Expanding Human-in-the-Loop

Critical Sensemaking for Technical and Professional Communication With Generative AI

Bibliographic Data

ID21411086
AuthorsGustav Verhulsdonck (0000-0002-8062-3202, Central Michigan University, corresponding author), Jialei Jiang (0000-0002-3017-9334, University of Pittsburgh)
Year2026
Volume56
Issue3
Pages268-298
Publication date2026-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Technical Writing and Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-2816 • E-ISSN: 1541-3780
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00472816251405787
OpenAlexW7123335163
LanguageEN
References cited45

This article proposes a sensemaking methodology to enhance human-in-the-loop technical and professional communication (TPC) practices when working with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) output, which is often ambiguous and not always accurate. Sensemaking describes actions and cognitive strategies humans use to make sense of new/ambiguous information. We argue that sensemaking can help TPC students navigate making sense of GenAI output for better judgment in evaluating AI output. Particularly, we leverage sensemaking's Situation-Gap-Bridge-Outcome framework as a heuristic to identify situational contexts outside of GenAI, gaps in knowledge, create bridges for those gaps, and evaluate outcomes and connect this to extant TPC literature and discuss its implications

Categorization · Cognition · Extant taxon · Generative grammar · Heuristic · Leverage (statistics) · Sensemaking · Situational ethics · Technical communication · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Human-Automation Interaction and Safety · Persona Design and Applications

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