how does essay writing ai work

How does ai detection work for essays?

How Does AI Detection Work for Essays?

In the era of artificial intelligence and machine learning, AI-driven detection systems have become an essential tool in the writing and grading process. The primary goal of AI detection is to identify and quantify the quality of an essay, providing valuable insights and feedback to students, professors, and educators. In this article, we’ll delve into the inner workings of AI detection for essays, exploring the techniques used, the benefits, and the limitations of this powerful technology.

What is AI Detection for Essays?

AI detection for essays is a type of language processing technology that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to analyze and evaluate an essay’s content, structure, and writing style. The primary objective is to assess the essay’s readability, coherence, and grammar , as well as identify plagiarism, inconsistencies, and other potential issues . This technology is designed to provide a more objective evaluation of an essay, reducing the impact of human bias and allowing for more accurate grading .

AI detection for essays is a multi-step process involving several key components:

• **Text Analysis**: The AI system analyzes the essay’s text, segmenting it into individual words, phrases, and sentences.
• **Part-of-Speech (POS) Tagging**: The AI system identifies the part of speech for each word in the text, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
• **Syntax Analysis**: The AI system analyzes the sentence structure and grammar, identifying phrases and clauses, and detecting inconsistencies.
• **Semantic Analysis**: The AI system analyzes the essay’s meaning, identifying concepts, entities, and relationships between them.
• **Machine Learning Algorithms**: The AI system uses machine learning algorithms to analyze the essay’s structure, content, and language use, and to predict its quality and grade.
• **Feedback Generation**: The AI system generates feedback and suggested improvements for the essay, highlighting areas of strength and weakness.

Techniques Used in AI Detection for Essays

Some of the key techniques used in AI detection for essays include:

• Natural Language Processing (NLP) : NLP is used to analyze and understand the nuances of human language.
• Machine Learning Models : Machine learning models, such as neural networks and decision trees, are trained on large datasets to detect patterns and relationships in writing.
• Rule-Based Systems : Rule-based systems are used to identify grammatical errors, syntax anomalies, and other linguistic deviations.
• Deep Learning : Deep learning techniques are used to analyze complex syntax and semantics, and to identify subtle patterns and trends in writing.

Benefits of AI Detection for Essays

The benefits of AI detection for essays are numerous:

• Improved Grading Accuracy : AI detection reduces the impact of human bias and provides a more objective evaluation of an essay.
• Increased Efficiency : AI detection can evaluate essays quickly and accurately, freeing up instructors to focus on more important tasks.
• Detailed Feedback : AI detection provides detailed feedback and suggested improvements, helping students to improve their writing skills.
• Plagiarism Detection : AI detection can identify plagiarism, which is a significant problem in academic writing.

Limitations of AI Detection for Essays

While AI detection for essays is a powerful tool, it is not without limitations:

• Limited Contextual Understanding : AI detection may struggle to understand the context and subtleties of an essay, particularly in complex subjects.
• Over-Sensitivity : AI detection can be over-sensitive to small errors or deviations from perfection, which may not always be a reflection of a student’s writing ability.
• Lack of Human Judgment : AI detection may not always be able to replicate the nuanced judgments and insights of a human instructor.

AI detection for essays is a powerful tool that offers numerous benefits, including improved grading accuracy, increased efficiency, and detailed feedback. While there are limitations to this technology, it is an essential component of any writing and grading process, providing a more objective evaluation of an essay and helping students to improve their writing skills. As AI detection continues to evolve, it is likely to play an increasingly important role in academia, providing valuable insights and feedback to students, professors, and educators alike.

Table: AI Detection Techniques

Table: Benefits and Limitations of AI Detection for Essays

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Writing > AI Writing: What Is It And How Does It Work?

AI Writing: What Is It And How Does It Work?

Artificial intelligence has been all the buzz since ChatGPT came into the mainstream in November 2022. The question of how we should ethically use AI in our everyday lives has been asked in academic and professional circles alike. Understanding AI writing software and how it works is an important part of knowing what you can and should be using it for. Our guide will answer some questions you might have, like “What is AI writing?”, “How should I use AI writing software?”, and others.

What is AI writing?

• AI writing involves using artificial intelligence tools to create written content.
• You can submit a prompt and have it write a short essay, for example, or draft a screenplay, write a short story, edit your content for grammatical/syntax errors, and beyond.
• It completes the task in a matter of minutes, compared to the hours spent research and writing from scratch.
• The capabilities depend on the software you use.

