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Essay checker: free online paper corrector

Your best chance for an A+ essay. Try our free essay checker below.

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Why should you use a free essay checker?

The simple answer? Good grammar is necessary, but it's not easy. You've already done countless hours of research to write the essay. You don't want to spend countless hours correcting it too.

You'll get a better grade

Good grammar, or its absence, can determine if you get a good grade or a failing one. Impress your lecturer not just with how grammatically sound your writing is but how clear it is and how it flows.

You'll save time

Essay writing can be a long and tedious process. ProWritingAid's essay checker saves you the hassle by acting as the first line of defense against pesky grammar issues.

You'll become a better writer

Essay writing is a particular skill and one that becomes better with practice. Every time you run your essay through ProWritingAid's essay corrector, you get to see what your common mistakes are and how to fix them.

Good Writing = Good Grades

It's already hard to know what to write in an essay. Don't let grammar mistakes hinder your writing and prevent you from getting a good grade. ProWritingAid's essay checker will help you write your best essay yet. Since the checker is powered by AI, using it means that grammar errors don't stand a chance. Give your professors something to look forward to reading with clear, concise, and professional writing.

How does ProWritingAid's essay checker work?

Your goal in essay writing is to convey your message as best as possible. ProWritingAid's essay checker is the first step toward doing this.

Get rid of spelling errors

ProWritingAid's essay checker will show you what it thinks are spelling errors and present you with possible corrections. If a word is flagged and it's actually spelled correctly, you can always choose to ignore the suggestion.

Fix grammar errors

Professors aren't fans of poor grammar because it interrupts your message and makes your essay hard to understand. ProWritingAid will run a grammar check on your paper to ensure that your message is precise and is being communicated the way you intended.

Get rid of punctuation mistakes

A missing period or comma here and there may not seem that serious, but you'll lose marks for punctuation errors. Run ProWritingAid's essay checker to use the correct punctuation marks every time and elevate your writing.

Improve readability

Make sure that in the grand scheme, your language is not too complicated. The essay checker's built-in Readability report will show if your essay is easy or hard to read. It specifically zones in on paragraphs that might be difficult to read so you can review them.

What else can the essay checker do?

The editing tool analyzes your text and highlights a variety of key writing issues, such as overused words, incohesive sentence structures, punctuation issues, repeated phrases, and inconsistencies.

You don't need to drown your essay in words just to meet the word count. ProWritingAid's essay checker will help to make your words more effective. You'll get to construct your arguments and make sure that every word you use builds toward a meaningful conclusion.

Transition words help organize your ideas by showing the relationship between them. The essay checker has a built-in Transition report that highlights and shows the percentage of transitions used in your essay. Use the results to add transitions where necessary.

An engaging essay has sentences of varying lengths. Don't bore your professor with long, rambling sentences. The essay checker will show you where you need to break long sentences into shorter sentences or add more sentence length variation.

Generally, in scholarly writing, with its emphasis on precision and clarity, the active voice is preferred. However, the passive voice is acceptable in some instances. When you run your essay through ProWritingAid's essay checker, you get feedback on whether you're using the passive or active voice to convey your idea.

There are specific academic power verbs, like appraise , investigate , debunk , support , etc., that can add more impact to your argument by giving a more positive and confident tone. The essay checker will check your writing for power verbs and notify you if you have less than three throughout your essay.

It's easy to get attached to certain phrases and use them as crutches in your essays, but this gives the impression of boring and repetitive writing. The essay checker will highlight your repeats and suggest contextually relevant alternatives.

Gain access to in-house blog reports on citations, how to write a thesis statement, how to write a conclusion, and more. Venture into a world of resources specific to your academic needs.

What kinds of papers does ProWritingAid correct?

No matter what you're writing, ProWritingAid will adapt and show you where your edits are needed most.

