Amanda Rioux
Assignments & Activities Archive
Activity Description
This Business Communication in-class activity uses a sample case study in which an imaginary company had a public fallout, with the purpose of students developing and refining the skills needed to regain trust and goodwill amongst the company’s various stakeholders—both internally within the company itself, and externally amongst the general public. Students are first instructed to copy/paste the case study into various Large Language Models (of their own choosing) and encouraged to determine the effectiveness of the response, make observations on the language being used, and further antagonize the model with additional instructions to better tailor the message to sound more human-centric and less generic. In doing so, students make observations on the predictable language patterns and limitations of LLMs writing, thus debunking the myth that human writing no longer has inherent value if a machine is capable of mimicking it (Byrd et. al), especially when LLMs have their own inherent biases and a clear preference for human writing (Haverlas et. al). To better assess the LLM-generated output, students are encouraged to imagine themselves in the place of the differing audiences to understand their specific needs, values, and concerns, and determine how satisfied they are with the responses. The goal in the activity is to demonstrate to students that, despite what LLMs produce, they do not have to accept the results at face value and can still maintain agency and creative control of the process. Students learn how to better use such models ethically and responsibly for drafting academic assignments, understanding the role of rhetorical and audience awareness in public-facing writing while still maintaining agency.