Maintain your voice

AI can suggest ideas, phrases and improvements, but the final work should still reflect your thinking, understanding and way of communicating. 

You, not the AI, are the author and remain responsible for everything you submit.

Begin with your own thinking

Before consulting AI:

• Consider the question independently.

• Record your initial ideas and questions.

• Create a rough plan or first draft.

• Identify what you understand and where you need support.

Starting independently makes it easier to recognise which ideas are genuinely yours.

Use AI as a thinking partner

When AI use is permitted, ask it to help you:

• Generate possibilities to consider.

• Ask questions that challenge your thinking.

• Identify gaps or unclear sections.

• Provide feedback on organisation.

• Suggest areas for further research.

Ask for support—not a finished answer to submit.

Question AI suggestions

Do not accept a suggestion simply because it sounds confident or polished. Ask yourself:

• Is it accurate and relevant?

• Does it reflect what I intended to say?

• Is anything important missing?

• Does it sound like me?

• Can I explain and defend it independently?

You decide which suggestions are useful and which should be rejected.

Revise in your own words

Putting AI-generated writing through a paraphrasing tool does not make it your own. 

A useful process is:

1. Read the suggestion carefully.

2. Close or move away from the AI response.

3. Explain the idea aloud in your own words.

4. Write it using your understanding and evidence.

5. Compare the two versions and revise again if necessary.

Genuine revision requires you to understand the idea and express it independently.

What maintaining your voice looks like

Instead of this:

I asked AI to write my introduction and copied it into my assignment.

Try this:

I drafted my introduction independently and asked AI to identify areas that were unclear. I considered its feedback and revised selected sentences in my own words.

Instead of this:

I asked AI to rewrite my paragraph so it sounded more intelligent.

Try this:

I asked AI to identify repetition in my paragraph. I decided which changes were useful and revised the paragraph while keeping my ideas and style.

Take responsibility for the final work

Before submitting, make sure that you can:

• Explain every idea and term in the work.

• Identify the evidence supporting your claims.

• Describe how AI contributed.

• Defend the decisions you made.

• Confirm that the final work represents your own learning.

If you cannot explain part of your work without consulting AI, it is not ready to submit.

Final check

Ask yourself:

• Did I think or draft independently?

• Did I evaluate rather than automatically accept AI suggestions?

• Did I revise the work myself?

• Does the language sound like me?

• Can I explain the complete work in my own words?

• Have I acknowledged AI use as required?

Remember: AI may support the process, but your thinking, judgement and voice must remain at the centre of the final work.