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How does AI writing work? Have you ever used the predictive text feature on the keyboard on your smartphone or tablet? The AI of predictive text follows along with what you’re typing and provides “educated” guesses as to what you might say next based on your history of typing in a specific app. For example, if you’re telling a specific person that they’re awesome every day in a text message, your predictive text feature will guess that you’re going to say the same thing again. You’ll notice this in other apps on your phone as well.

Another example might be if you use your phone to upload and post YouTube videos. Your YouTube Studio app and the predictive AI will automatically assume certain words and phrases if you use them often in your titles and video descriptions. AI writing software does this on a much, much larger scale.

Rather than comparing your habits against themselves and making a prediction about what you’ll say next, an AI writing tool will gather information based on what other people have said in response to a similar prompt. The bot will search the internet for information about what you’ve asked it to write, then compile that information into a response. While this used to come back as clunky and robotic, the algorithms and programming for AI writers have become much more advanced and can write human-like responses.

Are there different types of AI writing? There is a ton of AI writing software available to help with efficiency, accuracy, and proficiency in content creation, no matter what type you need. For example:

• Bloggers can lean heavily on AI writing programs to help save time when building out a content calendar and editing blog posts.
• Small businesses that don’t have the resources to write monthly blogs, for example, or compose marketing emails, or create social media posts can lean heavily on AI writing to create content for them. Of course, it’s recommended that somebody checks the content for accuracy and quality.
• YouTubers can prompt an AI program to write a script for their videos. AI writing programs come in all sizes, functions, and price points (yes, you’ll probably have to pay to get the best features) to help anyone who creates content.

How should I use AI writing software? One of the first concerns that arose with the flood of AI writing software was that students would use it to write their term papers, or professionals would skimp on their writing duties and let the AI do it for them, and so on. These things, unfortunately, are going to happen.

However, AI can still be a tool that’s used for good. Anyone can have an AI chatbot do the heavy lifting in research, ideation, and organization. Let AI software get you started with your research, then take over to verify information, put it into coherent thoughts, then add emotion and storytelling.

Will AI writing replace real writers? No, AI will not replace real writers . However, it can help the cream of the industry rise to the top. AI writers are, so far, limited in their abilities to create emotional and engaging content. Humans, by nature, are storytellers. We have been since the beginning. Robots, however, are not. They are limited by what they’re programmed to do, and AI bots are programmed to gather information and make an educated guess about what you want to hear.

Take the movie Return of the Jedi, for instance. C-3PO was a protocol droid programmed to speak fluently in 6 million languages. Yes, he told a story to the Ewoks about how Luke and his friends got to Endor, but his telling was flat and factual. He couldn’t include the emotion that came with the story’s events.

AI writing is taking the world by storm because it’s an excellent way to work more efficiently. Does it have its limitations? It absolutely does. Because of these limitations, it’s essential to know how to use AI writing so it can be used more effectively.

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How to Write an Essay Using AI

Artificial intelligence has progressed to the point where AI tools can now assist with writing everything from essays and articles to books. AI writing assistants act as an editor, wordsmith or even creator to help students, academics, bloggers and authors produce better quality content with greater efficiency.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll overview everything you need to know to get started writing essays with AI including:

• How AI essay writing assistants work
• The top apps and sites providing AI writing help
• What types of essay writing they can help with
• Templates and examples for getting started
• Capabilities and limitations to be aware of
• Tips to incorporate AI writing effectively in your workflow

Let’s dive in to harnessing this transformative technology for your next essay!

How Does AI Help With Writing Essays?

AI applications approach essay writing assistance in a few key ways:

• Brainstorming - AI can provide relevant ideas, concepts, perspectives and arguments around a topic to include as evidence.
• Outlining - The best tools create organized essay outlines ensuring logical flow and structure.
• Drafting - Apps can generate complete multi-paragraph drafts on a topic which writers can then edit.
• Editing - Most offer grammar, spelling, style and even depth of analysis checks to improve drafts.
• Paraphrasing - This helps rewrite existing text or source information in your own words.
• Citing sources - Some apps automatically cite sources and generate bibliographies properly formatted.

The level of actual writing versus enhancing human writing varies across solutions, so research thoroughly to find your best match.

Top 5 AI Essay Writing Assistants

After evaluating dozens of writing apps, these 5 provide the best results for essay creation specifically:

Just Think AI

An AI chat with A Human Touch . Enhance your productivity with Just Think Chat, a user-friendly AI chatbot. Overcome writers block, generate ideas, revise content, or get answer effortlessly.

