AI for Research Writing
Setting you up with AI skills to move your research forward, without losing your expertise or your passion.
This course is designed for scholars at every stage, from undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral scholars and faculty, who want to write high-quality, well-researched papers for publication in English. This course introduces AI tools built specifically for the demands of academic writing for which accuracy, reliability, and rigor matter most.
Throughout the course, you will learn practical, ethical strategies to:
Streamline your research, from brainstorming ideas to organizing sources and drafting research writing for academic courses and/or publication
Save time on research writing tasks like finding rigorous and relevant references, generating researchable research questions, and organizing outlines for your writing projects
Generate relevant, rigorous, and researchable research questions - and stay inspired by your topic through the process!
Put together a coherent, well-formatted, and appropriate outline for your research writing that will propel your writing forward
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AI for Research Writing
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Introduction to the course
This course is designed for scholars at every stage, from undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral scholars and faculty, who want to write high-quality, well-researched papers for publication in English. This course introduces AI tools built specifically for the demands of academic writing for which accuracy, reliability, and rigor matter most.
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Module 1: Why AI Matters for Research Writing
AI transforms academic research by streamlining literature reviews, expanding reference discovery, and revealing connections between studies. These tools help scholars work efficiently, sharpen focus, and gain fresh insights while exploring new topics. Understanding AI is essential for mentoring students who increasingly use these technologies. AI can amplify scholarly expertise and helping educators enhance productivity and support the next generation of academic writers.
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Module 2: Using AI as a research assistant (not a writer)
Searching for relevant literature is one of the earliest and most time-consuming steps in research. Instead of relying only on Google Scholar and institutional databases, integrating AI can speed initial searches and reveal scholarship you might miss. AI helps refine queries, connect related works, and—with effective prompts—generate extensive reference lists, boosting momentum and reducing the fatigue of early-stage research.
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Module 3 (part 1): Quality Control for AI as a Research Assistant
This module walks you through steps to verify when AI helps you build your research foundation. You’ll learn how to verify citations and sources, evaluate research questions generated with AI, and assess the quality and usefulness of AI generated outlines for your next research writing project.
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Module 3 (part 2): Quality Control for AI as Research Assistant
In this module, learn the AI-relevant strategies to help you validate your sources and ensure you’re using AI as a research assistant to write with you, not for you. Maintain your expertise and quality writing while using AI to propel your writing processes. Learn the steps you to verify the reliability, validity, research-ability, and quality of references, research questions, and outlines that you generate with the assistance of AI.
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Module 4: From research to outline: Putting AI tools together to support the whole research writing process
Using AI tools in combination with traditional writing tools helps to sequentially and seamlessly propel your writing project forward. In this module you’ll learn how to generate an outline collaboratively with AI tools. The outline you generate with these AI tools is your starting point to write from.
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Meet your Instructor
Marinka Swift, PhD
I am Marinka Swift - PhD in Linguistics. My career has been focused on higher education, research development, second language learning and teaching, and curriculum design. I design courses and professional training for educators and researchers that are also suitable for supporting English language development. I received my research training from a top tier R1 university in California. I have designed curricula for R1 university programs and international scholar programs. My passion is working with educators and institutions to increase educational opportunities and outcomes.
I speak English, Italian, and Spanish. I’ve worked with international scholars for over a decade. In the past few years, scholars I work with have asked me to design training for using AI for research and writing in English - so here we are! This course is the result of multiple iterations of the curriculum I’ve designed. I am passionate about supporting educators and researchers in growing their career, stretching their impact as researchers, and helping them to gain the language and teaching skills to be impactful both in and out of the classroom. I work with educators from many different disciplines and areas of study, teaching environments and institution types. I love what I do!
What you’ll learn
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You’re the expert - and you don’t want to lose your edge or your passion. You DO want to leverage all the tools available to stay relevant, competitive, and productive as a research writer and mentor. This course teaches you how to maintain balance in your research writing by using AI as a research assistant to write with you, not for you.
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Scholars keep their edge and get the most out of AI tools when they know how to check for accuracy and rigor without adding more time to your workload. In this course you’ll learn strategies to effectively and efficiently weed out inaccuracies, identify red flags in AI generated references and content, and catch inadequacies so you can feel confident that your AI research assistant is working with you, not for you or against you.
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Like many scholars, you probably have some serious deadlines on your calendar and legitimate writing goals. This course focuses on three reliable AI tools to help you go from idea to polished outline to really propel your writing forward. The purpose of any research assistant is to actually assist in reaching a project goal or deadline. These tools help you seamlessly and reliably generate relevant and rigorous research questions, filter through references and identify the most useful sources for your specific research writing project, and work with you to organize the breadth and depth of your research writing. All together, these tools work as your research assistant to help you make significant progress on your research writing.
Whether you’re learning these tools for your own writing, to mentor your students or junior faculty - or both - the skills you’ll learn throughout this 90-minute course are some of the most in-demand AI skills that will actually make a difference in your career and mentorship relationships.
Course FAQ
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This course is open to anyone who wants to learn about how to use AI tools to support research writing in English. However, those with at least an English level B1-B2 on the CEFR score will get the most out of this course.
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Yes! And you’re encouraged to go back to modules (lessons) at whatever pace suits you so you feel supported and confident through your next research writing project.
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Each lesson contains printable PDF guides to provide even more useful information about the AI tools discussed and demonstrated. The guides also include super detailed prompt libraries, researched and tailored specifically for research writing purposes.