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，作者需要构思分层写作目标、确保论点说服力，并通过起草过程不断修改与组织写作计划。大语言模型（LLMs）的最新进展使得通过聊天界面（如ChatGPT）实现交互式文本生成成为可能。然而，这类方法往往忽视隐含的写作语境与用户意图，缺乏对用户控制与自主性的支持，且对写作计划的理解与修订提供的辅助有限。针对这些挑战，我们提出了VISAR——一个由人工智能驱动的写作辅助系统，旨在帮助作者在写作语境中构思与修订分层目标，通过同步文本编辑与可视编程组织论证结构，并借助论证火花推荐增强说服力。VISAR允许用户通过自动草稿原型探索、试验并验证其写作计划。一项受控实验室研究证实了VISAR在促进议论文写作规划过程中的可用性与有效性。