Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Policies, Procedures, & Guidance

Course Policies

(Professor Shanafelt's Guidelines for Using Artificial Intelligence)

Acceptable Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Writing Process

** AI-generated text may not appear in your final submitted work. **

Permitted Uses of AI

Prewriting & Planning

- Brainstorming ideas or topics
- Researching potential areas of interest
- Organizing concepts through clustering, mapping, or outlining
- Identifying stakeholders, perspectives, or points of conflict
- Planning arguments (audience analysis, structuring claims, testing counterarguments)

Revising & Editing Support

- Checking clarity, flow, and readability
- Identifying grammar or mechanics issues
- Reviewing sentence structure or style
- Suggesting organizational improvements
- Spotting gaps in evidence or coherence

Formatting & Compliance

- Ensuring MLA/APA documentation is correct
- Checking formatting standards (citations, works cited, headings, margins, accessibility)
- Assisting with proofreading checklists

Publishing/Sharing Support

- Formatting documents for submission
- Checking compliance with assignment or publisher requirements
- Drafting acknowledgment or disclosure statements regarding AI use

Prohibited Uses of AI

Submitting any text generated by AI as part of your essay.
Copying or pasting AI sentences, paragraphs, or sections into your work.
Drafting introductions, body paragraphs, conclusions, or transitions with AI.
Using AI for core idea development, analysis, or argumentation.

*** Every character in your submitted essay must be your own. ***

Acceptable Use of AI (1st draft)

Disclosure Requirement

If you use AI at any point in your process (for brainstorming, checking grammar, formatting, etc.), you must include a short AI Use Disclosure Statement at the end of your assignment. This ensures transparency and proper acknowledgment of your tools.

Example Disclosure

“I used Grammarly to check grammar and ProWritingAid to review sentence flow. No AI-generated text appears in this essay.”

Department Policies

(The Department of Rhetoric & Writing's Guidelines for Using Artificial Intelligence)

Scholastic Honesty

Purposefully and knowingly turning in work that is not your own (including AI-generated work), or any other form of scholastic dishonesty, will result in a major course penalty, possibly failure of the course. This standard applies to all drafts and assignments, and a report of the incident will be submitted to Student Conduct and Academic Integrity (SCAI) in the Office of the Dean of Students. Under certain circumstances, the Dean of Students may file this incident in your permanent UT record and/or initiate proceedings to expel you from the University. So, take care to read and understand the Statement on Scholastic Responsibility. If you have any doubts about your work or use of sources, ask your instructor for help before handing in the assignment.

UT security guidance states: “AI tools should not be used to generate non-public outputs, such as proprietary or unpublished research, legal analysis or advice, recruitment or personnel decisions, academic work not permitted by instructors, creation of non-public instructional materials, or grading.”