Writing: students draft, a coach advises
A writing activity puts a student’s own text at the centre. The student writes in an editor on one side of the screen, and an AI writing coach sits on the other side, reads the draft, and gives feedback. The student does all the writing; the coach helps them make it better.
Think of an essay, a formal letter, a report, or any text students should produce themselves. Instead of handing in a first draft and waiting days for comments, they get feedback the moment they ask for it, while they can still act on it.
The coach reads, it never writes
Section titled “The coach reads, it never writes”The coach can look at the student’s current draft whenever it gives feedback, but it has no way to change the text. That is built into the activity, not just a polite instruction: even if a student begs the coach to write the letter for them, it cannot type a single word into the editor. The student stays the author of every sentence.
Good coaching instructions lean into that boundary. Tell the coach to point at what works and what doesn’t, explain why, and end with a concrete next step or a guiding question, rather than offering finished sentences to copy.
What students experience
Section titled “What students experience”Students open the activity and see a split screen:
- On one side, their draft. A plain text editor where they write, with simple formatting (Markdown). It can start blank, or with a scaffold you provide.
- On the other side, the coach. A chat where they ask for feedback whenever they like: on the whole draft, on one paragraph, or on a specific worry (“is my tone polite enough?”).
Students move back and forth: write a bit, ask for feedback, revise, ask again. When they’re happy with the text, they press Save and their finished version is stored so you can review it later. Each student saves one text per activity, and saving again replaces their earlier version.
How you shape a writing activity
Section titled “How you shape a writing activity”You define three things in your own words:
- The task. What the students should write, for whom, and how long. This is the assignment text students read before they start, so write it for them.
- How the coach helps. Instructions that shape the coach’s behaviour: what to prioritise in feedback, how to talk to the student, and the rule that matters most, advise rather than rewrite. For example, a coach for a formal feedback letter can be told to weigh tone and register most heavily, lead with what works, and raise only one or two improvements at a time.
- An optional starter scaffold. Text that is already in the editor when the student arrives. A formal-letter skeleton with a hint in each paragraph gives structure to students who freeze in front of a blank page; leave it empty for a free start.
Because the coach follows a written prompt, you adjust it the same way you adjust a tutor: if the feedback is too generous or too detailed, you reword the instructions and try again. No programming, no model training.
One difference from tutors and quizzes is worth knowing early: a writing activity records who wrote which text by default, because saving a text needs an author you can review. So writing is per-user unless you deliberately switch it off, and switching it off also disables saving. The details live in the sharing chapters.
When writing is the right choice
Section titled “When writing is the right choice”Pick a writing activity when the goal is a text of the student’s own, with guidance available beside it: essays, letters, summaries, reports, reflections. It works well whenever you’d normally collect drafts and comment on them by hand.
A writing activity doesn’t grade anything; when you want set questions with graded feedback, build a quiz. And it isn’t open conversation; when students just need to talk a topic through, build a tutor.