Paper & AI Policies

One of the biggest reasons so many students detest writing papers is that they do not see the point in writing papers to begin with. Some students dread the announcement of a research paper or essay and perceive the assignment as torturous busywork. But papers are not just the machinations of some cruel educator who likes to watch students suffer. Papers are one of the most effective and meaningful tools a teacher has for assessing students’ understanding of a subject. Writing a paper shows that you did not just memorize information to pass a test. Anybody with half a brain can manage that. Writing a paper forces you to not only research credible information but also to think critically about that information and understand it well enough to put it in your own words and formulate and defend your own (hopefully) intelligent opinions and claims. This thinking process is the reason why essays and papers are assigned across most subjects as one of the best ways to assess student understanding. So while they may seem painful, and your teacher may or may not be cruel and masochistic, papers are always assigned with a purpose.

In a nutshell, the reason papers are such a key means of assessing students’ understanding is that writing equals thinking. Think about it. Where does everything you write down start out? As a thought in your mind! A paper is just a series of thoughts written down. When you read a book, a memoir, an essay, or even a grocery list, you are essentially reading the author’s thoughts. Writing, then, is thinking. So think twice next time you are about to complain about how much you hate writing!

But here’s another thought: not all thoughts are created equal. Some are not worth writing down at all, and others, while they may have potential, need some serious refinement before they are ready for their public debut. So to be more specific, writing is not only thinking, but it is also a process of thinking well, refining and organizing thoughts to make them as clear and presentable as possible. If you are going to present your thoughts in writing, then you better make sure they reflect well on you—and that they are worth your readers’ time!

Well, writing equals thinking, but thinking does not always equal writing. I do not have to write everything I think, and the inability to write does not necessarily indicate the inability to think. 

I thought you might think of that. And you are right. However, since writing is a direct representation of your thoughts, it is still the best way of gauging your understanding of what you are writing about. You may not have to write well in order to think well, but you definitely have to think well in order to write well. Fortunately for us all, your putatively masochistic teacher cannot judge your understanding of a subject by literally reading your thoughts, but he can do the next best thing by reading your writing.

Like it or not, writing is a crucial part of demonstrating and assessing understanding. Students may hate it, and teachers may enjoy it too much or for dubious reasons, but writing papers serves an essential purpose. Rather than viewing writing assignments as meaningless suffering, consider them opportunities to hone your thinking skills!

It is easier to see the potential problems with using AI after understanding the point of writing papers in the first place. The key idea behind writing papers is that writing equals thinking. Writing a paper demonstrates a student’s ability to read, understand, and think critically about information from a source; formulate original thoughts and opinions about that information; and explain and defend those thoughts and opinions in an organized and coherent format. Asking an AI service or another person to do any significant work in this thinking process defeats the purpose of writing a paper by eliminating the need for the student to think critically. Writing makes smart people; cheating makes lazy sheeple. 

Acceptable and Unacceptable Uses of AI

Because a paper must demonstrate original thought, you cannot use AI to write any portion of your paper for you, including the outline, but that does not mean that any use of AI is always cheating. AI can be helpful for finding relevant and credible sources for writing papers. So, while it would be cheating to tell an AI, “Write me an outline for a paper about the War of 1812,” or “Write a 750-word paper about the French Revolution,” it would be perfectly fine to tell an AI, “Find relevant scholarly sources I can use for a paper about Apollo 13.” Finding good sources faster is efficient, but letting an AI write all or part of a paper for you is lazy and dishonest. 

While you can use an AI to help find sources, you cannot cite information generated by the AI itself. For example, if you ask an AI to tell you about the Boer War, it will probably provide a decent summary or overview of the topic and may even include links to sources where it found its information. You cannot copy, paraphrase, cite, or otherwise rely on anything the AI generates in its response. An AI is not a reliable professional in any area of expertise and is still capable of making mistakes or citing a bad source. You may find some of the sources an AI lists in its response useful, but you should never use any information written by the AI itself as a source.

In addition to finding and listing sources, AI is also capable of checking for mechanical errors in writing. It is fine to use grammar and spelling checkers built into popular word processors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs, even if they use AI to run their checks. It would also be acceptable to ask an AI to find spelling and punctuation errors in your text, explain a grammar or punctuation rule you are unsure about, or show you how to properly format a citation. There is no need to lose points for simple spelling, grammar, or formatting mistakes on a paper, and there is no need to subject yourself to the tedium of sifting through grammar manuals and dictionaries to catch every error.

However, some word-processing and grammar-checking apps like Grammarly have integrated AI functions to make editing and rewording suggestions that affect the tone and style of a text. AI-based functions that alter the wording, tone, and style of your writing should not be used when writing a paper. It is fine to check basic spelling and grammar, but phrasing, word choice, and tone all need to be your own original work. You could use AI to search for alternative words like you would in a thesaurus, but all edits and word changes still need to be found, decided on, and executed through your own thought processes, not based on suggested replacements or other input from an AI. Your writing must reflect your unique thoughts, voice, tone, and style.

