Prompting is a form of writing: task definition is a constitutive element of knowledge production, not a neutral procedural step¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · design r1 · q1
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q1 i? Because LLM generations result from the interplay of prompts, training data, and system processes, a prompt shapes the output just as writing shapes thought, making task definition non-neutral. → Laurence Dierickx 2026

Evidence¶

Laurence Dierickx 2026¶

Laurence Dierickx, Fredrik Bjerknes, Andreas L. Opdahl, Carl-Gustav Lindén. (2026). A Taxonomy of LLM-Supported Tasks for Critical AI Literacy in Journalism. Postdigital Science and Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-026-00690-0

q1 · i? · design · r1

Theoretical argument drawing on the premise that LLM generations "result from the interplay between instructions (prompts), training data, and system processes" (attributed to prior work the authors cite) and on the mutual constitution of language, thinking and knowledge in writing. This is an authors' interpretation, not an empirical finding.

"Just as writing shapes thought, a prompt shapes the output. Therefore, task definition is not a neutral procedural step but a constitutive element of knowledge production."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Fully inductive LLM codebook development risks importing unexamined sensitizing concepts, such as folk theories and scientific misconceptions, from the model's training data — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Effective AI use in nursing education depends on prompting skills, which participants identify as critical for obtaining accurate and reliable outputs — related
• Adding think-aloud data to theory prompts improves GPT-4o codebook completeness and alignment with the data — related
• GPT-4o prompted only with SRL theory references generates a codebook accurately representing most key elements of both foundational SRL theories — related
• A gender-biased system prompt induces large gender-differentiated language in LLM-generated career essays, while a neutral prompt does not — a narrower finding that bears on this claim