Suspected AI use or plagiarism?
Your step-by-step playbook.
What to do — and what to avoid — when a student's work doesn't add up. Fair process protects you, the student, and the integrity of the degree.
The 8 steps
- 1
Pause before you act
A flag is a reason to look closer, not proof of cheating. Detection scores are imperfect, false positives happen, and even strong signals usually show that something is unexplained — not what the student intended. Approach the first conversation as a question ("help me understand how this was written"), not a verdict.
- 2
Gather and save your evidence
Keep the submission exactly as received, save your scan results or marker matches, and note anything that differs from the student's earlier in-class writing. Collect specific passages with page or paragraph references. Screenshots and exported PDFs are useful because live documents and submission portals can change later.
- 3
Re-read your course and institutional policy
Check the syllabus statement and your institution's academic integrity procedure before deciding anything. Does the assignment prohibit unauthorized AI help? Does your school define this as misconduct, or as an academic matter handled between you and the student? Following the published process protects both you and the student.
- 4
Meet with the student privately
Invite them to a one-on-one conversation, and describe what you noticed rather than what you conclude: "These three paragraphs don't match your in-class writing, and this citation doesn't resolve — can you walk me through your process?" Ask about their sources, drafts, notes, and how they used (or didn't use) AI tools. A genuine author can usually reconstruct their own work; genuine confusion also surfaces here.
- 5
Listen for legitimate explanations
Students sometimes have innocent reasons for flagged work: heavy use of grammar tools, writing in a second language, quoting sources their citations describe poorly, or a writing style that shifted because they finally understood the topic. Treat the meeting as a chance to separate those cases from real violations.
- 6
Decide an outcome proportionate to the situation
Many first offenses are better handled educationally: a rewrite with documented sources, a supervised in-class version, or a required meeting with a writing center. Reserve formal misconduct reports for clear, repeated, or deliberate violations — and follow your institution's reporting steps exactly when you do file.
- 7
Document everything, even the informal cases
Record the date, what you found, what the student said, and what you agreed. If a pattern emerges across assignments or semesters, that record matters — and if a student contests an accusation later, your documentation is what makes the process fair.
- 8
Close the loop
End every case by reconnecting the consequence to the learning: explain why the skill matters, what a redo requires, and what support is available. The goal is a student who no longer needs to outsource their thinking — not just one who got caught.
If you suspect AI use
- Compare the submission with the student's prior work — discussion posts, in-class writing, earlier drafts. Sudden changes in voice, polish, or vocabulary are more meaningful than any single scan score.
- Ask the student to summarize their argument orally or explain a specific paragraph. Authors know their own reasoning; ghostwritten text usually can't be defended in the student's own words.
- Check whether the work contains chatbot signatures: generic framing, invented-sounding citations, references that don't resolve, or confident claims with no sources.
- Check your assignment rules first: if your syllabus permits disclosed AI assistance, using AI may be allowed — the violation is the concealment, not the tool.
If you suspect plagiarism
- Search distinctive phrases from the paper in quotation marks in a normal search engine — copied sentences from web sources usually surface directly.
- Verify every citation: does the source exist, do its authors match, does the quoted passage actually appear on the cited page? Fabricated or stitched-together references are a strong plagiarism signal.
- Check quotations against the cited source. Paraphrases that are too close to the original, or quotes that never appear in the source, both count.
- Look at the reference list shape: a mix of sources that match the course materials with a few obviously unconnected ones can signal patchwriting or a generated bibliography.
What to avoid
- Don't accuse in public or in writing before hearing the student — accusations that turn out to be wrong damage trust and can create legal exposure.
- Don't treat any detector score, including this site's, as conclusive proof. Use it as one signal among several, alongside the student's other work and your conversation with them.
- Don't improvise penalties outside your institution's policy — an unsanctioned failing grade can be overturned and undermines the case for real violations.
- Don't ignore small cases. A quiet, educational conversation after a first incident prevents the formal case that comes after the third.
Further reading
Prevent the next case before it happens
The strongest integrity work happens before submission: clear policies, well-designed assignments, and hidden checks that make outsourcing the hard path.