Academic integrity in English and writing classes

Yes. A writing process report shows all copy-paste events larger than 25 characters (by default). In the report, you can see what was pasted and when it was pasted. A writing process report has a dedicated section called Paste Events. Check out our sample writing process report.

Whether or not students feel anxious often depends on how you introduce Process Feedback, as well as your teaching context and grade level.

Ideally, you'll encourage students to review their own work and complete reflection assignments so they stay in control of their learning. It's also important to let them know in advance that you'll be asking them to share their writing process. For more details, please see our Teacher Guides for an example announcement you can share with your class.

Copy-pasting text or code itself may or may not be a concern depending on the context and an instructor's requirements. Sometimes a student may copy-paste their own text from elsewhere, so students should not be penalized simply for copy-pasting.

However, students can be penalized for not following directions. If the requirement in your assignment is to use the Process Feedback editor throughout their writing or coding process and not copy-paste at all, you have the rubric in place to grade accordingly.

Absolutely. Google stores the edit history for all Docs by default. Our extension retrieves, cleans, and processes this data to create an interactive report. That means it works even on documents written years ago, even 12 years back.

No. It does not give an AI score or label a student as a cheater. It shows how a piece of work was written: writing time, revisions, copy-paste events, and when text appeared. You decide what the record means, usually after talking with the student. The guide on identifying AI-assisted writing patterns explains what is worth a closer look.

It is possible in principle, for example by retyping AI-generated text by hand or using an auto-typing tool. Retyped text often shows up as steady top-to-bottom writing with very little revision. Faking a real pattern of drafting, deleting, and revising over several days usually takes more work than doing the assignment. Treat the report as one piece of evidence, not proof.

The report shows the essay arriving as one or more large pastes, with little writing time in the document. That is why it helps to tell students at the start to do all their writing in the Google Doc or in a writing space. If a student says they drafted elsewhere, you can ask for the original file. The student submission guide explains this to students.

Yes. A report shows the drafting and revising behind the work, which a detection score cannot. Students can install the extension and create a report for a Google Doc they have already written, then share it as a link or a PDF. See the student guides.

Yes. Process Feedback can analyze each tab of a Google Doc separately. See how to explore Google Docs with multiple tabs.

When students use voice typing in Google Docs, the resulting text is captured through Google Docs’ revision history. Voice-typed content often appears as larger blocks of inserted text and may be flagged as paste events labeled as “possibly voice-typed.” The report shows what text was added and when, but it does not capture audio or speech.