. Specifically, the balance of taking advantage of it while still avoiding potential risks. Last semester, I took a class focused on AI, and spent a lot of time exploring what it can and can not do, and the extent of its usefulness in many different areas. I am currently in an editing internship, where I have to decide how best to manage the use of AI for myself and the writers I will be working with. I think it would be very helpful to do more research in this area in order to make the most of this new technology.

On a more theoretical note, however, I also love analyzing the rhetoric of marketing, particularly when it comes to color theory. I would love to do some research diving deeper into how different types of companies (or even multiple similar companies) use color or sound in their marketing to hook the consumer.

Also, on the topic of hooks, it would be really cool to research how news outlets (or even just random videos on YouTube) use hooks in their titles and thumbnails, and whether that rhetoric is actually implemented properly. For example, does the video actually deliver on its promises? Or is the hook merely rhetorical? 

These were some of the ideas I was playing with.

Comments

  1. EthanAugust 24, 2025 at 2:54 PM

    Hi, Arya — a most relevant topic you've picked!

    As I've said before, I tend to play with generative AI for mostly recreational and creative-writing purposes in my spare time. And while it may be useful for scholarship or academic pursuits (which I haven't really used it for), I like to play it safe and steer clear of that for anything that's high-stakes or could be construed as plagiarism. Fortunately, you seem to have much better discernment and intuition than I do, so I wish you the best on assessing AI's uses and/or drawbacks for technical-writing purposes (assuming you stick with that).

    Personally, your editing internship — and the fact you're free to employ AI there, even in a limited and judicious context — is an opportunity I have to envy. To your point about researching and making good use of AI, I'd say we're definitely still at the stage where the rules, guidelines, and best practices surrounding it are... still forming, to say the least. Obviously, direct copy-pasting and token cosmetic tweaks to something AI-generated are a no-no from the get-go, though as with fair use, the line between acceptable inspiration (with credit and attribution given, of course) and the beginnings of plagiarism can get blurry and risky to navigate.

    The other options on the table (rhetoric and use of color theory in marketing and striking hooks in TV and video content) seem equally interesting in their own right. I've intuited similar things from time to time, and while I don't have the vocabulary or framework to articulate them in long-form, I wish you the best with that if that's the route you take.

    Looking forward to what you come up, Arya. 🙂

    ReplyDelete
  2. Arya JenkinsAugust 28, 2025 at 8:31 AM

    Topic: Pros and Cons of AI in Technical Writing
    Research Goal: Find out how best to take advantage of it in everyday/technical writing tasks while avoiding potential risks (credibility, security, ethics)
    Questions: What are AI’s pros in technical writing? What are its cons? What aspects of AI can be used safely in the technical sphere without hurting credibility? What usages of AI are unacceptable?
    Type: Evaluative
    Methods: Lit Review, Personal Usability Test

    ReplyDelete

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