Citing AI assistance without losing marks
Disclosure policies are new enough that most students have never seen an example. Here is what a clear one looks like.
If your syllabus allows AI assistance with disclosure, say specifically what you used and for what — not just “AI was used,” which reads as vague at best.
A clear disclosure names the tool, the stage of the work, and what you did with the output:
“I used [tool] to generate an initial outline from my thesis statement, then wrote all body paragraphs myself. I did not use AI for the final draft or for editing.”
That level of specificity does two things: it satisfies the policy, and it gives your instructor something concrete to weigh if a detector later flags a passage — a disclosed, described use is a very different situation from an undisclosed one, even at the same score.
Keep a copy of your disclosure alongside your draft history, for the same reason covered in keeping proof your essay is yours.