Barclay Barrios | First-Year Writing in the Age of AI

Barclay Barrios

Barclay Barrios sees first-year writing as a barometer for the larger state of education—and the stakes have never been higher. In the age of ChatGPT, deepfakes, and digital overwhelm, students arrive at college navigating a landscape where meaning is automated and truth feels fractured. For Barrios, that’s precisely why writing instruction must evolve—urgently and intentionally.

He doesn’t frame AI as the enemy. Instead, he treats it as a context students must understand. Assignments are redesigned to emphasize reflection, collaboration, and student voice—elements AI can’t convincingly fake. Rather than trying to out-code the machines, Barrios challenges students to write from complexity. The emphasis shifts from correctness to consciousness.

This approach means centering writing as a civic act. Barrios encourages students to engage with real questions—What does it mean to speak for yourself? How does language shape power? What role does audience play when the audience might be an algorithm? These are the inquiries driving his classroom—not generic prompts or artificial constraints.

He also highlights the need to reframe how institutions define success. First-year composition isn’t a gatekeeping mechanism; it’s a launching point. When students are trusted to take intellectual risks, they rise to the occasion. And when assignments mirror the world they’re trying to write into, students don’t just learn how to write—they learn why.

For Barrios, this is the core of the work. Teaching writing shouldn’t be a myopic exercise in preventing plagiarism. It should be about cultivating perspective. And in an era defined by speed and division, that’s the kind of literacy students can’t afford to miss.