The use of the artificial intelligence-powered writing assistant Grammarly is no longer allowed in all high school English classes, and while many students don’t feel personally affected, the students who did rely on the tool feel disappointed.
This fall, the English department reinforced its policy on generative AI by banning all subscription levels of Grammarly due to its new feature of giving AI-generated writing suggestions even in its free version.
All English teachers now have a bolded or highlighted section on their syllabus based on the department’s policy, which reads: “Generative AI refers to software such as ChatGPT, Gemini, all levels of Grammarly, or plug-in tools that generate and suggest ideas, content, structure or language for you. These tools are not allowed on assignments.”
The English department’s policy forbids any kind of writing that is not a student’s own. This includes tutors, parents and generative AI. According to English teacher Maja Teref, Grammarly now not only makes grammar suggestions alone but also AI-generated phrases.
“It has now embedded itself in the realms of word choice and syntax or sentence structure, which are much deeper levels of language than grammar rules, and by doing so, Grammarly is now capable not only of correcting surface grammatical errors but changing the meaning of what you write,” Ms. Teref said.
Many students had relied on Grammarly, believing it was better than the spelling and grammar suggestions in Google Docs, and used it to meet grammar requirements for their essays. Sophomore Zeidan Rowe used Grammarly before this year and viewed it as a good tool for students who needed help with their grammar.
“I don’t personally like that they got rid of it, but it makes sense that they did because it’s the more ethical thing to do,” he said.
However, many other students, such as sophomore Tal Neiman, did not like Grammarly as a tool and completely agreed with the English department’s decision.
“I don’t think it’s even a well-designed program,” she said. “It misreads your tone a lot, sometimes it offers suggestions that sound robotic and overall I don’t think it’s that helpful.”
English teachers were asked to notify and explain the change to their classes and to parents during parent-teacher conferences. English department chair Rachel Nielsen said that she and Dean of Students Ana Campos had to conduct many academic dishonesty meetings over writing that AI-detection software had flagged. Ms. Campos is now meeting with other departments to discuss a schoolwide ban on Grammarly.
Ms. Teref and Ms. Nielsen both stressed the importance of a student’s academic writing being their own to preserve the student’s own voice, even if it isn’t perfect.
Ms. Nielsen said, “We’re working with high school students. We don’t expect that language to somehow be Ph.D.-level and sophisticated. We just want it to feel more authentic.”
Sophomore Liam Evans, who started using Grammarly in eighth grade because spell check in Google Docs often didn’t work, had to return to it this year.
Liam said, “I just wanted a more reliable spell check, but now that I’ve switched back to the Google Docs spell check, I’ve discovered that it actually works better than it did two years ago, and it’s better at recognizing misspellings.”
Ms. Nielsen said that teachers want students to realize the harm of using generative AI and for students to trust their own voice.
“Maybe it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I think for us, as writers and teachers of writing, we think it’s just really important that students own their own words and own their own choices,” she said, “and learn their voice before some program is telling them how to make it sound better.”
