Setting an AI-assistance policy students will actually read
Most disputes over a flagged essay trace back to a policy nobody actually read. Here is a policy short enough that they will.
Three lines, not three pages
State what is allowed, what is not, and what disclosure looks like for anything in between. That is the whole policy. A longer document invites students to skim past it, and skimmed policies produce the “I didn’t know that counted” conversations that make a flagged score harder to act on.
Put it on the assignment, not just the syllabus
A policy buried in a syllabus from week one is functionally invisible by week ten. Repeat the relevant line on the assignment sheet itself, next to the due date.
Give one example of each category
Allowed: brainstorming topics. Not allowed: generating paragraphs to edit lightly. Disclose: using a tool to reword a rough draft for clarity. Students argue over categories less once they have seen a concrete example of each.
Say what happens with a borderline score
Tell students in advance that a mixed score is not a finding on its own, and what your process is if one comes up — see the full five-step process for what that looks like. Knowing the process exists before an assignment is due changes how a flagged result lands.
Worth repeating. Turnitin’s own guidance to educators says the same: read a score against the actual assignment, and treat it as a starting point, not a verdict. See how to talk to a student about a flagged essay for that conversation.