A proposed six-step human-AI hybrid argumentative writing framework in higher education: Enhancing students' prompt engineering techniques and critical thinking skills

This chapter reports a generative AI (GenAI)-supported short-term IELTS writing course for Chinese university students. A six-step human-AI hybrid argumentative writing framework was proposed to guide the course and enhance students' prompting skills, including the steps of claim, structure, arguments and counterarguments, credibility and reliability, extend arguments, and revisions. An I-A-I (Initial-Assisted-Independent) approach was adopted to facilitate students' critical thinking skills and the independent analysis of the content generated by GenAI. Ten students participated in the course, submitted their pre- and post-writing samples, and accepted the interviews. T-tests on participants' writing samples showed that they performed significantly better in IELTS academic writing, proposing main claims, and organising the structure of the essay. The interview data further revealed that the course helped participants structure their essay, provide evidence for arguments, and revise their essay independently. The results underscored two crucial components of AI literacy in using ChatGPT for academic writing, including the prompt skills to ensure the synergistic interactions with GenAI, and the critical thinking skills to critically assess the responses of ChatGPT. In summary, the chapter provides theoretical contributions and pedagogical implications on the application of GenAI for university students to enhance their academic writing abilities and equip them with the literacy of using GenAI for academic writing. Copyright © 2025 Yang Yin and Yan Jiahao.