• Argumentative
• Descriptive
• Textual analysis
• Lab reports
• Case studies
• Literature reviews
• Presentations
• Dissertations
• Research papers

Professors and students love using ProWritingAid

If you're an English teacher, you need to take a look at this tool - it reinforces what you're teaching, highlights strengths and weaknesses, and makes it easier to personalize instruction.

Jennifer Gonzales

Only reason I managed to get an A in all my freshman composition classes.

Chris Layton

Great tool for academic work. Easy to use, and the reports and summary evaluation of your documents in several categories is very useful. So much more than spelling and grammar!

Debra Callender

Questions & Answers

1. how do i use the essay checker online tool.

You can either copy and paste your essay in the essay checker field or upload your essay from your computer. Your suggestions will show once you enter text. You'll see a number of possible grammar and spelling issues. Sign up for free to get unlimited suggestions to improve your writing style, grammar, and sentence structure. Avoid unintentional plagiarism with a premium account.

2. Does the essay checker work with British English and American English?

The essay checker works with both British English and American English. Just choose the one you would like to use and your corrections will reflect this.

3. Is using an essay checker cheating?

No. The essay checker won't ever write the essay for you. It will point out possible edits and advise you on changes you need to make. You have full autonomy and get to decide which changes to accept.

4. Will the essay checker autocorrect my work?

The essay writing power remains in your hands. You choose which suggestions you want to accept, and you can ignore those that you don't think apply.

5. Is there a student discount?

Students who have an eligible student email address can get 20% off ProWritingAid Premium. You can apply for a student discount through Student App Centre .

6. Does ProWritingAid have a plagiarism checker?

Yes. ProWritingAid's plagiarism checker will check your work against over a billion webpages, published works, and academic papers, so you can be sure of its originality. Find out more about pricing for plagiarism checks here .

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Slick Write

Check your grammar in seconds.

Slick Write is a powerful, free application that makes it easy to check your writing for grammar errors, potential stylistic mistakes, and other features of interest. Whether you're a blogger, novelist, SEO professional, or student writing an essay for school, Slick Write can help take your writing to the next level. Curious? See why Slick Write is the best. Try the interactive demo , or check your own document . No software download or installation is required.

Why Slick Write?

The grammar checker is lightning fast

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English is a difficult language, so using correct grammar and diverse vocabulary will set you apart from the crowd. Using good sentence structure and wording improves your content's impact and readability while building your readers' trust. Slick Write goes beyond spell checking to teach you the habits of effective writers. How does your writing rate?

Improve your resumé

The job market is competitive. Gain an advantage, impress employers, and land more interviews by demonstrating professionalism and superior communication skills on your resumé.

Get the extensions

Using an extension is the easiest way to submit your work to Slick Write. They are available for Chrome and Firefox .

Bust your writer's block, and create new metaphors by playing the word association game . To begin, type a word or phrase in the box below, and hit enter. To quickly find associations for your own text, highlight a word or phrase in it, and use the toolbox popup.

The associator learns contextual word associations from real literature, so it may return offensive results.

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I know what I'm doing. Disable these hints.

• Submission Limit There is a limit of 200,000 characters, which is approximately 30,000 words. Anything longer should be submitted in smaller chunks, or it will be automatically trimmed.
• No document It looks like you forgot to enter your document. Paste it in and try again.
• Structure This tab shows sentence structure within the context of the document. Hover over a sentence to see its word count. Select a word or phrase, or click a sentence to get more information.
• Quotes This tab shows your quotations highlighted as Slick Write sees them.

