Within a few decades, digital writing has changed literacy fundamentally. This impacts writing teachers, writing researchers, writing developers, writing centre practitioners, and, of course, students.

At the EATAW (European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing) conference 2023, the participants reflected and discussed the role of new technologies in the practice, teaching, and tutoring of writing. The pivotal theme for the conference was the development of word processing and its fusion with the internet which removes all established borders of text production and rearranges the contexts, workflows, and practices of writing. The cross-over from writing to thinking and learning was of prime interest for writing centres and writing programs in higher education.

Highlights between the engaged discussions in the different strands were three keynotes and a roundtable discussion:

• Writing & Emerging Technologies: Strategies for Innovation, Adaptation, and Resistance. Heidi McKee (Miami University)
• Are machines the better essay writers? Mark Cielibak (ZHAW)
• The changing role of academic writing technologies in the digital age: supporting and capturing the writing process. Kalliopi Benetos (Université de Genève) & Ann Devitt (Trinity College Dublin)
• Let us talk about Generative AI. Chris Anson (North Carolina State University), Alice Delorme (ZHAW), Lisa Ganobcsik-Williams (Coventry University), Cerstin Mahlow (ZHAW), Heidi McKee (Miami University)

Impressions of EATAW 2023

More information about the conference

EATAW 2023 was organised by:

Dr. Marlies Whitehouse, School of Applied Linguistics, ILC Institute of Language Competence
Dr. Christian Rapp, School of Management and Law, Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning
Elena Messerknecht, School of Applied Linguistics