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Writing Assignment II

Assignment 2: Due at 12 noon, Monday April 28, 2025

For your second writing assignment, please write at least nine but no more than 12 pages (2250-3000 words) in response any optional paper in the syllabus relating to AI, so long as the paper is (1) marked with an asterisk (*) AND (2) appears in [UPDATE] readings for Class 15 or higher– but not one for which you were a panelist.  Please note that I will fail any paper that is not a clear response to a reading marked with a (*).

Your response paper must accomplish at least one of two things:

  1. Take an idea in the article and apply it to something AI (or robot-and-AI) related but outside the article’s scope in order to show how the article applies well there as well, AND/OR
  2. Explain a flaw in the paper’s argument,
    1. usually as lacking either
      1. some important fact or perspective (perhaps found in a different article?), or
      2. making a clearly false assumption.
    2. Note, however that you should
      1. Attack ideas, not people.
      2. Recognize that your opponent isn’t stupid, misguided, or out of touch. He or she simply hasn’t weighed your position sufficiently.

Do not do this:

  1. Do little more than repeat the paper’s arguments, or repeat explicit critique found in another assigned (not optional) paper, or
  2. Substantially repeat class lecture or discussion without adding a significant new idea

In other words, better papers will:

  1. Demonstrate you understand the paper you are discussing, and have given the issue some thought before you started writing, and
  2. Of critical importance, do something original — at least in the sense of going beyond the materials provided to you in the required readings and in class — with the material in the paper

Papers are due at 12 noon, Monday April 28, 2025. I will entertain advance requests for extensions in unusual circumstances; post-deadline extensions will be granted only for medical or family emergencies or other unforeseeable calamities.

General guidance

Please pay careful attention to my “legal writing tips” (but skip the portion of Part 1 on “Picking a Topic” as that applies to longer papers, and skip the section on naming files). Treat the ‘tips’ as “requirements” – except that I’ll only require a good faith attempt at blue booking; you won’t be graded on picky stuff like type faces if you get it wrong (but please try anyway).  I will, however, downgrade any paper without page numbers, and reserve the right to downgrade one step for every three passives found in the paper.  [Yes, that is an example of a passive; active versions would be, “every three passives that I find in the paper” or “every three passives that you put in the paper”.]

Please don’t forget to make clear in your first paragraph what reading you are responding to, and what the key point of your claim is.

Attach a statement on a separate page a the end describing in some detail (e.g. prompts) what use you made of AI writing tools including chatbots.  Include a statement even if you did not use one at all.  This statement will not alter your grade unless is is absent or there is strong evidence it is inaccurate.  The statement will not count to the word/page limit.

Additional Requirement

Attach a statement on a separate page a the end describing in some detail (e.g. prompts) what use you made of AI writing tools including chatbots.  Include a statement even if you did not use one at all.  This statement will not alter your grade unless is is absent or there is strong evidence it is inaccurate.

If you are using any significant amount of AI-generated text, please identify what it is and what prompt you used.

Do feel free not to use an AI at all!  But if you do, please walk me through what you did and whether and how it was useful (or not).

This statement will not count towards the word/page limit.

How to Turn in Your Paper

Please create a Word file containing your text that does not have your name in any of these places:

  • in the filename (including the title page)
  • nor on the file
  • nor in the file metadata. Information on removing metadata can be found here and here and with the assistance of your friendly internet search engine.

Please include your finals AGN on the paper. Email that file to my assistant, Caitlyn Rose Campana <crcampana@law.miami.edu>, who will launder it of any remaining identifying marks in the filename and send it on to me for anonymous assessment.

Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the above.