More information »

• Sentence type flow Pieces with good flow will make use of all four sentence types, varying them to keep the reader interested.
• Sentence length flow Sentence length is indirectly related to sentence type, and is a good indicator of flow. Flow can be altered by adding, removing, lengthening, shortening, combining, or splitting sentences. Long sentences will be indicated by a red line on the graph. Sentences that flow poorly with their surroundings will be orange, and the source of the problem can often be found in a nearby sentence.
• Word length flow Word length is a minor contributor to overall flow, but even minor variations are signs of good rhythm.
• Passive Voice Index This is a measure of how frequently the passive voice is used. Consider revising your document if it scores over 100.
• Prepositional Phrase Index This is a measure of how frequently prepositional phrases are used. Consider revising your document if it scores over 100.
• Average sentence length Sentence length is a major contributor to the level of education required to read a body of text.
• Sentence length standard deviation This is a measure of the amount of variation in the length of a text's sentences. In texts that have broad appeal, this tends to fall between 50 and 90% of the average sentence length. You can increase this number by making long sentences longer, and short ones shorter.
• Sentence deviation to length ratio This is a measure of the sentence variety, and a major contributor to flow. Most novels score between 0.5 and 0.9, and popular ones often score near the high end of the range. You can increase this number by making long sentences longer, and short ones shorter.
• Just the stats preset Use this preset when you're only interested in the stats tab. Critique and Flow will be hidden.
• Honesty preset This preset checks for common indicators of deception, either by lying or omission, and is based on the findings of this study . Areas with high concentrations of these indicators should be viewed with skepticism. Note that the presence or absence of these indicators does not guarantee that a statement is true or false, and that the study was done on spoken communications, so it might be more applicable to interviews and speeches. As always, use your brain.
• Doubled words A word used twice in a row may be a typo.
• Commonly confused words This will check for the internet's most frequently confused words and notify you if it looks like you misused one. It is experimental and probably the least reliable feature. Consult a dictionary when necessary.
• Sentences starting with the same word A word should not be used to start more than one sentence in a single paragraph.
• Misplaced conjunctions It is considered poor style to place coordinating conjunctions at either end of a sentence. Placing a subordinating conjunction at the end of a sentence is against the rules.

It is said that one day, passive voice will bring weakness to your prose.

More information » Even more information »

• Overwriting Words like "very" and "really" make sentences wordier and weaken your message. These can be deleted in almost all cases without affecting the meaning of the sentence.
• Abstract words Abstract words lack specificity and overusing them can make even simple concepts difficult to understand. There are times when abstract words are desirable or even necessary; it would be difficult to write about math or programming without mentioning variables or functions, but you should use more specific terms whenever possible.
• Wordy and redundant phrases These phrases make your writing more difficult to understand. In most cases, they can be replaced with one or two words, or even deleted.
• Legalese These antiquated, arcane words and phrases will make your writing look like a contract.
• Double negatives Double negatives are almost always poor style.
• Adverbs They aren't bad in small quantities, but consider revising your document if more than 5.5% of its words are adverbs. Adverbs ending in "-ly" are considered the worst offenders.
• Adjectives They aren't bad in small quantities. A few of the words on this list can also function as other parts of speech. You have been warned.
• Contractions In formal writing, the use of contractions is considered a fault.

The boxer decked his opponent.

• Profanity Profanity should not be used in formal writing outside of direct quotations.

The critic's scathing review hit the nail on the head .

• Similes Similes and metaphors should be used sparingly. This option will detect most common types of similes.
• "Said" replacements Some people think that these substitutes for "said" are weak or obnoxious, especially if overused.

Her dress was long , and it touched the floor.

Her long dress touched the floor.

• Gender-specific pronouns Avoid using gender-specific pronouns in formal writing when the subject's gender is unknown.
• Weasel words Like abstract words, weasel words and phrases lack specificity. At best, they convey uncertainty. At worst, they can be used to "weasel out" of telling the truth in a straightforward manner. When checking a document that is speculative by nature, you might want to disable this detector.
• Third person pronouns According to this study , high concentrations of third person pronouns may indicate deception.
• Bias language These words and phrases often show the author's bias.
• Uncommon words Uncommon words will increase the document's reading difficulty.

Hot peppers burn my mouth, but I eat them anyway .

Since burritos taste good , I like to eat them.