Article Forge

Article Forge has a strong academic focus, with an Essay mode specifically for crafting logical arguments and persuasive essays filled with cited facts. Ideal for research paper help.

Rytr boasts specialized intelligence for writing clear, compelling arguments in blogs, essays and more. It asks probing questions then incorporates your answers into drafts.

INK Associate

INK Associate enhances your writing productivity by suggesting ways to improve clarity, concision and comprehension. Great for proofreading and editing.

GPT-3 Essay Writer

Tools harnessing OpenAI's GPT-3 like Essay Writer create remarkably human-like essays. Requires more guidance to stay on-topic.

Essay Types AI Can Assist With

Some apps are specialized for specific types of essays required in academia and standardized testing. Here are key genres supported:

Argumentative Essays

Arguing a position with logic and evidence cited. Tools help craft sound premises, counterarguments and impactful conclusions.

Persuasive Essays

Similar to argumentative but specifically aimed at swaying the reader regarding policies, interpretations, theories or actions.

Compare and Contrast

Analyzing the similarities and differences between concepts, works or phenomena. Tools ensure clear links are made.

Research Papers

Long form essays synthesizing research around a thesis. AI helps format like academic papers with citations and bibliographies.

Narrative Essays

Telling an entertaining or impactful personal story. Apps assist with structures that emotionally resonate with readers.

Scholarship Essays

Presenting your background, accomplishments and goals in the best possible light. AI ensures relevance to prompt.

Essay Writing Templates and Examples

When first utilizing an AI writing assistant, it's helpful to have templates and examples to base your prompt off.

Here are prompts for common academic essay types you can customize:

Argumentative Essay

Topic: {Topic to argue}

Length: {Word count}

Words Style: Academic argumentative essay

Arguments for: {2-3 strongest arguments}

Arguments against: {The main counterargument}

Conclusion: {Your position} is the better policy because {reasons}.

For example:

Topic: All students should be required to learn coding Length: 800 words Style: Academic argumentative essay Arguments for: Coding teaches logical thinking, prepares for most careers, provides problem solving skills Arguments against: Adds additional schoolwork burden, benefits small subset of students   Conclusion: Mandatory coding classes are the better policy because the skills help nearly all future career paths.

Persuasive Essay

Audience: {Teacher, peer students, university alumni, etc} Thesis: Convince the audience that {position, interpretation, action} is {superior, correct, moral, just, etc} because {2-3 strongest reasons}

Supporting evidence: {facts, expert opinions, personal anecdotes} Counterarguments to address: {The main opposition position}

Style: {Formal or casual} persuasive essay

Audience: School principal Thesis: Convince the principal that allowing cell phones in class is the better policy because it enables learning tech skills, accessing information, and improved safety. Supporting evidence: Studies show benefits, students can film dangerous behaviors Counterarguments: It enables distractions, cheating and unwanted sharing Style: Semi-formal persuasive essay

Capabilities and Limitations of AI Essay Help

Understanding what essay writing AI can and cannot yet do will lead to the most successful experience:

Capabilities:

• Analyze prompts and determine optimal content and structure
• Generate complete drafts with readable flow and style
• Check spelling, grammar, and catch insensitive phrasing
• Format citations and bibliographies for academic integrity
• Develop arguments backed by evidence and reasoning

Limitations:

• Cannot deeply understand nuanced contexts and sentiments
• Struggles evaluating logical consistencies and factual accuracy
• Limited ability checking overall coherence and impact
• Does not build long-term memory, concepts and wisdom
• Cannot object in any way or cease participation

Use AI as a production assistant rather than independent author until the technology matures further in key reasoning areas in the coming years.

Tips for Using AI Effectively To Write Essays

To leverage these amazing tools most effectively and ethically, we recommend:

• Curate source materials - Feed the AI relevant, factual sources representing diverse perspectives.
• Outline the draft first - Guide arguments and structure before having AI compose full paragraphs and sentences.
• Check accuracy - Ensure factual truth and logical reasoning in arguments made.
• Maintain authorship - Edit, rearrange and rewrite elements in your own voice and style.
• Let the tool inspire new directions and arguments you may not have considered.
• Enjoy the productivity boost these tools offer our constrained time and minds!

We hope this guide has been helpful in getting started with AI assistants for leveling up your essay writing across school, work and passion projects!

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ProWritingAid helps you unlock the full potential of your story by fixing grammatical errors, improving sentence clarity, and creating more engaging prose. Plus, it integrates with any writing app, so you can get support in whichever one you use.

It’s like having an English teacher, professional editor, writing buddy and honest critic sitting inside your favorite writing app.

