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Associate Professor of English Florida State University
mrneal@fsu.edu
MICHAEL R. NEAL
Neal is an associate professor of English at Florida State University, where he explores intersections between composition, digital technologies, and writing assessment. He teaches undergraduate courses in the Editing, Writing, and Media major track in English as well as graduate courses in Rhetoric and Composition.
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Blurry Lines: How Generative AI is Challenging and Changing Writing and its Instruction: Book Project
My current book project, Blurry Lines: How Generative AI is Challenging Fundamental Understandings of Writing and its Instruction, examines generative AI in writing courses. I describe generative AI as a disruptive technology with the potential to transform social, political, economic, scientific, educational, and nearly every other aspect of life—but not something to be avoided. While I outline several common reasons to embrace or resist AI in educational spaces, I suggest that AI and human writing may be more similar than most humanities scholars believe. My purpose for this is twofold: 1) to warn about the potential for AI to subvert important human thinking, relationships, decision-making, and growth, but also 2) to encourage AI uses that increase human connectivity, meaningful interactions, critical thinking, accessibility, creativity, and student engagement. My book project details specific ways AI can be integrated into writing curricula and pedagogy, along with the support structures and institutional policies needed to foster critical, ethical uses of AI that genuinely enhance teaching and learning.
Chief Reader, AP English Language and Composition, College Board
As Chief Reader for AP English Language and Composition, I oversee one of the College Board's largest exams with over 600,000 students taking the test annually. My key responsibilities include serving on the test development committee, hiring over 3,000 composition instructors to read exams, ensuring accurate and consistent scoring of essay responses, and representing the organization by providing professional development for high school AP teachers.
AI Talks, Workshops, Committees, and Professional Development: Media Links
Click on the images above for media podcasts, presentations, articles and web resources for events and activities I've participated in regarding AI in education.
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"Navigating AI and ChatGPT: Parts 1 and 2" (Nole Edge podcast, April 2025)
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"Decoupling Plagiarism and AI" (AIMLx25: An Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Expo, February 2025)
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Several Invited Workshops and Panels
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"Technology, Composition, and Donkey Kong" (Online Video Interview, Ask a Scientist Gaming, July 2024)
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Artificial Intelligence in Education Advisory Committee (AIEAC) web resources (committee, ongoing)
Digital Archiving and Undergraduate Research
The FSU Card Archive houses over 6,000 postcards and 150 student-curated exhibits. Co-founded with Stephen McElroy and Katie Bridgman, this site supports undergraduate research on writing, visual rhetoric, multimodality, social construction, materiality, and the circulation of social media. Our collaboration produced the following:
Publications:
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Neal, M.R., McElroy, S., Bridgman, K. (2013). Meaning-making at the intersections: Developing a digital archive for multimodal research. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, 17(3).
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Neal, M.R., Bridgman, K., McElroy, S. (2015). Many happy returns: Student archivists as curators of public memory. In L. Grobman & J. Greer (Eds.), Pedagogies of public memory: Teaching writing and rhetoric at museums, archives, and memorials. Routledge Press.
Awards:
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2013 Computers and Composition Michelle Kendrick Outstanding Digital Production/Scholarship Award for "Meaning Making at the Intersections" Webtext
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2013 Ralph Stair Prize for Innovative Education (FSU University Teaching Award)
Mentoring:
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Directed over 100 undergraduate students curating card metadata and exhibits,
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Directed over 90 Editing, Writing, and Media student interns,
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Mentored 15 students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) developing inquiry-based research projects in the FSU Card Archive.
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