• Sentence fragments A sentence must have at least one noun and one verb. Anything that does not is a fragment, and if it occurs outside of dialog, it should probably be rewritten.
• Long sentences Long sentences tend to be more difficult to read, making them good candidates for trimming or splitting. Alternatively, parallelism may be used to improve their readability, though this will not decrease the ARI score.
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• Online Etymology Dictionary Learn the history of English words
• Scribophile Discuss the finer points of writing with other novelists
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More than a Grammar Checker Free Grammar Checker

Languagetool is an ai-based grammar checker. paste your text or start typing below to check grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes across languages., 2000+ organizations trust our ai-based grammar checker.

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• Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF)
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• Access even more suggestions for advanced punctuation, style, and typography with the “Picky Mode”
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Our Browser Add-On Works Anywhere on the Web

Receive tips on how to improve your text while typing an e-mail, a blog post, or just a simple tweet. Whatever language you’re using, LanguageTool will automatically detect it and provide suggestions. To respect your privacy, no text is stored by the browser add-on.

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There are over 7,000 languages and various multilingual countries in the world. LanguageTool helps as an international spell checker in several languages, including:

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This feature helps you stay consistent with your writing by tracking your productivity. It also provides an overview of languages used, errors made, and suggestions applied, so you can see for yourself how your writing skills have improved.

Elevate Your Writing With the Grammar, Spell, and Style Checker for Windows

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Do you fall victim to typos and misspellings way too often? LanguageTool finds every mistake and underlines it in red. Spell every name, phrase, and word the write… eh, the right way!

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Grammar rules have never been so easy! LanguageTool will help rid your writing of all grammar gaffes, like incorrect subject-verb-agreement, wrong plural forms, or misuse of grammatical forms.

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Commas and dashes and hyphens… Proper punctuation can be tricky—LanguageTool ensures you’re using them right. It can even help you form complex sentences and tell you when you’ve used too many exclamation points!

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It’s all about the capital, right? And the lowercase letters, too. LanguageTool corrects incorrect casing, whether you’re writing capitalized names, months, places, or national identities.

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LanguageTool helps your writing be as stylish as you are by detecting overused phrases, foreign terms, redundant words, and improper word choice. All you have to do to find the best style is look out for the blue underline.

Paraphrasing Tool

Looking for the right words? LanguageTool's paraphraser makes them easier to find by using artificial intelligence to rephrase your sentences to be more formal, fluent, simple or concise.

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Make your text sound professional and avoid embarrassing style, punctuation, and grammar mistakes

LanguageTool corrects spelling mistakes, but it also offers a full writing analysis of all possible texts. In addition to spelling, grammar, and word choice, language style is also corrected. Plus, it serves as a punctuation checker to ensure your writing is flawless.

LanguageTool excels at identifying and correcting punctuation errors, including commas. Its punctuation checker can differentiate between optional and required commas, ensuring your writing is polished. Plus, it can handle even the most complex sentence structures with its advanced comma check.

The error display and suggestion cards are shown automatically and directly while typing. This means that texts can be checked and corrected in just a few moments. To see synonyms, simply double-click on any word.

LanguageTool masters more than 30 languages and dialects. Its main languages are English, Spanish, German, French, Dutch, and Portuguese. In its English version, you can choose between six standard varieties (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa).

LanguageTool is available in two versions. The free version corrects spelling as well as simple punctuation and some style mistakes. Only the Premium version will show you all errors and give you the best possible text. Team accounts for companies are also available.

LanguageTool is not bound to a specific program or website. There are several extensions and add-ons available, so it can be used in all common internet browsers. In addition, you can find a dedicated text editor as an app for iOS, macOS (Apple), and Windows. All you need is just one user account.

LanguageTool now offers an A.I.-based paraphraser in addition to correction. This can help you to rewrite entire sentences to make them simpler, shorter, or more formal.

If you have to write a term paper, bachelor thesis or master thesis at a university, LanguageTool can help you to be sure that it is free of errors. The writing assistant’s style check is also particularly helpful for other academic texts in schools or at publishing houses. By the way, students get a discount for LanguageTool.