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Generative AI in Academic Writing

What this handout is about.

You’ve likely heard of AI tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, or others by now. These tools fall under a broad, encompassing term called generative AI that describes technology that can create new text, images, sounds, video, etc. based on information and examples drawn from the internet. Some AI tools are free or offer free tiers, while others require a subscription and payment. In this handout, we will focus on potential uses and pitfalls of generative AI tools that generate text.

Before we begin: Stay tuned to your instructor

Instructors’ opinions on the use of AI tools may vary dramatically from one class to the next, so don’t assume that all of your instructors will think alike on this topic. Consult each syllabus for guidance or requirements related to the use of AI tools. If you have questions about if/how/when it may be appropriate to use generative AI in your coursework, be sure to seek input from your instructor before you turn something in for a grade. You are always 100% responsible for whatever writing you chose to turn in to an instructor, so it pays to inquire early.

Note that when your instructors authorize the use of generative AI tools, they will likely assume that these tools may help you think and write—not think or write for you. Keep that principle in mind when you are drafting and revising your assignments. You can maintain your academic integrity and employ the tools with the same high ethical standards and source use practices that you use in any piece of academic writing.

What is generative AI, and how does it work?

Generative AI is an artificial intelligence tool that allows users to ask it questions or make requests and receive quick written responses. It uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to analyze vast amounts of textual data to determine patterns in words and phrases. Detecting patterns allows LLMs to predict what words may follow other words and to transform the content of its corpus (the textual data) into new sentences that respond to the questions or requests. Using complex neural network models, LLMs generate writing that mimics human intelligence and varied writing styles.

The textual data used to train the LLM has been scraped from the internet, though it is unclear exactly which sources have been included in the corpus for each AI tool. As you can imagine, the internet has a vast array of content of variable quality and utility, and generative AI does not distinguish between accurate/inaccurate or biased/unbiased information. It can also recombine accurate source information in ways that generate inaccurate statements, so it’s important to be discerning when you use these tools and to carefully digest what’s generated for you. That said, the AI tools may spark ideas, save you time, offer models, and help you improve your writing skills. Just plan to bring your critical thinking skills to bear as you begin to experiment with and explore AI tools.

As you explore the world of generative AI tools, note that there are both free and paid versions. Some require you to create an account, while others don’t. Whatever tools you experiment with, take the time to read the terms before you proceed, especially the terms about how they will use your personal data and prompt history.

In order to generate responses from AI tools, you start by asking a question or making a request, called a “prompt.” Prompting is akin to putting words into a browser’s search bar, but you can make much more sophisticated requests from AI tools with a little practice. Just as you learned to use Google or other search engines by using keywords or strings, you will need to experiment with how you can extract responses from generative AI tools. You can experiment with brief prompts and with prompts that include as much information as possible, like information about the goal, the context, and the constraints.

You could experiment with some fun requests like “Create an itinerary for a trip to a North Carolina beach.” You may then refine your prompt to “Create an itinerary for a relaxing weekend at Topsail Beach and include restaurant recommendations” or “Create an itinerary for a summer weekend at Topsail Beach for teenagers who hate water sports.” You can experiment with style by refining the prompt to “Rephrase the itinerary in the style of a sailor shanty.” Look carefully at the results for each version of the prompt to see how your changes have shaped the answers.

The more you experiment with generative AI for fun, the more knowledgeable and prepared you will be to use the tool responsibly if you have occasion to use it for your academic work. Here are some ways you might experiment with generative AI tools when drafting or exploring a topic for a paper.

Potential uses

Brainstorming/exploring the instructor’s prompt Generative AI can help spark ideas or categories for brainstorming. You could try taking key words from your topic and asking questions about these ideas or concepts. As you narrow in on a topic, you can ask more specific or in-depth questions.

Based on the answers that you get from the AI tool, you may identify some topics, ideas, or areas you are interested in researching further. At this point, you can start exploring credible academic sources, visit your instructor’s office hours to discuss topic directions, meet with a research librarian for search strategies, etc.

Generating outlines AI tools can generate outlines of writing project timelines, slide presentations, and a variety of writing tasks. You can revise the prompt to generate several versions of the outlines that include, exclude, and prioritize different information. Analyze the output to spark your own thinking about how you’d like to structure the draft you’re working on.

