PWR GenAI Policy FAQs

Does using platforms like Grammarly violate the PWR AI policy?  

Use of any platform that suggests substitutions or changes specifically related to tone, structure, content, concision, or addressing a specific audience is prohibited by the PWR policy.  Specifically in relation to Grammarly, while students can safely use some of its basic autocorrect features (see FAQ #2), using the enhanced features of Grammarly Pro (which the website advertises as an “AI partner”) or features that suggest substitutions related to word choice or organization violates policy in that the software program actively rewrites/revises student prose, changing the language in relation to both style and substance.

Does autocorrect on Google Docs or Microsoft Word count as AI? 

While Google Docs, Word, and other writing platforms are beginning to incorporate AI, at this point simple autocorrect (when the platform suggests a correct spelling or punctuation as you write – not when you input text for “correction” and revision) is acceptable. Grammarly’s basic (free) autocorrect functions, through which it highlights/identifies typos, punctuation errors, and grammar issues, are acceptable to use for the same reason.  Again, consider the difference between a program that corrects misspellings and relatively minor surface matters and programs that revise the writing in relation to content, context, organization, and style.

Can students use AI to help them understand an assignment in PWR? 

PWR assignment sheets are the intellectual property of the lecturer and Stanford University, and it is against PWR policy to upload PWR assignment sheets or course materials (including sample essays)  unless the PWR lecturer has given explicit approval to do so. That said, you can ask AI questions about guidelines for writing a particular type of assignment, as long as you do all the writing yourself in completing the assignment.

Can students use AI to help them with the peer review or peer feedback process? 

Students should not upload other students’ work (considered their intellectual property) – whether that be their classmates’ work contributed for peer feedback sessions or sample student essays – into an LLM or genAI to prompt the tool to generate suggestions for revision.  This includes any examples of student writing from previous students provided by the instructor. Using AI to craft, expand, or polish peer review end comments based on the peer reviewers’ notes or input is not explicitly against policy, although individual instructors may decide to prohibit this use case in their class. Check with your instructor about what is permissible for your PWR section.

Can students use AI to find sources for their PWR projects? 

According to PWR policies, AI can be used to find sources as part of conducting research, as long as students read the sources themselves and do not rely on AI summary or analysis when engaging with the text to incorporate into their research-based writing. It is strongly recommended that, even if the PWR instructor allows AI use for researching, students also incorporate searches using Stanford’s Searchworks and Articles+ resources as well as Google Scholar. This policy may be modified by individual PWR instructors to be more restrictive, depending on their course design and individual course policies.

Can students use AI to help them format citations in a particular academic style? 

It does not violate general PWR policy for students to ask genAI to help them format citations in a particular style, such as MLA, APA, etc. This functionality operates in a similar way to citation management platforms like RefWorks and Zotero, tools specifically designed to produce correct citations, the use of which is in fact encouraged by many PWR instructors. Note that AI tools cannot be counted on to generate correct citation formats (in part due to universal updates to citation style), so students always should proofread AI-generated citations and are ultimately responsible for their accuracy.  Also note that some lecturers may impose more stringent AI guidelines that would prohibit using AI in this way; when in doubt, students should double-check with their instructor. 

How should students navigate built-in AI aids they encounter while researching, such as JSTOR summaries of articles or AI overviews on Google? 

AI-generated summaries and overviews that increasingly appear automatically in search engines as embedded features can provide helpful summaries while you’re trying to quickly assess whether an article is appropriate for your research project. However, these summaries are not public domain (and not always reliable) and should not be inserted into your writing and should not substitute for engagement with the sources you plan to use in your research-based writing. In addition, students should not prompt genAI to provide summaries for readings; rather they should read the complete article/text themselves. Again, although the summaries generated by AI might serve as a starting point, they should lead you to engage with the sources and write about them yourself as part of the research process. Note that this policy may be modified by individual PWR instructors to be more restrictive, depending on their course design and individual course policies.

Can students use AI to produce annotations for an annotated bibliography? 

PWR policy prohibits students from incorporating writing produced by genAI for their assignments, which includes annotations and summaries for an annotated bibliography. Even if a research platform, such as JSTOR, has provided an AI summary of an article or other text, students are expected to write the annotations for the sources in their bibliography themselves, in their own words, informed by their engagement with the text in question.

Can students use AI to create slides or slide decks for presentations?  

In terms of the general PWR policy, students may not use AI or advanced AI-enhanced templates to create slides based on prompts that supply the AI with raw material to turn into slides or ask AI to generate material for the slide. Using non-AI generated design templates (where the student manually inserts their own content and writing) from sites like Canva and Google Slides is discouraged but not prohibited by PWR’s genAI policy. Note that this policy related to slides may be modified by individual PWR instructors to be more restrictive, depending on their course design and individual course policies.

Can students use AI to create infographics or imagery for use in presentations or essays? 

Students may use AI to generate infographics and other imagery for presentations as long as they (students) provide the data and use AI simply to design the visual element. Data contained in the infographic must be appropriately cited in the presentation or essay and AI usage in this regard (since the AI is the “author” of the infographic) should be cited as well. An exception would be a class where the infographic or image itself constitutes one of the major assignments for the course; in this case, AI cannot be used to generate the infographic or imagery. As stated in reference to the above questions, PWR instructors may implement more restrictive policies related to genAI use for infographics and visual texts in alignment with their individual class policies.

Does the PWR AI policy apply to advanced PWR courses or just PWR 1 and PWR 2? 

The PWR AI policy applies to all courses taught through the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, including advanced PWR courses.