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Six Essay Helper Tools for Students

4-minute read

• 23rd August 2023

Essay writing is a significant aspect of any academic career – regardless of the subject. Creating a research timeline and writing an essay from start to finish can be a daunting task, but luckily, online essay helper tools can assist you throughout the writing process. In this post, we’ve compiled a list of the five popular tools to help you with your essay, from the initial outline to the citations. Keep reading for more.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine provided by Google that focuses specifically on scholarly literature, including academic articles, conference papers, theses, and books. It was created to help researchers and students find authoritative and credible sources for their research and provides links to the full-text versions when available.

One feature of Google Scholar is that it allows you to track citations of academic works. For example, you can see how many times a particular article has been cited by other researchers, which can help gauge its significance.

Scrivener is a popular writing software designed to assist you in drafting, organizing, and editing your work. For example, it allows you to break down your writing into smaller, manageable sections called scrivenings . These can represent different sections or paragraphs of your essay.

You can then view and arrange your scrivenings on a virtual corkboard or in an outline format so you can plan the structure of your work, which is especially helpful if you’re writing a longer essay. Scrivener also provides a research folder where you can store reference materials, images, web links, and notes related to your project, keeping all relevant information in one place for easy access. It also has a customizable full-screen mode that allows you to focus solely on writing without distractions.

Turnitin is a plagiarism checker widely used by educational institutions to help students avoid unintentional plagiarism. It compares submitted work to a vast database of academic content to identify potential matches. After your essay is processed, Turnitin generates an originality report that highlights any text in the submitted document that matches content from other sources. Turnitin can also check citations and references to ensure they are correctly formatted, which helps ensure your sources are credited properly and decreases instances of unintentional plagiarism .

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Thesaurus.Com

Do you ever find yourself reusing the same words over and over when writing an essay? Varying your word choice in your writing helps make your essays more interesting and expressive, but it’s not always easy to come up with the right synonyms . Thesaurus.com is one of the largest and most reliable online thesaurus tools and is a great resource for finding synonyms for commonly used words in essays (such as significantly or additionally ) and expanding your everyday vocabulary. You can even have a synonym of the day sent directly to your email.

Evernote is a note-taking app that provides a platform for students to organize ideas, research materials, and take notes in one place. It syncs across devices and provides a browser extension called the Web Clipper that allows you to save articles, web pages, and images directly to your Evernote account.

Citation Machine

Citation Machine generates citations and references for your essay based on the information you provide, such as the title of the work, the author’s name, and the publication year. It offers a wide range of citation styles commonly used in academic writing, including APA, MLA, and Chicago styles.

Citation Machine can generate reference entries and in-text citations for different types of sources (e.g., books, articles, websites, and videos). In addition, it offers tutorials and tips on proper citation guidelines and avoiding plagiarism .

Expert Proofreading Services

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Getting College Essay Help: Important Do's and Don’ts

College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

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Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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The Rise of AI In Academic Writing: Benefits And Ethical Considerations

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Written by Staff

Aug 12, 2024

Meta description: AI for writing content is okay if the ethical side of it is known. There is a lot of debate on its use in academics, so knowing the good and bad of it is important. Using artificial intelligence (AI) in academic writing is common today. You can use AI tools to automate many parts of the writing process. They can help you to create outlines, improve your grammar, suggest tone, and much more. While these tools have many benefits, their use also brings up some ethical considerations. Is it possible for you to maintain credibility and integrity in your academic writing when using AI tools?

Streamline the Whole Essay-writing Process

AI language models can assist you in generating content and offer suggestions for better sentence structure. Even your research is easier with the use of AI to help you find relevant data and sources. AI-based plagiarism software can help you to identify issues such as where you have unintentionally used a quote without crediting the author. You can proofread your essay for grammar and spelling errors using AI-based tools. The best essay writing AI tools will help to streamline your whole essay writing process from beginning to end. You can save time so you can focus on more important academic tasks.

