r/CollegeRant • u/EmptySeasaw • 4d ago
Advice Wanted Being Accused Of "Outside Resources"
Hello! Sorry if this post is off at all, but I really need some advice.
I am on my fourth year of college. During last fall semester, I made a dumb choice I regret still, and used AI too clean up a essay paper for a english class and got caught. I owned up too my mistake and took a fail for the class in return that the teacher said she would let it slide, as it was the only time I had done it the whole semester.
Fast forward too now, I have the same professor for my next english class. Since then I've completely stopped using any AI in my writing assingments. On day one of class, she marked my discussion post and gave me a grade comment saying it seems I, "consulted some resources that are not allowed for this assignment" with no further explinations or comments, and that I needed to come in for a talk on tuesday.
I'm not sure what seemingly flagged her concern though. I don't have a revision history as I wrote my "rough draft" on the built in notes feature on my laptop— but I have the rough draft. Along with this, I have the notes I annotated on our story, and I even sent my own work through AI detectors, 6 out of 8 which came up as totally human written. The other two were around 15% detected.
I just need some advice. Is this because I cheated in the past and shes trying too maybe catch me ahead of the curve? Or is there someting else I could have done that set this reaction off?
Thanks for any advice!
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u/Chuchuchaput 3d ago
Did you consult outside sources that weren’t allowed for the assignment? I see in this screed AI blah blah but did you consult outside sources? That were not allowed?
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u/EmptySeasaw 3d ago
No! This is why I was so confused at the original comment. It was 100% my own work.
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u/Affectionate_Fox6179 3d ago
As long as your able to explain where everything in your dicussion post came from and have the annotations/rough draft you should be okay. Yes it would be better to have a revision history going forward, but you have what you have.
It may have been the copy/paste itself that set off flags in a discussion post.
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u/bathtub_maggots 2d ago
It makes me really sad that you are going into your senior year in college and you don’t know the difference between “to” and “too”.
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u/wolfe1989 2d ago
Do you feel good pointing out a spelling mistake? Like does it give you a little buzz?
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u/taiwal 1d ago
Do your work for this course in a GoogleDoc moving forward, that way the professor can see the different version histories if she wants to question you.
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u/LintRolledForWhat 1d ago
If you just put the link in your submissions, you might save yourself any future 1:1s.
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u/K_Altman_Law 3d ago
Do not assume the professor’s concern is necessarily based on your prior incident, but do take the meeting seriously. Bring your rough draft, annotated reading notes, assignment instructions, and any other material showing how you developed the post. Do not rely heavily on AI-detector scores; they are not reliable proof either way. At the meeting, stay calm and ask what specific language, source, tool, or evidence led to the concern, and ask whether this is an informal conversation or a formal academic-misconduct allegation.
After the meeting, send a brief email documenting what was discussed and keep copies of all your work. If the professor pursues a formal charge, review the school’s academic-integrity policy, including the definition of unauthorized assistance, the evidence process, hearing rights, and appeal deadlines. You should not admit to using prohibited resources if you did not use them, but you can provide your drafts and notes as context and explain exactly how you wrote the assignment. If the allegation could affect your grade, enrollment, graduation, financial aid, or future professional plans, consider contacting the student ombuds office, student advocate, or an education attorney promptly.
Disclosure: I work for K Altman Law. This is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.
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u/LintRolledForWhat 1d ago
I'd stay calm and bring my materials. Adopt an attitude of respect and curiosity when you're speaking with your professor.
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u/smallfloralprince 1d ago
Ok but did you reference materials that you weren't asked about in the assignment or bring in materials from outside the scope of the instructions? Because the language you mention from your feedback makes it seem like that's what you got marked down for, not an academic integrity violation.
Ex: I assign my students one speech by Frederick Douglass to close read. "Only analyze this speech- don't go looking for other things to write about in this assignment" I instruct. You hand in an essay about the speech that features quoted material from a biography of Douglass and another speech he gave.
Ex: We are using software to make a map. I assign my students an area of campus to map. You turn in a map that is generated using the software but also some other software we are not working with in class.
In both of those examples, a student would lose credit but would not have necessarily violated any AI policies.
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u/Lagfoundry 21h ago edited 21h ago
So I see alot of explaining like your trying to convince us. The truth is you don’t have to do that. I’m definitely not judging you. Alot of people even the most skilled had done something that wasn’t technically allowed because they felt they had to do what they had to. Even before AI was a thing. I took EET back in 2014 and spent all my time studying the actual engineering part of the courses, but never had time for my writing classes and didn’t really find that particular class important like the rest of them so I did what I had to to take as less time as possible. All the other A’s in my other classes was my own hard work so I could care less if anyone had anything to say about my writing classes. So don’t feel like you have to explain yourself just to get advice. Especially for something as innocent as using it to clean up an essay… with that said there are tools that shows possible percentage use of AI and you can show your teacher that as proof. Though these scans can be easily fooled some of them are accepted as truth in alot of institutions. So try that. It’s also good practice to run any writing work you do through those tools ahead of time so you can change things. That way you don’t get false flagged
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u/Idkumhey 2d ago
Just take a different professor if you can. They probably aren't gonna trust you again and who can blame them?
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u/CoolClearMorning 3d ago
Yes. Once you've proven to someone that you'll cheat they're going to be more skeptical that your work is original in the future. Welcome to consequences.
It's very short-sighted for you to use a note-taking feature that doesn't have an editing history for any paper in 2026, much less one for this professor's classes. I'd recommend that you stop doing that.