most people who get flagged for ai writing make the same mistakes. not complicated ones. obvious ones that are easy to fix once you know about them.

1. submitting the first draft

the number one mistake. generate text with chatgpt, skim it, submit. zero editing. the text carries every ai pattern at full strength. detectors catch it instantly because you gave them the easiest possible target.

fix: never submit a first draft. ever. edit it, rewrite it, or run it through paraai's paraphrase. anything except submitting raw output.

2. keeping chatgpt's structure

chatgpt loves a specific structure. intro paragraph explaining what the article will cover. three to five sections with headers. each section is two paragraphs. conclusion that restates everything. it's a template and detectors know it.

fix: rearrange the structure. merge sections. delete the intro that restates the title. cut the conclusion that summarizes what you just said. make it less predictable.

3. leaving the filler phrases

"it's important to note." "in today's rapidly evolving landscape." "let's dive in." "without further ado." these are ai fingerprints. real people don't write like this.

fix: search your text for these phrases. delete them all. every one. if the sentence works without them, they were filler.

4. uniform sentence length

read your text and count the words in each sentence. if they're all between 15 and 25 words, that's ai rhythm. human writing has 3-word sentences and 40-word sentences and everything in between.

fix: deliberately vary your sentences. chop some in half. combine others. add a fragment. the messier the rhythm, the more human it reads.

5. not adding personal examples

ai text is generic. it talks about concepts without grounding them in specific experience. "many students find that..." vs "when i took organic chemistry last semester..."

fix: add at least one specific, personal detail per section. something only you would know. this is the single most effective way to humanize any text.

6. using ai-generated citations

ai makes up sources. confidently. with real-sounding author names and journal titles. professors check these. the citation doesn't exist. now you've got an integrity issue on top of an ai detection issue.

fix: never trust an ai citation. verify every source manually. if you can't find it, delete it and find a real one.

7. skipping the final check

you edited the text, ran it through a paraphraser, feel confident. you don't check the detector score. your professor does. surprise.

fix: always check with the same detector your professor or client uses before submitting. gptzero is free. originality.ai has a free tier. paraai's fine-tuned rewriting usually gets scores to single digits, but verify anyway. two minutes of checking saves a lot of problems.

the pattern

every mistake on this list is about taking shortcuts. submitting too fast. skipping steps. not checking the output. untraceable ai writing requires a process. the people who get caught are the ones who skip it.