Paraphrasing ChatGPT Answers as a Tool to Enhance University Students’ Academic Writing Skills

This paper summarizes a study which aimed at investigating the use of paraphrasing ChatGPT answers as a tool to enhance university students’ academic writing skills, task focus, language, accuracy and appropriateness. A two-group quasi experimental research design was used, and the tools of the study included a rubric-based writing test and several recorded interviews. Participants of the study consisted of two samples of 68 university students, divided into two groups, experimental and control. The experimental group experimented a program of asking and paraphrasing ChatGPT answers for about three months while the control group practiced the ordinary procedures of conventional learning. The program addressed the use of ChatGPT providing paraphrased answers through a course in academic writing skills. Writing as a productive skill can be supported through external inputs driven by ChatGPT where students were required to show a great regard of synthetic sub skills and utterances. The two groups were given pre-posttests in academic writing skills. Results revealed that a program in paraphrasing ChatGPT contributed to enhancing university students’ academic writing skills. A set of recommendations and suggestions for further studies has been presented.