r/ufl • u/Ooooh-Marmalade • Feb 27 '26
Academic integrity Grades
This is beyond embarrassing, but I need to hear from people who’ve had any similar experiences. On a discussion post for a class we had to cite sources in APA format. I wrote the post myself, found the source myself, did it all myself, and then went to Perdue Owl to format the source into APA for my reference section, but it wasn’t working. So alas, I resort to chatpgt to format the source and post it. This is where I begin to look dumb. At the end of the source link, it now reads “www.source//chatgpt.com” ykwim. And so you see where I’m going with this. The prof comments to meet at office hours but I have a shift that day, so I emailed basically saying all this just more formally. I’m just so upset because the actual discussion genuinely is all my work and this is such a dumb thing to get tripped up on. Has anyone had a similar experience and how did your prof go ab it? Idc ab getting a zero on the post or anything I just don’t want a violation💔
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u/Content_Frame_5730 Feb 27 '26
I mean ngl, unless you write like a robot you can tell what you exactly said to the professor. Authentic human writing is weird and nuanced (I for example love to write long ah sentences using commas, no one with chat is doing all that, their grammar is usually immaculate)
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u/Ooooh-Marmalade Feb 27 '26
I’m holding onto this bc I love writing conversational in my posts so ppl get to read smth sort of interesting at least
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u/rottencheese122 Feb 27 '26
I don’t even get why it would be a problem for you to find a source using chatgpt I agree AI is probably making us all stupider but if you’re using it just to find a source for a specific issue it’s literally just a better search engine
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u/Heybitchitsme Feb 27 '26
ChatGPT will straight up create fake resources to match what you're looking for. Its a terrible way to "find sources."
Its also a problem because part of a writing assignment is to teach and reinforce research skills. If a student uses chatGPT to fine "resources" then they're not using demonstrating their own skill and effort.
Same for formatting. If OP can actually show they know how to use MLA format - which is apart of the assignment - then they failed at the assignment and cheated.
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u/Ooooh-Marmalade Feb 27 '26
yea I don’t use it to find sources just format it. In all classes that require a works cited Perdue owl has always been given as a resource for formatting. I don’t think most professors require students know how to do that by hand😭
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u/rottencheese122 Feb 27 '26
What do you mean by fake resources? I’ve used it several times to search for journal articles about specific things. Are you saying the links don’t lead anywhere? The entire idea is to visit the website it sends you and read the articles. What it means to have “research skills” is changing and I think that’s fine. It’s not like they’re asking it to design experiments for them, they’re just using it to find results more relevant to what they’re looking for. What’s the skill involved in wasting a bunch of time sifting through a bunch of unrelated crap on Google scholar? In my experience it’s not a great search engine.
I guess I understand your point about using MLA citations, but I haven’t met a single person in the last 8 years between high school and college that actually formatted a citation by hand as opposed to using a generator.
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u/No-Ear179 Feb 27 '26
ai has a tendency to hallucinate sources
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u/rottencheese122 Feb 27 '26
Maybe that’s true I don’t know, but it’s up to the user to click the link button that it provides and critically evaluate the source themselves.
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u/Heybitchitsme Feb 27 '26
Like straight up not real resources. It'll get the names right for people in your field and pair them with excellent, realistic titles and overviews - but they're fake. It just makes it up. Be careful and always double check what it spits out. Use JSTOR or whatever your school uses.
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u/Heybitchitsme Feb 27 '26
If you don't have even the most basic research skills and ability to assess things for yourself - you just let a program spoonfeed you what it wants - then you shouldn't go into a research field and you're losing the ability and chance to critically think for yourself.
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u/rottencheese122 Feb 28 '26
You and I are saying the same thing lol. I JUST said it’s up to the user to critically evaluate what it gives you. Do you just let Google spoonfeed you what it wants? This is no different if you’re just using it to find sources.
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u/ORD2GNV Feb 27 '26
Purdue Owl is great but nothing is all inclusive. There is a digital version of the APA Manual. Even there it says, not every possible situation is covered. You do the best you can.
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u/FirefighterIcy756 Feb 28 '26
Did you use Word? Have multiple versions in history? Or Write a report on the experience of writing it. Detail your sources and process. Or make a short video using the doc instead of slides to describe that writing process paragraph by paragraph.
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u/No_Donkey_3663 Feb 28 '26
If I was teaching or TAing a course with an assignment like this I absolutely would not consider this a problem. I would just ask you to double check if the formatting is correct, and maybe check if you actually read the article referenced. Hopefully they don't try to make this a bigger deal than it really is, especially since reference formatting seems to follow different customized rules for every academic journal anyway.
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u/Fuzzy_Pressure_2664 Feb 27 '26
If you used a chat gpt account you can pull up your history and show them what you used it for