When does AI support a writer’s judgment, and when does it replace it?
Manuel Gonzalez Velasco · Scholarly home
The Rhetoric Diaries
Writing, Technology, Pedagogy, and the Politics of Belonging
PhD student in English · Rhetoric and Writing Studies · Wayne State University
start with the human questionWriting does more than communicate ideas. It teaches people what kinds of writers, students, and scholars they are allowed to become.
I study how generative AI, academic writing expectations, digital technologies, and institutional practices shape authorship, rhetorical judgment, student confidence, linguistic identity, and belonging in higher education.
Lines of inquiry
Questions Guiding My Work
The projects differ in object and method, but return to a shared question: how do technologies, institutions, and cultural expectations shape who people believe they must become in order to write, learn, and belong?
What happens when students use AI to sound as though they belong?
How do academic institutions define legitimate writing?
Why might polished language conceal weakened authorship?
How can instructors design AI use that strengthens rather than bypasses learning?
What does academic culture teach students to perform as intelligence?
Connected inquiries
Featured Projects
From Ghostwriter to Co-Author: AI as Sponsor of (il)Literacy
Examines how generative AI can sponsor literacy or illiteracy by contrasting invisible delegation with visible, bounded collaboration that preserves writerly judgment, agency, and accountability.
- Related work
- RGC Framework · DRC essay · EMU presentation · manuscript in development
Rhetorically Governed Co-Authoring (RGC)
A three-phase framework—Anchor, Field, and Filter—for structuring AI-assisted writing so that purpose, boundaries, comparison, selection, attribution, and reflection remain visible and human-governed.
- Related work
- Framework overview · workshop materials · classroom protocols
English Insecurity and AI-Assisted Writing
Investigates how multilingual writers use AI feedback and linguistic polishing to negotiate legitimacy, professionalism, shame, and the pressure to sound as though they belong.
- Related work
- Two named proposals · ethical framework · public scholarship
Dark Academia as a Literacy Identity System
Examines Dark Academia not merely as an aesthetic but as a cultural script that shapes how students perform study, discipline, intelligence, labor, burnout, and scholarly legitimacy.
- Related work
- Article project · concept map · genre analysis · research notes
“Ponte Las Pilas” and First-Generation Shame Rhetorics
Examines how culturally familiar messages about effort can combine encouragement, care, obligation, warning, and shame in the educational lives of first-generation, immigrant, and multilingual students.
- Related work
- Ethical framework · research questions · bilingual methods planning
Scaffolding Rhetorical Judgment in Composition
Examines how assignment sequences and visible intellectual checkpoints help students make, articulate, and reflect on rhetorical decisions throughout the writing process.
- Related work
- Assignment sequences · classroom materials · AI-literacy activities
Research in practice
Interactive teaching projects
Two private review environments translate my research and pedagogy into usable tools for writers and instructors.
The Co-Authoring Lab
Student and instructor workflows for Anchor, Field, and Filter—keeping rhetorical purpose, comparison, revision, attribution, and reflection visible.
Open the Lab ↗Scaffold Studio
Complete editable assignment sequences, checkpoint maps, feedback planning, AI boundaries, accessibility review, and student-facing exports.
Open the Studio ↗Another register of inquiry
Creative Work
Poetry, fiction, and children’s literature exploring memory, identity, competing narratives, and belonging.
Updated August 2026
Work in motion, not a productivity report.
Qualifying-examination work across writing pedagogy, digital literacy, and writing with AI
English insecurity and the ghostwriter/co-author project
Visible checkpoints for judgment, revision, reflection, and transfer
Private teaching environments and carefully reviewed public scholarship
Public-facing scholarship
Writing and media
Accessible work that translates scholarly questions without reducing their complexity.
From Ghostwriter to Co-Author-in-the-Loop
Public scholarship on making AI’s writing labor visible.
The Rhetoric Diaries
The video and public-media counterpart to this scholarly portfolio.