how to make fake assignment

🤖 AI Homework Assignment Generator

Unlock the academic excellence you dream of with the power of AI! Streamline your studies with the Homework Assignment generator.

Do you remember those sleepless nights filled with stacks of books, research papers, deadline pressure, and nerve-wracking concern over how to get scoops beyond your peers? We all do. Say goodbye to academic pressure and utilize the power of technological advancement to make your homework assignments a breeze.

Let’s dive into the future with the remarkable Homework Assignment generator! An AI-powered tool that takes the hassle out of homework, giving you more time to focus on understanding concepts and less on the reiterative task of writing. It’s not about creating a shortcut, but it’s about optimizing your learning experience and outcomes. Let’s explore more!

What Is a Homework Assignment?

A homework assignment is a task assigned by educators as an extension of classroom work typically intended for students to complete outside of class. Written exercises, reading and comprehension activities, research projects, and problem-solving exercises are a few examples of homework varieties.

However, the primary goal remains the same: to develop the learner’s understanding of a specific topic or subject, enhance their skills, complement their learning, and prepare them for subsequent class sessions.

Why Use a Homework Assignment Generator?

A homework assignment generator plays a crucial role in not only simplifying students’ academic life but also enhancing their learning journey. Here are a few reasons:

• Efficient Time Management: Unlike students, an AI-powered generator doesn’t procrastinate. It helps quickly provide homework outlines, ideas, and solutions, leaving you plenty of time for other tasks.
• Quality Content: Drawing from a vast database of resources, this generator assures top-notch content. It furnishes well-researched and factually correct information, ensuring your assignment stands out.
• Ease of Use: No complex instructions. Just input your assignment topic, and behold the AI unfolds its magic, rendering high-quality content almost instantly.
• Learning Aid: This tool should not replace learning but aid it. It brings clarity by simplifying complex topics, making them more comprehensive and easier to grasp.

In conclusion, the Homework Assignment generator aims to transform your academic life. Its primary objective is not to eliminate homework but to streamline it, making it less stressful and more rewarding. It is designed to support, not replace, the traditional teaching-learning method, highlighting what is essential for success: understanding, skill enhancement, and knowledge application. Embrace this new era of learning where technology complements traditional education, and step into the future of academic excellence.

How To Use This AI Generator:

• Click “Use Generator” to create a project instantly in your workspace.
• Click “Save Generator” to create a reusable template for you and your team.
• Customize your project , make it your own, and get work done!

DEV Community

Posted on Apr 19, 2020

Handwriting Generator I made a Text-to-handwriting tool to write my college assignments for me 🤓

Hi everyone, I hope you all are safe and doing fine!

I prefer typing over writing and college told us to write some assignments and I was bored.

So instead of spending 1 hour to write assignments, I spent 3 hours to build a tool that writes assignments for me 🎉. It is called Text-to-handwriting (see... I'm really good at naming my projects)

Text to Handwriting converts text content to an image that looks like handwriting. So this is what the output looks like:

• Draw diagrams
• Change font-size, ink color, spacing, etc.
• Upload font button for custom handwritings (so you can create a font of your handwriting from other online tools and upload the font file)

https://saurabhdaware.github.io/text-to-handwriting

Do ⭐ the repository

saurabhdaware / text-to-handwriting

So your teacher asked you to upload written assignments hate writing assigments this tool will help you convert your text to handwriting xd.

🤗 Contributing

Checkout Contribution Guide for local setup and contribution guide.

📚 Libraries used

• html2canvas - Turns DOM into Canvas.
• jsPDF - To generate PDF from images.
• cypress - Testing Library
• serve - Start local server

Bye! Have fun 🦄

Do share it with your twitter fam 🕺🏻

Saurabh Daware 🌻 (56%) @saurabhcodes I was bored to write assignment so I wrote a tool that converts text to an image that looks like handwriting xD I hope my teacher is not on twitter .___. Do RT (as long as it doesn't reach your teachers :D) github.com/saurabhdaware/… 12:22 PM - 24 Mar 2020 58 270

Thank you for reading 🐨🎉 Let me know your thoughts comments.

