International Writing Analytics Conference 2026
Keynote Speaker
Keynote Speaker
Professor Laura Aull
Laura Aull (PhD, University of Michigan) is Professor of English and Linguistics at the University of Michigan.
She is an internationally recognised scholar in writing studies and linguistics, known for her corpus-based research on stance, generality, and knowledge construction in academic writing. Her forthcoming book, AI English: Humans, Machines, and the Future of Writing (Cambridge University Press), examines linguistic patterns distinguishing human and AI-generated texts and explores their implications for writing pedagogy.
Her work offers a crucial foundation for moving beyond detection toward understanding how AI systems influence writing practices across educational and linguistic contexts.
Keynote Address: Patterns versus Errors in Academic Writing
This keynote suggests our contemporary moment of GenAI and global language variation offers a unique chance to shift from looking for errors to analyzing patterns in approaches to academic writing. To make this case, the keynote first outlines documented patterns in written academic English across developmental levels and discipline groups, and between Human and AI-generated writing. Then, it illustrates how a pattern-orientation allows us to: prioritize human connection and language diversity; make vague impressions about what sounds “smart” (or “human,” or “robotic”) more concrete; support critical AI literacy; and learn more about how language works.