As a student, you may need to save time and ask “Can I pay someone to do my homework’? This could happen when you have too many assignments and run out of time. It is possible to hire professional writers at dissertation writing services. You can ask an expert writer to ‘ write my paper EduBirdie.com ’ and provide instructions. Professional writers know what it takes to work on the research paper topics. If you pay to do homework, you will receive essay examples that will help you get the best grades and also assist you in improving your essay writing skills. Use AI for Academic Research AI tools are in increasing use in academic research. The best AI for academic research is a language model such as ChatGPT. The increasing adoption of these language models in various forms of academic writing is a big shift. You can ask natural language processing models to help you with your research. You can learn more about concepts specific to your work, authors, and their ideas by using them.

It is important to learn how to prompt AI tools correctly for the best results. You can start with simple prompts and graduate to more complex ones. This will help to guide the chatbot to provide contextual knowledge relating to your essay. It will sort through extensive databases to give you an overview of findings in papers without having to read each one individually. You can even ask the essay helper to generate an outline for your paper using the research.

Get Methodology Suggestions

AI can pick up trends and correlations in large data sets that wouldn’t otherwise get attention. It is able to analyze patterns in academic papers and make suggestions about the methodology you should use for your research. This can help you to take an approach that gives you more accurate results.

Manage Documents

You will often have to work with multiple documents when writing academic essays. Using academic writing AI can help you to categorize them, annotate them, and much more.

• Streamlining document management will help you to save time.
• You have access to insights drawn from many different sources.
• Having documents at your fingertips can improve the accuracy of your writing.
• Collaboration with others is more efficient.

Improve Formatting

You have to follow formatting guidelines when writing an academic essay. Using AI write essay can automate the formatting. This can be done according to the required academic style guide. You don’t have to spend so much time formatting your essay that you don’t pay enough attention to the content.

Enhance Readability

One of the benefits of using AI to write essays is that it enhances the essay’s readability. It can simplify complex sentence s and make them easier to understand. By analyzing the readability of your text, you can make changes that make it more accessible to a wider audience.

Gain Real-time Feedback

AI-driven writing assistants offer you immediate feedback that helps you to refine your work right from the start. With AI essay helpers, you can pick up any errors early and make continuous improvements that help to meet strict academic standards.

AI Limitations

Academic writing AI does have limitations that you need to understand. You have to be able to evaluate the quality of AI-generated content.

• Over-reliance on technology can limit your critical thinking skills.
• AI-generated content can contain inaccuracies and misinformation. It can include fake citations to papers that don’t even exist.
• The material generated by AI sometimes shows bias and prejudice.

Ethical Considerations

AI can perform many labor-intensive tasks so it does create opportunities for unethical practices. It is easy to include AI-generated text into your work which can undermine its ethical integrity. AI tools should always be seen as assistants rather than using them to do your work for you. It isn’t acceptable to submit AI-generated work as your own work.

As a student, it is important to understand the policies of your educational institution on the use of AI so you can comply. Some of the practices educational institutions are adopting are sophisticated AI-detection tools, a robust peer review process to scrutinize for AI, and training for academics on how to use AI in an ethical way. With the use of proactive initiatives like these, students will be able to use AI’s capabilities and still uphold stringent academic standards.

As a student using AI can have many benefits, particularly in automating some more menial tasks and speeding up processes. However, while recognizing the benefits, it is important for you to prioritize your own creativity, critical thinking skills, and ethical writing practices. AI is all set to revolutionize the way you write academic papers. It can save you time so you can focus on the more innovative and critical aspects of the work.

It’s important to be aware of what it has to offer while keeping its limitations and ethical considerations in mind.

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Want to write a college essay that sets you apart? Three tips to give you a head start

1. Keep it real. It’s normal to want to make a good impression on the school of your choice, but it’s also important to show who you really are. So just be yourself! Compelling stories might not be perfectly linear or have a happy ending, and that’s OK. It’s best to be authentic instead of telling schools what you think they want to hear.

