Use of Grammarly (not GrammarlyGo) for proofreading … cheating?

[Anonymous]

Grammarly offers many of the same features built into MS Word like spell-checking, punctuation and some simple grammatical mistakes or improvements. Grammarly will also suggest areas where the text may be unclear or wordy. (I understand GrammarlyGo is more AI driven writing, which is very different.) Several schools / universities have suggested and even offered it as a tool for students. It can lead to papers lacking personality but it doesn’t write a paper for someone. Now student users are getting accused of cheating. Anti-cheating filters are now not only looking for plagiarized text but robotic looking language. Admittedly, sticking too closely to certain rules can sound clunky but the feedback from Grammarly really is like feedback you used to get on high school (eg, use active voice). It can be especially useful for non-maybe English speakers.

What do you think? Should proofreading software be treated like AI text generating software (eg, ChatGPT) which is considered cheating?

Here are some recent stories:

https://dailyfreepress.com/2023/04/25/turnitins-new-ai-detection-causes-issues-for-bu-students/

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/301899/20240221/college-student-given-ai-violation-probation-grammarly-use%E2%80%94what-happened.htm

[Anonymous]

Forgot to ask if FCPS has an overall policy regarding the use of Grammarly or MS Word language/spell checkers for proof reading.

I can see prohibiting the use of the if you’re grading kids on using active voice versus passive voice, but not on a history paper which you should be asking someone else to proof read before turning in anyway. I was always taught to put a paper aside for awhile and look at it later and proofread my own work. Frequently, we would also get instructions to ask a friend to proof read it — to make sure it made sense, note punctuation and spelling mistakes. We we taught proofreaders marks and were expected to use that in future classes when proofing others’ work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forgot to ask if FCPS has an overall policy regarding the use of Grammarly or MS Word language/spell checkers for proof reading.

I can see prohibiting the use of the if you’re grading kids on using active voice versus passive voice, but not on a history paper which you should be asking someone else to proof read before turning in anyway. I was always taught to put a paper aside for awhile and look at it later and proofread my own work. Frequently, we would also get instructions to ask a friend to proof read it — to make sure it made sense, note punctuation and spelling mistakes. We we taught proofreaders marks and were expected to use that in future classes when proofing others’ work.

^ Clearly I don’t use Grammarly to proof posts!

[Anonymous]

How would that be different than using Google's in-program spell and grammar check? FCPS has never turned that off for students. I get Grammarly does more, but it's all variations of the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How would that be different than using Google's in-program spell and grammar check? FCPS has never turned that off for students. I get Grammarly does more, but it's all variations of the same thing.

Agree, but now students at to least at the university level are getting pinged and in at least one case put on probation for using it. Businesses are using it. I know one friend got her boss to pay for a subscription for their unit.

[Anonymous]

My FCPS 7th grader's english teacher encourages her students to use it.

[Anonymous]

Maybe schools should focus on grammar more? You wouldn't believe the things I read and see. They need to explicitly teach grammar. Kids obviously aren't getting it through osmosis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe schools should focus on grammar more? You wouldn't believe the things I read and see. They need to explicitly teach grammar. Kids obviously aren't getting it through osmosis.

I agree they need to learn that (especially before learning another language!) but after they learn and apply it, at some point they and all of us can benefit from a tool to check our work before submitting.

[Anonymous]

It is a tool the school provides my DC who has dyslexia.

[Anonymous]

I haven’t seen anything that specifically discusses proofreading tools at FCPS but did see this about forthcoming AI guidelines:

https://www.ffxnow.com/2023/12/21/fcps-considers-developing-guidelines-for-use-of-artificial-intelligence/

As well as this for reference about plagiarism etc.;

https://research.fairfaxcounty.gov/homework/websites-writing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How would that be different than using Google's in-program spell and grammar check? FCPS has never turned that off for students. I get Grammarly does more, but it's all variations of the same thing.

Agree, but now students at to least at the university level are getting pinged and in at least one case put on probation for using it. Businesses are using it. I know one friend got her boss to pay for a subscription for their unit.

Colleges are not “pinging” anyone for grammar-level use of AI. But plagiarism rules still apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How would that be different than using Google's in-program spell and grammar check? FCPS has never turned that off for students. I get Grammarly does more, but it's all variations of the same thing.

Agree, but now students at to least at the university level are getting pinged and in at least one case put on probation for using it. Businesses are using it. I know one friend got her boss to pay for a subscription for their unit.

Colleges are not “pinging” anyone for grammar-level use of AI. But plagiarism rules still apply.

Have you done a recent search? Look at the article about Turnitin at BU.

[Anonymous]

I hope it's not as I encourage my student to proofread with grammarly before turning in anything, and I'm using it now for business and even texts (though they end up overly formal).

[Anonymous]

It’s fighting a losing battle to suggest students can’t use these types of tools. Maybe they should focus more on how to use them effectively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s fighting a losing battle to suggest students can’t use these types of tools. Maybe they should focus more on how to use them effectively.

Agree. I hope schools and universities learn to distinguish the difference between proofreading apps and AI generated papers.