I just watched a video about students getting their essays falsely flagged as AI-written, and the “advice” was absolutely unhinged. Stuff like: “Leave mistakes in your writing.” “Don’t copy/paste quotes because the metadata betrays you.” “Write everything in Google Docs so you can show a version history as proof of humanity.” And my personal favorite: “If your writing sounds too clean or polished and gets flagged, go to the writing center so someone can help you sound more flawed.”
Like… excuse me??
Yes, these tips are technically practical, but students should not have to intentionally sabotage their own writing just to convince a glitchy detector they’re a real person. We shouldn’t have to perform bad grammar as proof of existence.
I spent YEARS learning how to write well. I shouldn’t have to “undo” that because some busted algorithm was trained on our writing and then decides we sound too much like ourselves.
Being punished for writing well is dystopian and embarrassing—for the system, not the students.