You can follow me on Twitter @saurabhcodes and on GitHub @saurabhdaware

Bye! stay safe and remember we are going get through this 🌻

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How To Create Your Own Website For A School Project - The Website Architect

• Website Design
• How To Create Your Own Website For A School Project

Websites are a great way to go above and beyond for a school project. If you make a website, you take your assignment to a level, not like any other student. Thankfully for you, websites can be quite cheap and easy to set up if you’re willing to learn and put the time into it. Let’s discuss different kinds of websites you can make, and different ways you can go about making one.

What kind of school project website should you make?

If your school project is open-ended it can be difficult to figure out what kind of website to make. Heres a list of 5 ideas to get you started:

• Create an online portfolio to display your student work. This is a great way to build upon and share existing art or science projects.
• Have a website that walks through the steps of a science experiment that they conducted in class, or share the story behind the experiment.
• Start a school newspaper or literary magazine with student contributors (you’ll want to use WordPress if you’re doing this one).
• A website about a field trip that your class took.
• A website promoting an upcoming event at your school.

For a more comprehensive list see the full list of school website project ideas .

How can I create a simple school project website?

There are plenty of ways you can go about making a website now-a-days, you can use a website builder, code it yourself, or even use a mix of both coding and visual page building. What one you decide to go with can help you choose what platform you want to use to make your website.

Hand-coding your website is a great way to learn a lot and show your dedication to a school project.

Using something like Squarespace is a great way of coming up with something simple to wow your school teacher without having to look at code.

Using something like WordPress can be a great mix between them both code and visual building.

Here’s what it would look like to go about making your website for a school project using those 3 different methods.

Using HTML and CSS to hand-code your website

• This method will take 4-12 days to learn the basics of HTML and CSS and setup your website
• It will take some technical skills to learn the 2 programming languages
• Will result in a website that might not look that professional, but will demonstrate your skills and dedication. If you want your HTML website online with a live URL, you have to buy a domain and hosting. I recommend using BlueHost for hosting as its the cheapest and the most beginner-friendly platform. Otherwise, your website will work locally off of a USB or file folder. if opened through a web browser.

HTML and CSS are the basic programming languages of any website. When I first learned HTML and CSS, it was a very fun rewarding experience. In fact, I had learned it to make a website about the Peregrine Falcon for a school project myself.

To get started with learning HTML and CSS to build your first website, you first have to get a text editor. Notepad++ is probably the most popular to use when coding websites, but Sublime Text 3 is my personal favourite because of how nice it looks.

After getting an editor, let’s set up the website files.

• Make a folder on your desktop and call it whatever you want.
• Inside the folder, right-click and then click New > Rich Text Document (that’s on windows mac might be slightly different).
• Then rename the file to index.html , it might have a popup asking are you sure about something and just click yes to confirm the name change.
• Lastly, open that new HTML file in your new text editor so you can get started coding.

Next, you’ll want to start with a video. Videos are great for visual learners and following alongside when coding. Attentively, you can read through W3 Schools tutorial page by page, clicking the “next” button at the bottom to learn about HTML and CSS at your own pace.

Here’s a great video to get you started. If you want to search for something different you can just search for “html css tutorial” in YouTube.

After learning the basics and trying out some HTML code on your own, you should begin to plan out and wireframe your website . This is a mistake I always made when I first started, programming before a plan. If you do this your website will turn out ugly and nonsensical – your choice!

After a solid plan and wireframe begin making your website. This will take a lot of time and practice so be patient.