2. Be reflective . Think about how you’ve changed during high school. How have you grown and improved? What makes you feel ready for college, and how do you hope to contribute to the campus community and society at large?

3. Look to the future. Consider your reasons for attending college. What do you hope to gain from your education? What about college excites you the most, and what would you like to do after you graduate? Answering these questions will not only give colleges insight into the kind of student you’ll be, but it will also give you the personal insight you’ll need to choose the school that’s right for you.

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Upcoming PowerPoint presentation? The colour palette is one of the first things to decide on. Creating a visually appealing PowerPoint presentation in fact involves more than just adding content and images. The colours you choose for your slides can significantly impact how your audience perceives and engages with your presentation. In this guide, we'll explore the best colours for a PowerPoint presentation, how to choose the perfect colour palette and provide tips on effective colour combinations for your slides.

The Importance of Colour in PowerPoint Presentations

Colours play a vital role in communication and can evoke specific emotions and reactions from your audience. An effective colour palette for your PowerPoint presentation can:

Enhance Readability : Ensure that your text stands out against the background. Create Visual Interest : Make your slides more engaging and memorable. Convey Emotions : Influence the mood and tone of your presentation. Improve Comprehension : Help your audience understand and retain information.

Choosing a Colour Palette for Your PowerPoint Presentation

Selecting a colour palette for your presentation involves considering several factors, including your audience, topic, and branding. Here are some steps to help you choose the perfect colour palette:

1. Understand Colour Psychology

Colour psychology studies how colours affect human behaviour and emotions. Understanding the basics can help you choose colours that convey the right message. Here are some common colour associations:

• Blue : Trust, professionalism, calmness
• Red : Energy, urgency, passion
• Green : Growth, health, tranquillity
• Yellow : Optimism, creativity, warmth
• Orange : Enthusiasm, excitement, attention
• Orange : Luxury, creativity, wisdom

2. Consider Your Audience

Think about who will be viewing your presentation. For example, a corporate audience might prefer a professional and subdued colour palette, while an academic audience might appreciate a minimal colour palette so they can focus on the content instead of the visuals.

3. Align with Your Brand

If you're presenting on behalf of a company or organisation, ensure that your colour palette aligns with the brand's colours. Consistency in branding helps reinforce brand identity and professionalism.

4. Use Colour Harmonies

Critical thinking is an essential component of nursing practice. It involves analysing information, evaluating evidence, and making informed decisions. In a nursing essay, demonstrating critical thinking is key to showcasing your ability to tackle complex issues and provide high-quality patient care.

Colour harmonies are combinations of colours that are visually pleasing. Some common harmonies include:

Complementary Colours : Colours opposite each other on the colour wheel (e.g., blue and orange). Analogous Colours : Colours next to each other on the colour wheel (e.g., blue, green, and teal). Triadic Colours : Three colours evenly spaced around the colour wheel (e.g., red, yellow, and blue).

5. Test for Contrast and Readability

Ensure that your text is easily readable against your background colours. High contrast between text and background improves readability. Use colour contrast checkers tools to evaluate your chosen colours.

Best Colours for a PowerPoint Presentation

While the best colours for a PowerPoint presentation depend on your specific needs, some colour combinations are universally effective. Here are a few recommendations:

1. Blue and White

Why it works : Blue is calming and professional, making it suitable for corporate presentations. White provides a clean and high-contrast background for text. Example : Use a blue background with white text and accents. You can also incorporate shades of blue for a more dynamic look.

2. Black and Yellow

Why it works : Black and yellow create a strong contrast, making your text highly readable. Yellow adds a touch of creativity and warmth. Example : Use a black background with yellow headings and white body text for a striking and easy-to-read presentation.

3. Green and White

Why it works : Green is associated with growth and tranquillity, making it ideal for presentations related to health, the environment, or finance. White keeps the design clean and readable. Example : Use a green background with white text. Incorporate darker shades of green for headings and accents.

4. Grey and Blue

Why it works : Grey provides a neutral and sophisticated backdrop, while blue adds a touch of professionalism and trustworthiness. Example : Use a light grey background with dark blue text. Add blue highlights for emphasis.

