AI Academic Integrity Checklist for Students (Before You Submit)
If you use AI for brainstorming, outlining, drafting, or sentence-level edits, you need a clear process — not just a good prompt. This checklist helps you align with typical academic expectations. It is not legal advice. Your instructor and institution have the final word.
Clarami's role
Clarami provides structured drafts in an editor so you can revise deliberately. We encourage you to follow your school's policies and to treat AI output as raw material — not a finished paper.
Draft responsibly in Clarami
Free to start — you stay in control of every paragraph.
1. Read the actual rules
- Syllabus — Look for AI, plagiarism, collaboration, and citation sections. Note what is allowed, forbidden, or requires approval.
- Honor code / dept policy — Some schools publish campus-wide AI guidelines beyond one course.
- Assignment sheet — "Original work" may be defined narrowly for that task.
If policy is unclear, email your instructor before the deadline.
2. Know what "permitted use" means for each task
Policies often distinguish:
- Brainstorming vs drafting full paragraphs.
- Grammar help vs generating core arguments.
- Code assistance vs essay writing.
- Take-home vs in-class or proctored work.
A practice allowed in one course may violate another. Do not assume last semester's rules apply automatically.
3. Disclosure and documentation
- If your instructor asks how you used AI, prepare a short, honest summary (e.g. "outline only" or "draft then heavily revised").
- Keep your own notes: thesis decisions, sources you read, major edits you made — so you can explain the work if asked.
- If disclosure is required in the document (cover page, footnote, appendix), follow the exact format requested.
4. Citations and sources
- Never cite sources the AI "invented." Verify every title, author, page number, and URL against a real library or database.
- Quote and paraphrase according to the required style (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.).
- If you paraphrase AI-generated phrasing of someone else's idea, the underlying idea still needs a real citation to a real source.
5. Fact-check everything that can be wrong
AI can sound confident while wrong. Before submit:
- Names, dates, statistics, court cases, study results.
- Definitions of technical or legal terms.
- Claims about "current" events — models have knowledge cutoffs.
6. Voice and learning
- For reflective essays, admissions essays, or assignments graded on your analysis, ensure the final text reflects your thinking — not only generic AI prose.
- If you cannot explain your thesis and evidence without the draft in front of you, you are not ready to submit.
7. Collaboration boundaries
Peer review and tutors are different from AI under many policies. Do not substitute AI for prohibited collaboration or vice versa.
8. Final pre-submit checklist (quick)
- Policy read and followed for this course and assignment.
- Disclosure completed if required.
- All facts and citations verified.
- Quotes and paraphrases match real sources.
- You can defend the argument orally or in writing.
- File format and naming match instructions.
Closing
Academic integrity is about honesty with sources, with your institution, and with your own learning. AI tools can save time, but they do not remove your responsibility to comply with rules and to submit work you understand.
Tools should support your judgment — not replace it
Clarami keeps drafting in a real editor so you can revise with intent. Start free — no credit card required.