Here’s what my first website looked like when I was first learning:

Using SquareSpace to make your website

• This method will take 2-4 days to learn Squarespace and set up the website
• Squarespace doesn’t require any technical skills to make a website, but if you want the final website to be accessible by a live URL you’ll have to pay monthly (starting at $12 a month). Otherwise, you can use the 15-day free trial and sign into your website to show it off privately.
• Will result in a professional and clean looking website

If you’re looking to set up a basic website as quickly as possible for a few bucks, Squarespace should be your #1.

To get started with SquareSpace make an account and then select the template/theme you want to start with.

Getting good with Squarespace is really about just using it for a couple of hours to get used to where everything is and how it works.

If you do choose to go with Squarespace, keep in mind its limited in the different kind of functionality your website can have. For example, do you want popups? Too bad! Want a slider? Not happening.

Do remember that Squarespace is only as good as text, images and some basic e-commerce features if needed, so keep that in mind when thinking about going with Squarespace.

Using WordPress to make your website

• This method will take 4-8 days to learn and set up the website
• WordPress itself is free but it will require you to pay for a domain and hosting. I recommend using BlueHost for hosting as its the cheapest and the most beginner-friendly platform. Or you can run it locally with XAMPP .
• Will result in a professional-looking blog (or nice content-focused website if you put time into it). A great platform for blogging, having authors with articles

WordPress is the industry standard for making websites. This website (The Website Architect) is built using WordPress. With WordPress, you can make almost any website you can imagine without knowing any programming knowledge. With programming knowledge, you can take your WordPress website that much further.

There are 2 types of WordPress, wordpress.org , and wordpress.com . WordPress.com is kind of like Squarespace, with limited functionality, and pricing plans. WordPress.org is a free framework you can download (for free) to build your own super custom and limitless website .

You can use wordpress.com as an alternative to Squarespace for making a simple website, but if you use wordpress.org’s framework you website can be without limitations.

To start with wordpress.org you’ll need to buy a website domain and hosting to get your website online. It’s usually around $15 a year for a domain, and $3-$20 a month for hosting.

Once you get your hosting, you can install the WordPress framework with a click of a button in the hosting tools.

After WordPress is installed go to Appearance > Themes and pick from one of the free theme templates. From there, it’s a matter of creating pages and posts to make the website you want. You can even install plugins which are little widgets or mini-programs that make your website have even more functionality and use.

If you don’t want to build and code your own WordPress them you can use a professionally built theme or browse around for some at Envato Market’s ThemeForest is the single best place to find the best WordPress themes .

WordPress is quite big so it will take time to learn and fully explore. WordPress being so popular, 9 times out of 10 if you google how to do something specific in WordPress there will be plenty of resources to help you out.

If you want to learn web design, WordPress, and how to be an effective web developer, check out my YouTube channel to make superb websites.

• Is it difficult to create your own website?

• How To Check If A Website Is SEO Friendly

The Website Achitect

I'm The Website Architect - NOT Just another web developer from Toronto, Canada. I'm passionate about web design, WordPress, and anything UX related. My goal is to make the Internet a more beautiful and usable place, one design decision and website at a time.

Recent Posts

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• How To Remove Unused Icons For Font Awesome
• How to Practice Your Web Design Skills
• Does SEO Require Coding?
• Why is the Layout of a Website Important?
• How do you draw a website wireframe?
• How do you Find out What’s Slowing Down Your Website?

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Discussion forum for current, past, and future students of any discipline completing post-graduate studies - taught or research.

Students submitting fake "corrupt" pdfs

This is the first time I've encountered this issue since now because of the pandemic, all class assignments are to be submitted electronically. I usually like to sift through random submissions after the deadline just out of curiosity to see how students answered certain questions on their assignments.

One of my students tried to submit some fake "corrupt" pdfs. Basically if you try to open the "corrupt" pdf in any pdf viewer you will encounter an error. But if you change the extension from .pdf to .txt/.png or something else, it becomes a fully functional file. In other words, he duplicated a random file on his computer, renamed it "Assignment 1" and changed the extension to .pdf as well. The student was probably hoping that I wouldn't go through any of the assignments until a few days later, which in this time he would finish the assignment properly, and wait for my email that his files were corrupt and then he would send me his new ones.

