While generative AI rapidly expands its educational reach, writing instructors remain the most cautious and at times resistant adopters, due to concerns about authorship, plagiarism, and cognitive offloading. In response, the AI Literacy module was designed for the English 102 Composition course to frame generative AI tools as process-oriented research partners rather than a text-producing shortcut. NotebookLM is used as a constrained research environment for a research workflow in which students' original thinking precedes AI interaction. The framework demonstrates pedagogically grounded AI use that supports transparency, metacognition, and ethical research practices, thereby strengthening rhetorical awareness, ensuring authorial control, and minimizing plagiarism (#AI-Literacy #AI-assisted-research #metacognition).
