8 The Grammarly Girl: A Case of “Unintentional Cheating”

Introduction

In October 2023, Marley Stevens, a student at the University of North Georgia (UNG), received a zero on a two page paper she wrote about recidivism rates for her criminal justice class. After she submitted the paper the professor informed her that the use of AI was detected through the submission website Turnitin (Forrester, 2024). Stevens claims she only used the tool Grammarly to simply review her grammar, something she had always done for all her papers (M. Stevens, personal communication, October 16th, 2024). In a moment of frustration and in an attempt to warn others about what she saw as the possibility of being unfairly accused of cheating, Stevens uploaded a video to the social media platform Tiktok to explain her story (Forrester, 2024). Stevens mentioned how she felt the university had no intention of addressing her situation until her Tiktok video started gaining public attention, which resulted in the professor reporting Stevens to the student integrity committee. It was then that Stevens was required to attend a disciplinary hearing; however, despite her efforts to defend herself, the university reported Stevens for unintentional cheating, revoked her scholarship and required her to attend academic integrity workshops (Menezes, 2024).

University of North Georgia

Stated in the university’s student code of conduct policy, plagiarism is defined as “the use of another person or agency (to include artificial intelligence) ideas or expressions without acknowledging the source”(UNG, 2024). In essence, all work must be authentic to the student with no help from other individuals or resources, including the use of AI. In this regard, the use of Grammarly was deemed as plagiarism; however, on one UNG webpage, Grammarly is listed as a recommended resource for promoting “grammar and style” (UNG, 2024).

Stevens claims that her professor stated in the class syllabus that AI is not to be used, clarifying in person that when writing assignments, the use of AI is prohibited (M. Stevens, personal communication, October 16th, 2024). After this incident, and Stevens’ TikTok video, Stevens mentions that the university’s Office of Academic Integrity sent a mass email to all students informing them that papers turned in using grammar checkers such as Grammarly are being flagged for containing AI.

Grammarly and Turnitin

Grammarly and Turnitin are key players in Stevens’ experience. Grammarly started out as a tool used to review spelling, grammar and punctuation in writing; however, it has transformed into an artificial intelligence writing tool. Grammarly now markets itself as “free AI writing assistance,”  that uses “responsible AI to ensure your writing and reputation shine” (Grammarly, 2024). Grammarly currently has three different versions: free, pro and enterprise. All versions are able to generate text using AI prompts, with pro and enterprise versions providing assistance in writing full sentences, adjusting tone, and screening for plagiarism. Over  3,000 institutions have signed up for Grammarly institutional accounts, suggesting its use to students; Stanford University, for example, is one of many institutions displayed on the Grammarly website (Grammarly, 2024).

Turnitin, on the other hand, is a plagiarism detection software which aims to promote academic integrity, deter plagiarism and make grading and feedback efficient. The software scans student work and compares it to a massive database of content to find similarities. A similarity report is produced as a percentage and students or educators can look into details to see what similarities exist and how similar writing is (Smith, 2022). Turnitin also has tools for detecting AI writing tool use within submissions.

According to Turnitin, Stevens’ entire report was positive for AI use. Grammarly has stated that its suggestions for spelling, grammar, clarity, and tone are not powered by generative AI, but highlight that some tools can flag this as AI generated content (Settembre, 2024). Jenny Maxwell, Grammarly’s head of education, claims that AI detectors can often be inaccurate (Young, 2024), and indeed, flaws in AI detection are even recognised by Turnitin. Turnitin has stated that its AI detection tool is not always reliable as inconsistencies with false positives in AI detection and unflagged bot-written text may still remain (Chechitelli, 2023).

Conclusion

Stevens mentions that she did receive a hearing, but claims that the university had no intention of helping her until she took her story to social media. Stevens is not allowed to appeal her case, since she was not expelled, suspended or removed from her program (M. Stevens, personal communication, October 16th, 2024). However, Stevens did in fact fail the class, resulting in the loss of both her scholarship and grant, and was placed on academic probation until February 16th, 2025 (M. Stevens, personal communication, October 16th, 2024). Despite all of this, Stevens has not given up with her studies, and as of Fall 2024 was taking five classes at UNG, interning, and working (M. Stevens, personal communication, October 16th 2024).

Stevens also explained that Grammarly has recently launched a program called Authorship (M. Stevens, personal communication, October 16th, 2024). Authorship is connected through the browser and Google Docs, it is designed to differentiate text that is typed or pasted through known or unknown sources. Authorship can also detect text that has been generated from AI and modified from features used from non-generative such as grammar correction; all text sources are viewable to the user and composed in the body of the google doc (Grammarly support, 2024). The initiative was developed in response to what happened to Stevens, and to prevent further cases. Finally, Stevens was invited to speak with Grammarly at the yearly conference of Educause, an American nonprofit organization that promotes technology in higher education, which she saw as a significant personal milestone.

Discussion Questions

1. Has this case altered your own personal views and opinions on Grammarly or other “AI tools” for correcting grammar or writing?
2. Do you think bringing the situation to TikTok helped or worsened Stevens’ case?
3. How would you have dealt with this situation if you were in her position?
4. Stevens was told she was “unintentionally cheating”. What is unintentional cheating? Do you think she should have been penalized to this extent if it was unintentional? If any, what consequence(s) do you think appropriate for unintentionally cheating?
5. Based on your own experience, do you believe Turnitin is a valid source to detect plagiarism?

References

Chechitelli, A. (2023, May 23). AI writing detection update from Turnitin’s Chief Product Officer. https://www.turnitin.com/blog/ai-writing-detection-update-from-turnitins-chief-product-officer

Effective servicenow tickets. University of North Georgia. (n.d.-b). https://ung.edu/web-communications/centralized-editing/sn-tips-resources.php

Forrester, F. (2024, February 29). The case of marley stevens, aka the grammarly girl. Vanguard. https://ungvanguard.org/35676/academics/the-case-of-marley-stevens-aka-the-grammarly-girl/

Grammarly. (2024). https://www.grammarly.com/

Introducing grammarly authorship – grammarly support. Grammarly. (2024). https://support.grammarly.com/hc/en-us/articles/29548735595405-Introducing-Grammarly-Authorship

Menezes, D. (2024, March 4). Student fights academic probation for using Grammarly [Text]. The Hill.https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/education/4506271-student-fights-ai-cheating-allegations-for-using-grammarly/

Settembre, J. (2024, February 21). College student put on probation for using Grammarly: ‘AI violation’. https://nypost.com/2024/02/21/tech/student-put-on-probation-for-using-grammarly-ai-violatio

Smith, P. W. (2022, October 5). Does Turnitin detect plagiarism?. https://www.turnitin.com/blog/does-turnitin-detect-plagiarism

Young, J. (2024). What happened after this college student’s paper was falsely flagged for AI use after using Grammarly. https://www.fastcompany.com/91074029/can-using-grammarly-set-off-ai-detection-software