The only thing that really tipped me off was that the assignment was pretty long and his submission file was only 60KB. I figured there was no way someone's assignment could be that small and assumed maybe the student was just not very tech-savvy and he thought he could create pdfs by simply changing the extension. So I changed the extension to .txt and tried opening it and it ended up just being some random notes he had jotted down.

Would you report this to the instructor of the course or would you just give a zero and move on? Isn't this a violation of academic integrity to submit false work? I'm TAing two courses this semester and he is in both of them. In the other course, he happened to mention that he is a continuing student and retaking courses in order to boost his grades for admission to a graduate program. My school recently changed their policy where the first violation of academic integrity is an automatic F in the course. I know sometimes people make bad decisions when they desperately need grades and I don't know if I'd be ruining his life if this goes any further...over an assignment worth about 5%...

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Handwriting text generator!

Create realistic handwritten texts.

Create Your Own Font from Your Handwriting

Upload multiple custom fonts (with different styles) or choose from standard ones

For maximum realism, adjust the positions of letters and words, and add any annotations to the text

Choose from the ones provided on the website or upload notebook and background images for your notes!

Add annotations on top of the photo of your created notes!

Extract text from photos

Print in any formats

Table Example

You can create a table with various curvature settings

Create Your Own Font

Turn your handwriting into a unique handwritten font, simply scan the template with your handwriting or draw letters right on the website.

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• School Stuff

How to Excuse Yourself from Unfinished Homework

Last Updated: June 24, 2024

This article was co-authored by Alicia Oglesby . Alicia Oglesby is a Professional School Counselor and the Director of School and College Counseling at Bishop McNamara High School outside of Washington DC. With over ten years of experience in counseling, Alicia specializes in academic advising, social-emotional skills, and career counseling. Alicia holds a BS in Psychology from Howard University and a Master’s in Clinical Counseling and Applied Psychology from Chestnut Hill College. She also studied Race and Mental Health at Virginia Tech. Alicia holds Professional School Counseling Certifications in both Washington DC and Pennsylvania. She has created a college counseling program in its entirety and developed five programs focused on application workshops, parent information workshops, essay writing collaborative, peer-reviewed application activities, and financial aid literacy events. This article has been viewed 893,507 times.

Ideally, you will always be ready for class and have your homework completed. Sometimes, however, life gets in the way and you aren’t prepared. There are several methods for developing an excuse to give your teacher for why you don’t have your homework ready, ranging from honest to deceptive.

Inventing an Elaborate Excuse

• Crumple and tear a paper assignment. Then you can tell the teacher that it flew out the window and got run over or trampled on.
• Smear dirt and water on your assignment and claim it fell in a puddle. Make sure to write a few words (bonus points if it relates to the homework assignment) so that it looks believable.
• Spill something dark (like juice or ink) on the assignment so that it is illegible.

• For instance, if you have to save work to a USB drive, you can claim to have a problem with the file.
• If you are asked to email or otherwise electronically send a homework file, you can “accidentally” send a different assignment, or the “wrong” draft (which could have just your name and the first part of the assignment, for instance). You might even be able to purchase corrupted files.
• Be aware that your teachers can be tech-savvy and know all of these tricks, so you might have to get creative. [2] X Research source

Buying Time and Stretching the Truth

• If the missed homework is for a class late in the day, you might be able to do the work before school, during another class, or during lunch or a break.
• You can hand in the wrong assignment—such as one from another class—or an old one from the same class. By the time your teacher notices the mistake, you will be able to complete the real homework, or just turn it in the next day and say you are sorry about the mix-up.
• Copy answers from a friend so you have something to turn in. Make sure your friend is ok with helping. This also only works for assignments where it is expected that students will have the same or similar answers. In some schools, even copying something like homework can merit a suspension. Remember to evaluate the situation and make a good decision as to whether or not you will copy homework off of a peer.

