An AI-Assisted Annotated BibliographyOn A Topic That Will Affect Your Future
Objective: To practice the model of "Human-in-the-Loop" workflow. You will use AI as a high-powered research assistant to find and summarize legal scholarship, but you will provide the critical synthesis, ethical grounding, and final legal "verdict" that AI cannot replicate.
Outcome: To create knowledge to serve you far beyond this course. You will use AI to research a current issue that directly affects your major or the field you hope to pursue, giving you an edge in interviews for internships and jobs in the future. Use this as a writing sample.
Life Skill: To show that you understand the idea of "co-intelligence." You will be demonstrating for future employers that you know the difference between "AI work slop" and work product that is enhanced by AI but is refined by your human judgment, values, and creativity. It's about "coachability." Can I coach you to do the job correctly with these tools?
Emotional Intelligence: To reflect on when to use AI and when not. You are not "cheating" every time you use AI. But this project will help you understand the "guardrails" that exist within an academic or workplace environment for when, how much, and for what tasks AI use is appropriate. You are building an ethical foundation.
Format: Title page, then 12 pt. Times New Roman double-spaced, uploaded to Blackboard as a Google Doc link with editing turned on.
Part 1: The Human Framework (Original Writing)
Note: This is a heavily weighted section of the project. 30%
Paragraph 1: The Voice Signature. Identify the legal or ethical problem that has prompted your research. Why does this matter to your specific major or chosen career path? Feel free to write in first-person. This should reflect your unique interests. AI cannot feel "worried" about or "excited" about a legal trend, but you can!
Paragraph 2: The Stakes. Why is this current? Cite and discuss at least one non-academic source (NYT, Wall Street Journal, etc.) to show how this legal/ethical issue is playing out in the real world right now. Could also be a government study, think tank report, etc. Include an embedded hyperlink to your source.
Paragraph 3: The Class Connection. You are not starting from scratch because you've learned a lot about legal principles related to your topic. Tie your issue back to what you've learned in class. Example: If you're researching violence in video games, what do you know about First Amendment protection for game designers? What Supreme Court case applies? (Answer from your notes.)
Paragraph 4: The Prompt Strategy. Describe the anticipated methodology of your research. What AI tools do you think you'll use (Consensus, Perplexity, Claude)? What are examples of prompts you might try to kick start your research?
Transition Sentence (you can use exactly): The following six articles were selected as the most representative of the current state of research on this topic.
Part 2: The Assisted Research (AI-Generated & Human-Verified)
Note: Please single-space this section only.
For each of the six (6) academic articles, provide:
The APA Citation: Put it in bold above each summary.
The Search: First, use traditional key-word searching in Google Scholar. Use the delimiters in the left-hand column to focus on current articles (last two years). Then use natural-language prompts in your chosen AI tool. Do NOT use ChatGPT or other general LLM's. Use AI agents tailored to academic searching, such as Scholar AI or Consensus AI.
The Summary: After you have downloaded your six articles, choose an AI tool to summarize them. Claude AI or MS Copilot are recommended. Practice prompting the AI tool to give you a 400-word summary divided logically into two paragraphs. You might also ask it to add a few bullet points to make the text more scannable. Copy and paste each summary into your document with the bolded citation atop each summary.
The Accuracy Audit: Under each summary, write a few sentences in italics about why this article is appropriate for your study. Is it a high-value source? Is it a leading scholar? Is it recent research? Is it readily available in PDF or HTML formats? Does the summary accurately reflect the article? (Read abstract and conclusion to answer this.)
Part 3: Discussion & Conclusions (Original Writing)
Note: This is a heavily weighted section of the project. 30%
Paragraphs 1-4: The Synthesis Matrix. Do not simply repeat the summaries. Instead, make the articles "talk" to each other.
Where do authors clash over problems and solutions? (e.g., "While Chintalapati argues for more regulation, Pandey suggests the market will self-correct.")
Where do authors show consensus? What concerns and/or solutions seemed to recur in the literature? (e.g., "All agreed that the FTC must tighten the rules.")
Paragraph 5: Your Conclusion: After studying what the scholars had to say, what do you think? How do you think this legal or ethical issue should be resolved in the future? Or how do you think society should approach this legal or ethical issue? Which one of the scholars you summarized most supports your view?
Note: Although academic writing does not ordinarily include first-person passages, in this assignment, you MUST bring in your perspectives and opinions in the Introduction and Conclusion sections. First-person writing is encouraged as evidence of your human participation in this project. AI can't really think.You can!
Part 4: AI Transparency Appendix
At the very end of your document, include a brief description of your work process and personal reflections:
Tools Used: After practicing keyword searching with Google Scholar, what AI tools did you use to practice natural-language prompting? Which yielded better results? Why?
Sample Prompts: Copy-paste two or more of your most successful prompts. The key to prompt writing is successive iterations. It's not about one and done. Be creative in writing and then re-writing the prompts. You should share at least two versions here.
Lessons Learned: How did this assignment deepen your knowledge of AI as a tool for academic research? For use in your chosen field? What advice would you give to other students about using AI responsibly in an academic setting? Or at work? What are humans better at?
Drafting Link: Submit your work via a Google Doc link with "Editor" access enabled. (I will use the Version History to verify the human-composed sections.)
Step-by-Step Success Guide
Step 1: Find six ACADEMIC articles (Law Reviews, Peer-Reviewed Journals). Use Google Scholar first, then experiment with AI tools such as Scholar AI or Consensus AI.
Step 2: Download the articles to your computer. AI summarizes better when it has a file.
Step 3: Use Claude.ai or ChatGPT or Copilot to summarize in 400 words. Ask the AI tool to organize the summary in two paragraphs. Ask for bullet points to make it scannable.
Step 4: READ the summaries. You cannot write the Synthesis section if you don't understand the "clash points" and “consensus points.” You must come to your own conclusions.
Step 5: Write your Intro and Discussion in the Google Doc. Avoid "Copy-Pasting" your own writing from other apps. Write it directly in the doc so the version history shows your thought process. Focus on the heavily weighted Introduction and Conclusion sections.
Step 6: Don’t skimp on the Transparency Audit. Be thoughtful and thorough. It’s an important part of your grade!
Component Weighting Rubric
Assignment Goal: To demonstrate the ability to use AI tools for legal research and summarizing while providing original, human-led synthesis and legal argumentation.