Models of genres or types of writing If you are uncertain how to approach a new format or type of writing, an AI tool may quickly generate an example that may inform how you develop your draft. For example, you may never have written—a literature review, a cover letter for an internship, or an abstract for a research project. With good prompting, an AI tool may show you what type of written product you are aiming to develop, including typical components of that genre and examples. You can analyze the output for the sequence of information to help you get a sense of the structure of that genre, but be cautious about relying on the actual information (see pitfalls below). You can use what you learn about the structures to develop drafts with your own content.

Summarizing longer texts You can put longer texts into the AI tool and ask for a summary of the key points. You can use the summary as a guide to orient you to the text. After reading the summary, you can read the full text to analyze how the author has shaped the argument, to get the important details, and to capture important points that the tool may have omitted from the summary.

Editing/refining AI tools can help you improve your text at the sentence level. While sometimes simplistic, AI-generated text is generally free of grammatical errors. You can insert text you have written into an AI tool and ask it to check for grammatical errors or offer sentence level improvements. If this draft will be turned into your instructor, be sure to check your instructor’s policies on using AI for coursework.

As an extension of editing and revising, you may be curious about what AI can tell you about your own writing. For example, after asking AI tools to fix grammatical and punctuation errors in your text, compare your original and the AI edited version side-by-side. What do you notice about the changes that were made? Can you identify patterns in these changes? Do you agree with the changes that were made? Did AI make your writing more clear? Did it remove your unique voice? Writing is always a series of choices you make. Just because AI suggests a change, doesn’t mean you need to make it, but understanding why it was suggested may help you take a different perspective on your writing.

Translation You can prompt generative AI tools to translate text or audio into different languages for you. But similar to tools like Google Translate, these translations are not considered completely “fluent.” Generative AI can struggle with things like idiomatic phrases, context, and degree of formality.

Transactional communication Academic writing can often involve transactional communication—messages that move the writing project forward. AI tools can quickly generate drafts of polite emails to professors or classmates, meeting agendas, project timelines, event promotions, etc. Review each of the results and refine them appropriately for your audiences and purposes.

Potential pitfalls

Information may be false AI tools derive their responses by reassembling language in their data sets, most of which has been culled from the internet. As you learned long ago, not everything you read on the internet is true, so it follows that not everything culled and reassembled from the internet is true either. Beware of clearly written, but factually inaccurate or misleading responses from AI tools. Additionally, while they can appear to be “thinking,” they are literally assembling language–without human intelligence. They can produce information that seems plausible, but is in fact partly or entirely fabricated or fictional. The tendency for AI tools to invent information is sometimes referred to as “hallucinating.”

Citations and quotes may be invented AI responses may include citations (especially if you prompt them to do so), but beware. While the citations may seem reasonable and look correctly formatted, they may, in fact, not exist or be incorrect. For example, the tools may invent an author, produce a book title that doesn’t exist or incorrectly attribute language to an author who didn’t write the quote or wrote something quite different. Your instructors are conversant in the fields you are writing about and may readily identify these errors. Generative AI tools are not authoritative sources.

Responses may contain biases Again, AI tools are drawing from vast swaths of language from their data sets–and everything and anything has been said there. Accordingly, the tools mimic and repeat distortions in ideas on any topic in which bias easily enters in. Consider and look for biases in responses generated by AI tools.

You risk violating academic integrity standards When you prompt an AI tool, you may often receive a coherent, well written—and sometimes tempting—response. Unless you have received explicit, written guidance from an instructor on use of AI generated text, do not assume it is okay to copy and paste or paraphrase that language into your text—maybe at all. See your instructor’s syllabus and consult with them about how they authorize the use of AI tools and how they expect you to include citations for any content generated by the tool. The AI tools should help you to think and write, not think or write for you. You may find yourself violating the honor code if you are not thoughtful or careful in your use of any AI generated material.

The tools consume personal or private information (text or images) Do not input anything you prefer not to have widely shared into an AI generator. The tools take whatever you put in to a prompt and incorporate it into its systems for others to use.

Your ideas may be changed unacceptably When asked to paraphrase or polish a piece of writing, the tools can change the meaning. Be discerning and thorough in reviewing any generated responses to ensure the meaning captures and aligns with your own understanding.

A final note

Would you like to learn more about using AI in academic writing? Take a look at the modules in Carolina AI Literacy and the UNC Libraries’ Student Guide to AI Literacy . Acquainting yourself with these tools may be important as your thinking and writing skills grow. While these tools are new and still under development, they may be essential tools for you to understand in your current academic life and in your career after you leave the university. Beginning to experiment with and develop an understanding of the tools at this stage may serve you well along the way.

Note: This tip sheet was created in July 2023. Generative AI technology is evolving quickly. We will update the document as the technology and university landscapes change.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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