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PARTLY

As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly write your university essay.

This still needs a person who signs their name to it.

Can you do it?

5 minutesto a draft.

1 hourto something you’d act on.

Cost, all in£0

Skill neededchat-fluent

Who has to check ityou

What the alternative costsThe supplied tool list names Gamma as an AI tool for documents, but gives no price for it.

If this goes wrong: you submit inaccurate or copied work, breach your university's rules and risk a poor mark or academic misconduct process.

What to actually do

  1. Hand it to a person

    The route this page recommends

    A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

  2. Use a tool built for this

    Second choice

  3. Do it yourself

    The distant third

    A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

    How to actually do it

    1. Open your university's assignment brief and academic integrity or acceptable-use policy, then copy the exact essay question, word count, marking criteria and AI rules.
    2. Gather the lecture notes, reading list and approved academic sources you are allowed to use, and copy the relevant extracts with their author, title and page details.
    3. Write your own provisional answer to the question in a few sentences, including the argument you currently think the essay should make and any points you do not understand.
    4. Paste the question, requirements, your notes and the source extracts into a chatbot using the prompt, then ask it to produce the thesis, paragraph plan and labelled draft in that order.
    5. Open every supplied source and compare it with the draft's claims, quotations, page numbers and references; replace every [SOURCE NEEDED] marker and delete any claim you cannot support.
    6. Rewrite the argument, examples and conclusions in your own words, check the essay against the marking criteria and word count, and compare the final version with your university's AI-use policy before submitting it.

    Prompt

    Help me develop a university essay from the materials I provide, without inventing facts, quotations, sources or references.

Essay question: [PASTE THE EXACT QUESTION]
Word count: [WORD COUNT]
Course and level: [COURSE AND LEVEL]
Marking criteria: [PASTE THE RUBRIC]
Required referencing style: [REFERENCING STYLE]
Deadline and format requirements: [REQUIREMENTS]
My notes and argument so far: [PASTE YOUR NOTES]
Approved sources or extracts: [PASTE THEM HERE]

First, identify the question's key terms and propose a clear, arguable thesis based only on my notes and sources. Then produce a detailed paragraph plan showing each paragraph's claim, evidence, explanation and link to the thesis. After that, draft the essay in a clear academic style, keeping claims within the supplied evidence. Mark any missing evidence as [SOURCE NEEDED] rather than guessing. Use only the sources I supplied, do not fabricate page numbers or citations, and do not present unsupported claims as facts.

After the draft, provide:
1. A table matching each factual claim and quotation to the supplied source.
2. A list of places where my own analysis or a source is still needed.
3. A checklist against the marking criteria and word count.
4. A short list of sentences that I should rewrite in my own words so the final submission reflects my understanding.

Do not claim that the essay is ready to submit. Keep the structure and reasoning visible so I can check and revise it myself.

    Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

What it gets wrong

  • AI cannot know which interpretation your tutor expects beyond the wording of the brief and rubric.
  • It cannot replace your reading of the sources or decide whether evidence genuinely supports your argument.
  • It can invent references, quotations and confident explanations that look academic until you check the original material.
  • It cannot make submitting generated prose acceptable where your university requires the work to be your own.
  • The final academic and disciplinary consequences remain yours, not the chatbot's.

What caps this at PARTLY: legal accountability, verification cost and judgement under ambiguity.

How we scored this

Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.

AxisScore (0–2)
Output2
Inputs1
Verification1
Liability0
Effort delta2
Total6 / 10

The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.

FAQ

Can ChatGPT write my university essay?
It can produce a coherent essay draft, but that does not make it safe to submit as your own. Use it for structure, explanation and language support, then check every claim and follow your university's academic integrity and AI-use rules.
Can my university tell if AI wrote my essay?
AI detectors are not a reliable substitute for checking the work itself, but tutors can notice weak source knowledge, invented references, abrupt changes in style and arguments you cannot explain. You remain responsible for proving that the submitted work follows your university's rules.
Is it cheating to use AI to write an essay?
It depends on your university's policy and how you use the tool. Generating the final essay for submission may breach the rules, while some courses allow limited help with planning or language, so check the assignment brief and policy before using it.
How can I use AI for my essay without cheating?
Ask it to explain difficult material, test your understanding, suggest questions for further reading or organise notes you have supplied. Keep the argument and final wording under your control, verify sources yourself and disclose AI use if your university requires it.

Nearby answers

All Essays & study skills rulings

Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.

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