1. Jim McKinley is giving the next (online) seminar in UCL’s Academic Writing series at 16:00 UK time on 9^th April on Beyond polishing: Generative AI, academic voice, and the future of student writing. More info and registration here https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/events/2026/apr/beyond-polishing-generative-ai-academic-voice-and-future-student-writing

Generative AI is increasingly used to “polish” academic writing, but its influence may begin much earlier, shaping how writers construct voice, stance, and argument before editing even occurs. Drawing on a comparative study of Master’s-level student writing from 2019 and 2025 at a UK university, this seminar explores how AI-mediated writing practices are changing academic prose over time. The study shows that AI polishing consistently reduces hedging, removes self-mention, and shifts writing toward more categorical and impersonal styles. More significantly, recent student drafts already resemble AI-generated text before polishing takes place.

2. I mentioned NATESOL’s annual conference on Tuesday. Their next online event, Building foundations: Enhancing writing skills for low-level learners with Lesley Painter-Farrell, is also at 16:00 UK time next Thursday, 9^th April. You’ll have to choose! More info and registration here https://www.natesol.org/event-details/building-foundations-enhancing-writing-skills-in-low-level-learners

Supporting and developing students’ literacy skills requires teachers to implement a variety of approaches that are both top-down and bottom-up, and that embrace students where they are and what they bring to class. This means fostering an asset-based mindset that is inclusive and encouraging. The process of developing literacy skills is not easy. Teachers need to be adaptable and aware of the many tools they can use to help diverse students. In this presentation, we will initially explore the various challenges teachers face when developing literacy skills, including those encountered when working with students who have low literacy skills in their home languages.

3. An illustrated gift article from The New York Times by Pablo Robles & Agnes Chang describing some of the impact that is already being felt of the USA and Israel’s attack on Iran, How the Iran War Has Rippled Across the World https://tinyurl.com/3pb8hmcp

4. Two pieces from The Times and The Sunday Times:

Rishi Sunak writes a good weekly column for The Sunday Times (for which he gives his fee to charity). Here’s his latest, on the appointment of the BBC’s new Director General, My strategy to make the BBC thrive again https://www.thetimes.com/business/companies-markets/article/rishi-sunak-my-strategy-to-make-the-bbc-thrive-again-0wq2qtdxp

It sounds like something out of the TV show W1A. The BBC has appointed as its new director-general someone with no experience of journalism, broadcasting or the corporation itself. But when you consider the ways in which the media landscape is changing, you can begin to see the logic behind the choice of Matt Brittin, a former Google executive. In December, for the first time, the reach of YouTube in Britain (51.9 million) exceeded that of all the BBC’s channels combined (50.8 million), according to official ratings data from Barb. YouTube is owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

Plus, the latest weekly column from Fraser Nelson for The Times, a plea for more serious thinking by politicians, Our old parties have absolutely no idea https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/old-political-parties-no-ideas-tdvb8wklr

If they want to beat Reform and the Greens, it’s now or never for the Tories and Labour to answer the big questions. (…) Every disaster in Westminster can be traced back to a scheme cobbled together without proper debate. When governments do make breakthroughs it’s because someone, somewhere, did serious thinking. And if a prime minister arrives in No 10 with no ideas, then what? Ask Keir Starmer.

5. And, finally, one great writer writing about another, Elif Shafak on Ursula Le Guin, A Woman Who Refused to be Boxed In https://elifshafak.substack.com/p/a-woman-who-refused-to-be-boxed-in

A couple of years back, in London, after a conference on the arts, society and technology, I found myself sitting next to a “futurist” who, I later learned, had considerable money and power in the tech industry. A futurist, I was told that day, is an expert who analyses growing trends and innovations, makes forecasts about what lies ahead and helps companies and individuals re-adjust to fast-shifting social, cultural, economic and political developments. It is all about long-term decisions, predictions and projections. We started chatting about what the world might be like in a hundred years’ time and beyond. What kind of political structures, tendencies for autocracy, societal attitudes, and belief systems might be emerging…. I don’t remember exactly what made me say this but in response to a comment by him, I said: “But of course Ursula K le Guin has been writing about this in the 1970s — imagine!” He looked at me, drawing a blank. I told him that Ursula K Le Guin was an American author; a novelist, poet, an incredible mind, who, in my opinion, had created a whole new genre of her own, such was the power of her fiction. ‘Oh, I see,’ he said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. ‘I know I should not tell you this, but I don’t really read fiction.’