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“You can learn to be a better writer in English – with or without AI”, says Joe Lennon from the MUNI Language Centre
Read an inspirational interview with Dr. Joe Lennon about how he teaches the course Advanced English for PhD Studies at SCI MUNI and how he coordinates the Masaryk University Writing Lab, helping students make a greater impact with their academic writing.
Joe Lennon, Ph.D.
Assistant professor, Language Centre Faculty of Social Studies Division
Joe Lennon is Assistant Professor at the MUNI Language Centre, and coordinator of the MUNI Writing Lab. He has taught academic English and writing on four continents over the last 23 years. His academic work includes a recent article in the journal Humanizing Language Teaching. This year, he is running a series of free public workshops in creative writing through Comedius.
Photo: Hana Poledníková
First of all, tell us a bit about yourself, Joe. Where are you from? And what brought you to Brno and Masaryk?
Haha, those are always the first two questions my students ask me. I’m originally from the United States – Atlanta, Georgia, to be exact – but I’ve lived in Brno for over a decade now, and I’ve been teaching academic English and writing at the Masaryk University Language Centre since 2016.
To be honest, when I first came to Brno, I knew almost nothing about the Czech Republic (except that it has a cool-looking flag), and I had no compelling reason for coming specifically to Brno – I just wanted to live in Europe and teach English. But from my first year in the city, I started to pile up plenty of reasons to stay and make a life here. I like the relaxed pace of life and the café culture. I like the dry, dark Czech sense of humor. And yes, even though it’s a cliché – and as a writing teacher, I hate clichés – I love Czech beer.
That’s a good segue to the main thing I wanted to talk to you about – how you teach writing at Masaryk. What courses do you offer, and what specific skills or knowledge do you focus on in your classes?
I teach a few different courses on academic writing and communication, and with all my courses, I’d say my main goal is to make students feel more confident that they can learn to write well in English – that good writing is not a great mystery, it’s something everyone can learn to do better. If students come away from the classes remembering a few specific techniques and mental tools for better communication, then I’ve done my job.
This semester I’m especially excited about the course JAD01: Advanced English for PhD Studies, which is designed for doctoral students at the Faculty of Science. The course theme will be “Better scientific writing – with and without AI.” AI-assisted writing is becoming more prevalent in academia, so I think it’s important for language teachers to address the issue head on. I think AI can be both a help and a hinderance to good communication, so we’re going to explore both possibilities.
Can you say more about your attitude toward AI in academic writing? In what ways do you think it’s a help, and in what ways a hinderance?
On one hand, I’ve seen AIs do some amazing things with language. But if you actually read the texts they produce, they tend to be shallow and superficial, not surprising or stimulating, as good writing should be. So I’m still a big skeptic on how useful AI can be for producing meaningful academic writing.
Of course, like any good scientist, I want to test and challenge my own doubts! So in the class, we’ll practice some structures and methods for more efficient and meaningful writing that can be easily learned and used by human writers. And then we’ll use these “wetware” tools alongside computer tools such as ChatGPT, to explore how, when, and where the AIs might be helpful for improving our scientific writing and thinking.
So far, I’ve seen that AI can be useful, in limited ways, for certain stages in the writing process. But it’s crucial for student writers to experience what they can do with language, using their own brains, before they can fairly evaluate the power and limitations of AI.
And I try to show them that they can do a whole lot! That they don’t need AI to take enormous leaps in their writing ability in a very short time. I’ve seen students make huge breakthroughs in their communication skills in just 10 minutes of focused conversation about their writing.
So, knowing that, do you try to create space in your classes for that kind of conversation?
Absolutely. In my courses for PhD students, most of the class is spent sharing and talking about the students’ work. It’s important that students at the PhD level get lots of feedback, not just from me, but also from their peers (who usually know much more than I do about the actual content of their writing!)
My job, as I see it, is to guide that conversation, not to dominate it. It would be unproductive for me to swoop down onto the students’ work with my red correction pen, and tell them what’s wrong and what’s right and what to change. Instead, I try to suggest alternatives the writer may not have thought of, and then ask the class what they think about the pros and cons of presenting their work in one way or another.
I’m curious – what kinds of suggestions do you find yourself making most often? In general, is there anything you think Masaryk students should do more or less of in their writing?
Beginning academic writers tend to write about their work as if it’s in a vacuum. They say, “Here’s what was done, and here’s what was found,” without giving a clear context or justification for what they did. So what I encourage my students to do – especially in the abstract, the intro, and the conclusion of their papers – is to be much more explicit about WHY they did what they did. To give more of the background and reasoning behind their decisions.
And, as I said earlier, there are “mental tools” – typical structures and language – that can help writers do this more quickly and easily. For example, I love teaching the “CARS” model for writing an academic introduction, developed by John Swales. CARS stands for “Creating a Research Space – and this is exactly what good academic writers do; they create a space for their research. They know how to emphasize their unique contribution to the field, and be specific about it. And this, by the way, is one thing that AI is not very good at!
Well, it sounds like both you and the students will learn a lot this term. Besides the JAD01 course, are there other ways students can interact with you and get writing advice?
Yep! I offer free writing consultations for anyone at the university – students, staff, or faculty members – through the MUNI Writing Lab.
If you’re working on any kind of writing project in English, you can make an appointment to meet with me, in person or online. When we meet, you’ll share your work, and I’ll help you generate some ideas for making it stronger.
Here’s a link to the Writing Lab website if you want to know more: https://writinglab.cjv.muni.cz/
And if you want something a bit more in-depth than a single meeting, but can’t attend weekly classes, then you might consider the new course CST: NPO_WL Better Academic Writing in English. This course is aimed at academics and graduate students, and consists of some self-study videos and handouts that I’ve made over the last few years in response to issues and questions that keep coming up in my writing classes.
Sounds great! Thanks, Joe – and maybe I’ll see you soon in the Writing Lab.
I’d be very happy to see you there!
