Cornerstone and AI-Generated Writing: Guidelines
1) Add this “AI/Chat bot” policy to your syllabus: “Students who use AI-generated writing for
any portion of their written assignments will be deemed in violation of the academic integrity
expectations for this course. Violations can include a failing grade for the course and restrictions from
further class attendance. All suspected incidents of academic dishonesty will also be referred to the Office
of Student Rights and Responsibilities for further review of the student's status with the University, which
may include being separated from the University.”
2) Seek to understand your students’ writing abilities from the outset. During the first week of
class, please have them write in class at least 2 paragraphs that you can collect and keep as a baseline for
each student’s ability. You can certainly tell them why. We also recommend that you consider having
them complete more writing in class.
3) Use creative assignments with specific requirements. Here are some tips that would make
using Chat GPT difficult:
• Asking students to incorporate a personal experience in their writing
• Having students respond to their peers’ in-class presentations or the day’s discussion of the text
• Taking the students outside the classroom to, for example, the Ringel Gallery, and having them
write a reflection on a particular artwork, artist, or the exhibition
• Having them incorporate current events; anything after 2021 is outside of Chat GPT’s training
pool
4) Augment your use of outlines, drafts, thesis statements, peer reviews, and bibliographies. If
we work with them step by step through the writing process, there will be little need for them to plagiarize
or use a Chatbot.
5) Know your enemy: Chatbot essays are often factually inaccurate and generic. It is also unable to
cite specific editions of texts. You may also be tipped off by the student’s suddenly more sophisticated
vocabulary and lack of grammatical errors. While the output of a Chatbot is randomized, you can input
your actual writing prompt to gain a sense of what AI-generated output for your assignment looks like.
You can do so by creating a free account and using the following link: https://chat.openai.com/chat
Two potential technical solutions:
a) This AI-Writing detection program is free: https://huggingface.co/openai-detector. Please
consider it one more tool but not foolproof.
b) Use Google Docs, it will keep a version history that is viewable and accessible, displaying all the
progress and changes that students have made to their writing over time which they can share
with you or provide screenshots of their version history. This would provide you with a snapshot
of their writing progress.
Tell your students about why you are taking these measures. They need to know, we know all about
this new technology.
Melinda S. Zook, Germaine Seelye Oesterle Professor History, and Director, Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts,
Purdue University (1/3/23)