Tips for Using Colours in Your PowerPoint Presentation

• Limit Your Colour Palette : Stick to 2-3 primary colours to keep your presentation cohesive and avoid overwhelming your audience.
• Use Colours Consistently : Apply your colour palette consistently throughout your presentation to maintain a professional and unified look.
• Highlight Important Information : Use a contrasting colour to highlight key points or important information.
• Avoid Clashing Colours : Ensure that your chosen colours work well together and do not clash, which can distract and confuse your audience.
• Consider Accessibility : Make sure your colour choices are accessible to all audience members, including those with colour vision deficiencies. Use high contrast and avoid relying solely on colour to convey information.

PowerPoint Background Colour

The background colour of your PowerPoint slides sets the stage for your entire presentation. Here are some tips for choosing the best background colour:

Light Backgrounds : White or light-coloured backgrounds are clean and versatile. They work well with dark text and are ideal for professional and minimalist presentations. Dark Backgrounds : Dark backgrounds like black, navy, or dark grey can create a modern and sophisticated look. They work well with light text and are effective for presentations with visual elements such as photos or videos. Gradient Backgrounds : Gradients can add depth and interest to your slides. Use subtle gradients that transition smoothly between two similar colours.

Choosing the best colours for your PowerPoint presentation involves understanding colour psychology, considering your audience, aligning with your brand, and testing for contrast and readability. By carefully selecting a colour palette, you can create a visually appealing and effective presentation that captures your audience's attention and conveys your message clearly.

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How to cite ChatGPT

Use discount code STYLEBLOG15 for 15% off APA Style print products with free shipping in the United States.

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

• Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
• Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.

We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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17 Team-Building Activities for In-Person, Remote, and Hybrid Teams

• Rebecca Knight

Employees with strong relationships at work are more creative, collaborative, and likely to stay with their organization.

Managers sometimes turn to team-building activities to build connections between colleagues. But which activities and practices would work best for your team? And how can you put them into action most effectively? In this article, the author offers advice and recommendations from three experts. Their activity suggestions are intended to inspire ideas that you can then tailor to your team’s size, sensibilities, and circumstances. These activities don’t need to be extravagant or overly structured — what matters is being intentional about making team building happen. Stay attentive to your team members’ needs, involve colleagues in planning, and show sincere interest in getting to know them. By doing so, you’ll help build a positive, inclusive team culture that tackles loneliness and helps everyone succeed together.

In the era of remote work and scattered teams, managers face a key challenge: fostering connections among employees, no matter where they happen to be located.

• RK Rebecca Knight is a journalist who writes about all things related to the changing nature of careers and the workplace. Her essays and reported stories have been featured in The Boston Globe, Business Insider, The New York Times, BBC, and The Christian Science Monitor. She was shortlisted as a Reuters Institute Fellow at Oxford University in 2023. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade as an editor and reporter at the Financial Times in New York, London, and Boston.

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Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025

The former president and his backers aim to strengthen the power of the White House and limit the independence of federal agencies.

Donald J. Trump intends to bring independent regulatory agencies under direct presidential control. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times

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By Jonathan Swan Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman

• Published July 17, 2023 Updated July 18, 2023

Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.

Their plans to centralize more power in the Oval Office stretch far beyond the former president’s recent remarks that he would order a criminal investigation into his political rival, President Biden, signaling his intent to end the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence from White House political control.

Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.

Mr. Trump intends to bring independent agencies — like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses — under direct presidential control.

He wants to revive the practice of “impounding” funds, refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated for programs a president doesn’t like — a tactic that lawmakers banned under President Richard Nixon.

He intends to strip employment protections from tens of thousands of career civil servants, making it easier to replace them if they are deemed obstacles to his agenda. And he plans to scour the intelligence agencies, the State Department and the defense bureaucracies to remove officials he has vilified as “the sick political class that hates our country.”

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