Will Grammarly Cause a False AI Flag on Turnitin? ESL Student Worried About Grammar Corrections
Hi everyone. I’m an international student, and English is my second language. I’m trying really hard to improve my writing skills. For my composition class, I wrote my essay completely by myself, but after finishing the draft, I used the free version of Grammarly to fix small grammar issues like missing commas, articles, and verb agreement because my professor often deducts points for those mistakes.
Now I’m extremely anxious because our school uses Turnitin with an AI detection tool. I’ve read online that if writing looks “too polished” or grammatically clean, it can sometimes get flagged as AI-generated. The problem is that I did not use ChatGPT or any AI writer to create the essay. I only accepted small corrections such as changing “in” to “into,” fixing punctuation, or correcting phrases like “do a mistake” to “make a mistake.” I avoided rewrite, paraphrasing, and tone-changing features completely.
My professor said proofreading tools are allowed, but the syllabus is vague. It says we may use “spellcheck and limited grammar correction tools,” but not “generative writing assistance.” I honestly do not know where the line is.
I’m worried that a high AI score could make the professor think I cheated even though the ideas, structure, and writing are mine. I saved my drafts in Google Docs and can show the editing history if needed.
For context, my essay is about 1,200 words, and Grammarly only suggested around 12 small fixes total. Mostly articles, punctuation, and one phrase correction.
Would this level of editing realistically look suspicious to Turnitin? Also, would adding a short note like “Proofread using Grammarly for minor grammar corrections only” help demonstrate honesty, or would that make things worse?
I would really appreciate advice from professors or students who have dealt with this before. Thank you.