Detecting AI Cheating

Sadly, many teachers already have plenty of experience dealing with AI cheating. Such problems have made some students worry about getting in trouble for cheating with AI when they did not even use it. But do not worry—if you are not using AI to cheat, then you should not have anything to worry about. Teachers know what regular grade-level writing looks like, and they also know what AI-generated writing looks like because they have seen plenty of both. In fact, a study conducted at MIT found that, even when English teachers could not tell which essays were written by AI, they still knew something was off about the writing style and described the AI-generated essays as “soulless” and “empty of real content" (Kosmyna et al., 2025).  Teachers can also compare the vocabulary, voice, and style of students’ hand-written, in-class writing assignments with a suspicious paper to help decide if AI was used for all or part of the writing process. 

Besides their experience and reference materials, teachers can also use the same technology that helps AI write papers to detect other AI-generated text. Between teacher experience and multiple AI-detection apps available, it is not usually difficult to tell if AI has been used dishonestly for all or part of a paper. Because of the relative ease of detecting AI-generated content, the amount of work it would take to “cover up” AI-generated writing in an essay is often about the same amount of work it would take to write a paper honestly to begin with. Using AI dishonestly is simply not worth the risk. Although teachers must do their due diligence to detect and prevent dishonesty, keep in mind that they are not “out to get you” (Seriously, don’t flatter yourself—ain’t nobody got time for that.) and do not make accusations lightly if there is no reason to believe that AI has been used to cheat.

Consequences of AI Cheating

AI is a relatively new technology that has only been readily available to students for a few years. When AI cheating was a new problem, some leniency was warranted for first-time offenders, but now that everyone is aware of AI and the basic ethical principles that should govern its use, many schools and instructors are showing less mercy and offering fewer chances at redemption for students caught cheating. If caught using AI to cheat on a paper, some more merciful teachers and institutions may offer a second chance to do the whole assignment over again, while stricter ones may give the assignment a zero with no chance of resubmission—or worse. Using AI to cheat is simply not worth the risk!

AI can be a helpful tool for streamlining your workflow throughout the writing process, but it also has the potential to be overused in dishonest ways that undermine the purpose of writing papers and the originality of your work. Use AI efficiently for help with things like finding sources, formatting citations, or checking punctuation, but be careful not to use it for writing or editing any of the text of your paper.

References

Kosmyna, N., Hauptmann, E., Yuan, Y. T., Situ, J., Liao, X., Beresnitzky, A. V., Braunstein, I., & Maes, P. (2025, June 10). Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task. arXiv.org. https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

Submission

Papers should be typed in MLA format and submitted electronically by email before class begins on the due date.

Grades 7-10 are technically not required to have a personal computer for in-school use, but as much as possible, students should still always type their papers and submit them electronically unless they are genuinely unable to access a computer. Hand-written papers must still be written in MLA format and include a word count at the top of the front page.

Grades 11 and 12 should have access to their own personal computers and should always type their papers and submit them electronically.

Email papers to cmcnally@bcshampton.org using one of the following options:

1. Share a Google or Word document link. For sharing to work correctly from Word and Google Docs, the share settings must be set to allow “Anyone with the link” to access the document. BCS emails are hosted by Microsoft and cannot open Google Doc links that require signing in. If you are trying to share a Google Doc, copy the link to the document and paste it in the email you send to the instructor to ensure that the document can be opened from non-Google email accounts without issue.

2. Send the actual document file as a .docx or .pdf file attached to an email.

Formatting

Papers should be typed and double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font using Google Docs or Microsoft Word. If you are unable to type your paper for a legitimate reason, it must be neatly handwritten, and you must write the word count at the top of the front page. Follow all MLA formatting instructions for both typed and hand-written papers.

It is recommended that you use the Google Doc or .docx templates available at the first link below to save time and avoid simple formatting mistakes. Links to MLA formatting resources are also available in the Resources section for your class on FACTS and on the English class website.

• Complete MLA formatting Instructions with Examples, Templates, and Videos

• English Class Website

Acceptable and Unacceptable Excuses for Late Papers

If you think you have a legitimate excuse due to extenuating circumstances, such as unexpected health issues, your parents should email the instructor as soon as possible to see about extending the deadline.

Attending or participating in scheduled events and activities for school or church is not an acceptable excuse for not having a paper done on time. Such events, as well as due dates for large assignments like papers, are scheduled well in advance, and you are responsible for keeping track of your own schedule and completing your assignments on time. If you sign up for extracurricular activities, it is your job to set priorities and manage them responsibly.

Technical difficulties, such as “My computer wasn’t working,” “My wifi wasn’t working,” “My parents wouldn’t let me use the computer,” “The email wasn’t going through,” etc., are not acceptable excuses for late or missing papers. If you are having or anticipating technical difficulties or cannot access a computer, then you must handwrite the paper and turn it in on time. You are given plenty of time to determine the best way to complete the assignment on time. If you do not wait until the last minute to start your paper, then you should be aware of technical difficulties and be able to work around them with plenty of time before the due date.

There are two main reasons for such a strict “no excuses” policy:

1. Responsibility. Students should be responsible for keeping track of their own schedules and assignments. Large assignments like papers are announced well enough in advance to allow students to plan to get them done early or on time. There is rarely a convincing reason that a student should not be able to plan around other events and activities in the allotted time.

2. Honesty. On occasion, some students try to lie about an excuse for not having a paper done on time, and some stories are harder to verify than others. If a student does have a legitimate excuse for not having a paper done on time, the excuse must come directly from a parent or guardian to be considered credible.