How to review an AI-assisted assignment before submission

Before submitting an AI-assisted assignment, put three things beside the draft: the assignment instructions, your notes and the sources you actually read. Work through them in that order. Leave sentence polish until you have checked what the paper is being asked to argue.

Match the draft to the assignment

Write the task in one line: compare two explanations, defend a position, or summarize a reading. Use the wording of your assignment, not the wording of your AI prompt. Mark paragraphs that do not help complete that task and decide whether to cut or relocate them.

Check the course rules for permitted AI assistance and any required disclosure. If the rules are unclear, ask the instructor before submission. Keep your notes and intermediate drafts so you can explain how you reached the final argument.

Compare paraphrases with their sources

Purdue OWL recommends checking a paraphrase against its original for essential information and accuracy.

Use this invented example for practice: a source note says, “The participants reported less fatigue after the break.” A draft says, “Breaks improve everyone's performance.” Flag the new population, the new outcome and the stronger causal claim. A closer paraphrase would be, “After the break, participants said they felt less tired.” Cite the actual source when doing this with your own research.

For each quotation, check the wording and location. For each reference, open the source and check that it supports the sentence beside the citation. Mark missing evidence as an editing task instead of filling the gap with a plausible title.

NIST's generative-AI risk guidance includes verification of sources and citations in generated outputs.

Finish with a reader's check

Read only the first sentence of each paragraph. Does the argument progress, or does it keep restating the introduction? Give each paragraph a job, then read the whole draft aloud to catch abrupt transitions and repeated wording.

Use the final pass for names, spelling, citation format and submission requirements. Do not replace a qualified claim with a confident one just to improve the tone. If a passage still feels padded, review its wording in Neuroslop, then compare the revision with your notes before keeping it.

Try it yourself: check any text for AI with the free Neuroslop detector.