Guides
Straight answers, with the sources attached.
Everything here is dated, cites what it claims, and says plainly where the evidence runs out.
When a paper is questioned
What the detector score means, what evidence holds up, and what has happened in the cases so far.
- Turnitin says my essay is 100% AI. What can I do?What a Turnitin AI percentage means, the published false positive numbers, which universities turned it off, and what to do in the next 48 hours.
- How to prove you didn’t use AI on an essayWhat instructors and integrity offices accept as proof you wrote it: dated drafts, version history and its limits, notes, and an oral walkthrough.
- Falsely accused of using AI? What to do, step by stepAccused of using AI on an essay you wrote? The steps in order: do not admit, ask for the evidence and the policy, gather your own, request the hearing.
- Is Google Docs version history enough to prove you wrote it?Version history helps and is often accepted, but it records states, not keystrokes, cannot tell typed from pasted, and can be faked. How to present it.
- AI detector false positive rates: every published number in one tableEvery published AI detector false positive figure in one table, with source and year: Turnitin's under 1 percent, Stanford's 61.3 percent, and more.
- AI detection lawsuits, trackedA dated list of court cases over AI detector accusations: Newby v. Adelphi, Kato v. Palo Alto USD, Doe v. Michigan, Rignol v. Yale and Yang v. Minnesota.
- Universities that turned off Turnitin’s AI detection, and whyA sourced list of institutions that disabled Turnitin's AI writing indicator, with dates and reasons: Vanderbilt, Waterloo, Curtin, Yale, Johns Hopkins.
- Can students fake a writing history?Yes, for Google Docs and Word: auto-typer tools replay pasted text as keystrokes. What a faked history looks like and what a timestamped record shows.
Teaching on the record
Assignment design, syllabus language, and what a replay shows you that a finished essay cannot.
- How to tell if a student used ChatGPT without an AI detectorThe signals that hold up when you suspect a student used ChatGPT, the ones that do not, a decision sequence, and what to write in the first message.
- Syllabus language for writing on the recordThree copy-paste syllabus blocks, for high school, undergraduate and graduate courses, that put writing on the record without making the record a verdict.
- Process-based writing assessment: grading the draft, not just the essayHow to assess the writing process alongside the finished essay: what a replay shows, a product and process rubric with an example, five-minute feedback.
- AI-resistant writing assignments that still let students write at homeThe standard ways to make an essay assignment resist AI, what each costs the instructor and the student, and the one option that keeps take-home writing.
- Academic integrity tools for universities in 2026: detection versus process evidenceDetection versus process evidence for universities: contract, rollout, student install and false-accusation exposure, with a procurement checklist.
Tools, compared
Where EssayGuard sits next to Turnitin Clarity, Grammarly Authorship, Draftback and the rest.
- Alternatives to AI detectors for teachersAlternatives to AI detectors for teachers: eight process-based writing tools compared, and the false-positive research behind the search.
- A Turnitin Clarity alternative that does not need a Turnitin contractA Turnitin Clarity alternative for instructors without a Turnitin contract: one link, nothing to install, and a keystroke record the teacher holds.
- A Grammarly Authorship alternative where the instructor holds the recordGrammarly Authorship is free, but the student installs it and owns the report. An alternative that keeps the writing record on the instructor's side.
- A Draftback alternative now that Draftback is a paid serviceDraftback now costs $40 a year for teachers and works only on Google Docs, after the fact. The alternatives, what each records, and where EssayGuard fits.
- A Revision History alternative when a replay is not enoughThe Revision History extension replays Google Docs; its own copy says that is not proof of authorship. What to use when you need a record that holds up.
- EssayGuard vs Turnitin ClarityBoth record how a paper was written. Clarity is an add-on inside a Turnitin contract; EssayGuard is a link any instructor shares, free for one semester.
- EssayGuard vs Grammarly AuthorshipAuthorship is a free, student-owned report from the Grammarly extension. EssayGuard is an instructor-held record in a hosted editor. A fair comparison.
- EssayGuard vs DraftbackDraftback replays a Google Doc's history after the fact for $40 a year. EssayGuard records the session live, with server timestamps, in its own editor.
- EssayGuard vs CursiveBoth record writing at the keystroke level. Cursive is LMS-integrated, quote-priced and now part of Blackboard; EssayGuard is the self-serve path.
- EssayGuard vs Process FeedbackProcess Feedback is a good free tool: hosted editor, Docs extension, paste-source breakdown. What EssayGuard adds, and when the free tool is enough.