In argumentative writing, writers must brainstorm hierarchical writing goals, ensure the persuasiveness of their arguments, and revise and organize their plans through drafting. Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) have made interactive text generation through a chat interface (e.g., ChatGPT) possible. However, this approach often neglects implicit writing context and user intent, lacks support for user control and autonomy, and provides limited assistance for sensemaking and revising writing plans. To address these challenges, we introduce VISAR, an AI-enabled writing assistant system designed to help writers brainstorm and revise hierarchical goals within their writing context, organize argument structures through synchronized text editing and visual programming, and enhance persuasiveness with argumentation spark recommendations. VISAR allows users to explore, experiment with, and validate their writing plans using automatic draft prototyping. A controlled lab study confirmed the usability and effectiveness of VISAR in facilitating the argumentative writing planning process.

翻译：在议论文写作中，作者需要构思层级化的写作目标、确保论点的说服力，并通过起草来修订和组织写作计划。大语言模型的最新进展使得通过聊天界面（如ChatGPT）进行交互式文本生成成为可能。然而，这种方法往往忽略隐含的写作语境和用户意图，缺乏对用户控制权与自主性的支持，在辅助作者理解与修订写作计划方面也作用有限。为应对这些挑战，我们提出了VISAR——一种人工智能赋能的写作辅助系统，旨在帮助作者在写作语境中构思与修订层级化目标，通过同步文本编辑与可视化编程组织论证结构，并借助论据火花推荐增强说服力。VISAR允许用户通过自动草稿原型探索、实验并验证写作计划。一项受控实验室研究证实了VISAR在促进议论文写作规划流程中的可用性与有效性。