• A dangerous move, you can forge a note from a parent explaining why you couldn't do your homework.
• If you decide to forge one, be warned that your teacher might know it’s a fake. If you are caught, you face punishment from both your parents and teacher.

Telling the Truth

• You might say something like "I am really sorry, but I got behind on things and wasn't able to finish my homework. Could I be excused just this once? I'll turn it in tomorrow and I won't be late again."
• Keep things simple and direct, rather than annoying your teacher with long, rambling excuses.

• This means saying something like: "I know there's no excuse, and I accept full responsibility. I should have done my work. I'm sorry that I'm not prepared, and it won't happen again."
• Doing so will display maturity and your teacher might respect your honesty.

• Perhaps you are overworked and stressed (this is especially persuasive at exam time).
• If circumstances beyond your control, like an illness or death in the family, have prevented you from doing your work, say so.
• You can also explain that you didn’t understand the assignment, or struggled with it, or felt rushed, and needed to give it more time.

• Your teacher is more likely to accept the excuse if you don’t spring it on him or her at the last minute.
• You might also be able to ask for an extension so that you can turn the homework in later.
• Know your teacher’s personality, and how flexible and forgiving he or she is. When you talk to your teacher, look sad, serious, agitated, etc. depending on your excuse.

Community Q&A

• The best approach is to try to do your work on time rather than be tempted by an excuse. Don’t attempt to make excuses too often. This way, when you actually need to use one, your teacher is more likely to accept it. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• Turn in your work, even if you have to make an excuse and submit it late. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If you are able to do any of your homework, even a small amount or poor quality work, consider turning it in anyway. Having something prepared can be better than having nothing, and sometimes teachers will give you partial credit for partial work. You can also explain to your teacher that you would like to do a better job and turn it in later, if you want. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

Tips from our Readers

• I had an essay draft due, but I hadn't started. So, I pretended to not be able to find the file. It worked and my teacher even helped me a little. If that doesn't work, try asking for a short extension so you don't appear too suspicious.
• Just turn in a different homework assignment or sheet of paper. Then, finish the real homework. The next day, say that you noticed you actually turned in the wrong sheet and turn in the real assignment!
• Try not to look guilty and don't speak if you're too nervous. Also, don't talk too fast or your teacher might think that you practiced what to say.

• Be prepared to face the consequences if you get caught for using a deceptive excuse. Talk to your teacher in a mature way, explaining that you have a problem with procrastination, or feel overworked, or struggled with the assignment, etc. Thanks Helpful 54 Not Helpful 8
• Try not to lie, a bad conscious can easily come from repetitive lying. Thanks Helpful 44 Not Helpful 11
• If you get caught lying, it may lead to severe consequences with your teacher and parent/guardian. Thanks Helpful 25 Not Helpful 8

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/08/30/british-lecturer-compiles-best-student-excuses
• ↑ https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/the-computer-ate-my-homework-how-to-detect-fake-techno-excuses-2

About This Article

To excuse yourself from unfinished homework, try to make your excuse as believable as possible, like saying you were sick last night. If your homework was on a computer, claim your laptop crashed or your files were corrupted. Another thing you can try is handing in an old assignment. Then, do your actual homework before your teacher realizes. When they ask you about it, say that you accidentally handed in the wrong homework, and then give them the homework that was actually due. Even if you think you have a good excuse, your teacher’s probably heard it a dozen times before, so consider being honest with them and apologizing for falling behind. For example, say, “I’m sorry, but I wasn’t able to finish my homework this week. I had a lot of things to deal with. Is it okay if I turn it in tomorrow?” If you decide to be honest, try to tell your teacher at the beginning of class or even earlier in the day, which will make your excuse more realistic. For more tips, including how to pretend you lost your homework, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Fake Business Ideas for School Projects

Michele is a writer who has been published both locally and internationally.

