Syllabus language for writing on the record

What a recorded-writing policy has to say

Most AI policies on a syllabus say what a student may not do. A policy for writing on the record says something different: where the writing happens, what the course keeps about it, and what the course does with that record when a question comes up. Students read those lines closely, because a recorder is an unusual thing to ask of them, and the wording decides whether the class hears a fair process or surveillance.

Every block below covers the same four points, in the same order, plus a route for accommodation.

• Written work for the course is composed in a recorded editor.
• What is recorded: keystrokes, revisions, pauses, pastes, and when the student leaves the editor and comes back, with timestamps. What is not: no camera, no microphone, and nothing from other tabs or applications.
• How long the record is kept before it is deleted.
• The record starts a conversation. Any decision is made by a person, and no penalty rests on the record alone.
• How a student who cannot use the editor asks for another arrangement.

The retention figures in brackets are placeholders. EssayGuard keeps records for 90 days by default, and your school can ask for deletion at any time. Put the period that matches your school’s practice in the syllabus.

Three blocks to paste

Each block is written for a different reader. Change the pronouns, the office names and the deadlines to match your course, and keep the sentence about a person making every decision. That is the sentence students remember.

High school

Writing for this class is composed in a recorded editor. The editor keeps a record of how your draft was built: what you typed, what you pasted, what you deleted, and when, including when you left the page and came back. It does not use your camera or microphone, and it never sees what you do in other tabs or apps. The record is kept for [90 days] and is then deleted. If a question ever comes up about a piece of writing, the record is where our conversation starts. I make the decisions, not the software, and nobody is penalized on the record alone. If you cannot use the editor because of a disability, a device, or your internet at home, tell me by the end of the first week and we will arrange another way to write.

Sample syllabus language, high school

Community college and undergraduate

Written work in this course is composed in a recorded writing editor linked from the course site. The editor records the writing session: keystrokes, revisions, pauses, pasted text, and when you leave the editor and come back, with timestamps. There is no camera, no microphone, and nothing from other tabs or applications. Records are retained for [90 days] and are then deleted. The record exists so that a question about a paper can be answered with evidence rather than with a detector score or an impression. A record starts a conversation with me, any decision is mine rather than the software’s, and no integrity charge in this course will rest on a single signal. If you cannot use the editor, contact me or the accessibility office in the first two weeks and we will arrange an alternative.

Sample syllabus language, undergraduate

Graduate

All written assignments in this seminar are drafted in the recorded editor linked from the course site. The editor keeps a keystroke-level record of how each document was composed, including pastes and their length, when you leave the editor and return, and periodic snapshots of the draft. It does not access a camera or microphone, and it does not see other applications or tabs. Records are retained for [90 days] and then deleted. The record is evidence for a conversation about your work. Any finding is made by a person, and no allegation will be brought on the record alone: the program requires a second, independent signal. If you cannot use the editor, for accessibility or any other reason, write to me before the first assignment is due and we will agree on an alternative.

Sample syllabus language, graduate

Two independent signals before any penalty

Write this rule into the syllabus and hold yourself to it: no integrity charge rests on one signal. Instructors who have been through a contested case tend to arrive at the same rule on their own, because a single signal is exactly what falls apart in the meeting. A recorded session that shows a large paste is one signal. A detector percentage, if your institution still uses one, is at most one signal, and a weak one: the Stanford study by Liang and colleagues in Patterns (2023) found that detectors flagged 61.3 percent of TOEFL essays by non-native English writers as AI-generated. A second, independent signal is something like a conversation in which the student cannot explain the argument, a cited source that does not exist, or a drafting record that contradicts the student’s own account of how they wrote.

The rule protects students from a false accusation, and it protects you. In Newby v. Adelphi University (NY Supreme Court, Nassau County, 2026 NY Slip Op 26021), a student’s Turnitin flag of 100 percent was contradicted by other tools that read the paper as human. The court found the finding “without valid basis” and ordered the record expunged. A charge built on two independent signals, one of them a record of the session itself, is a different kind of case.

Source: Liang, Yuksekgonul, Mao, Wu and Zou, Patterns, 2023; Newby v. Adelphi University, Justia, checked 2026-09-08.

Introducing it in week one

The policy fails if students first meet it as a line in a document they never read. Spend ten minutes on it in the first class.

1. Open the editor on the projector and write a sentence. Delete half of it. Paste something. Then open the replay and let the class watch what you just did. The recorder stops being abstract.
2. Say out loud what it does not do. No camera, no microphone, nothing from other tabs. Students assume the worst about any tool that records them, and the assumption survives unless you correct it directly.
3. Explain who the record helps. If a paper is ever questioned, the record is the student’s evidence as much as yours, and you can replay it together.
4. State the two-signal rule and give one example of what a second signal would be.
5. Tell them how to ask for an accommodation and by when, and mean it.

Then have every student write the first low-stakes piece in the editor that week, before anything is graded. Once they have used it once, the questions stop.

What the record shows that a document history does not

A Google Docs or Word version history stores document states. It does not distinguish typed text from pasted text, and in Word the author can turn Track Changes off. A keystroke-level record shows the pace of the typing, the pauses, the passages deleted and rebuilt, each paste with its length and where it landed, and the order in which the argument formed. That is the difference between knowing a document changed and seeing how it was written, and it is why the syllabus can promise a conversation rather than a guess.

Source: learn.microsoft.com Q&A on Word version history, checked 2026-09-08.

Pitfalls

• Do not describe the editor as an AI detector. It is not one, and a student who hears “detector” will expect an AI percentage. EssayGuard records the session and marks each essay for your review; it gives no AI percentage.
• Do not promise a retention period in the syllabus that differs from how long records are actually kept.
• Do not promise to open every session. Most essays come back Approved and need nothing, and saying so lowers the temperature in the room.
• Do not bury the accommodation route. A student who cannot use the editor and does not know how to say so will submit something written elsewhere, and now you have a case that should never have existed.
• Do not present the record as the whole case. It is strong evidence of how the text entered the editor, and it does not show where the ideas came from. Read it alongside a conversation with the student.