Learn about our Editorial Policy .

Fake business ideas for school projects can be serious or funny depending on the parameters of your assignment. Show off your creativity and entrepreneurial skills by creating an original and comprehensive company.

Fake Product-Based Business Ideas

Some businesses are based on making or buying and then selling a specific product. Companies like Nike, Apple, and Nintendo sell products to consumers. Product-based business opportunities can take on all kinds of forms from small businesses with a charity component to large corporations giving students experience in lots of different business practices.

• Student Council Speech Ideas & Tips to Help You Win
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• Unique Passion Project Ideas for High Schoolers

Custom Pet Creator

Build a business where customers can choose all the features of their ideal pet thanks to genetic engineering. You'll need to think of every angle from how the pets will be ordered and created to how you'll stave off critics of this controversial process. The fun nature of this product and its real-world potential are ideal for a school setting because teens will need to explore building a business and the dilemma of ethics versus profit.

Replacement Robot

Have you ever wished you had a second version of yourself to cover for you on sick days or take a test you're not prepared for? Now you can with the Replacement Robot. Students may actually be able to build a robot prototype to use in testing their business, even if it's on a smaller scale. Creating a business teens can actually run takes their project to the next level in understanding the complexities of being an entrepreneur.

Rent-A-Cell Phone Center

Forget disappearing messages on apps, the ultimate way to call or message someone with complete anonymity is a Rent-A-Cell Phone Center. At your kiosks, anyone can pick up one of the provided cell phones and use it for any length of time. A mobile phone business project like this gives teens the chance to explore franchising within their business as that might be an option for how to get these phone centers all over the place.

False Combination Locks

Everyone has trouble opening their school locker combination lock at some point throughout high school. These false combination locks might have hidden buttons or levers or require the user to only turn to one specific number instead of the traditional three number opening method. This business takes a real world teen issue and provides a solution, which helps connect business lessons with real life.

Senior Painted Portraits

Teens today don't want to blend in with the crowd, they want to stand out as unique individuals. Start an art business where you paint senior portraits for teens. Instead of hiring a photographer for their yearbook photo or photos for home, students can hire you to paint a unique senior portrait. Since each product is completely original and takes time, students will be challenged to explore the feasibility of creating a business based solely on their own talent or skill.

Fake Service-Based Business Ideas

Service-based businesses provide experts who will do work for customers. Services are usually focused on one specific task or field. Examples of companies providing services are Uber, Chipotle, and lawn care businesses. Students will need to define their customer base and create service packages to best meet customer budgetary needs.

School Backpack Couriers

Tired of carrying around your overloaded, heavy backpack all day at school? With this business you can employ dozens of backpack couriers. These couriers can carry backpacks to and from school for students or all during the school day. Since the customer base is students, teens can do real market research in their own school for this business plan.

Personalized Sports Fan Section

For people who want to feel like professional athletes, you can give them the dedicated fan experience they've been hoping for. Athletes of any level can hire their very own sports fan section for an upcoming game or even the whole season. Include different tiers of packages like an inexpensive option where 3 to 5 fans who will hold a sign with your name on it and an expensive version that includes 20 fans. Students will have to consider all aspects of running a company with many potential employees.

Lunch Leftover Packagers

Those who pack a lunch and those who buy a lunch at school might have leftovers because of short lunch periods. Build a business where you can package up leftovers for students, staff, and the cafeteria. You can keep the leftovers refrigerated for the rest of the school day then have a pickup location near the main school exit at the end of the day or donate all the leftovers. This business option gives kids an introduction to working with food, which requires an understanding of government regulations.

Farm to Table Food Truck

Starting a food truck at your school or in your town is a simpler way to create a fake restaurant business. This small business option relies heavily upon networking because students will need to find farms who provide different ingredients and work with local governments or businesses to find places to park the food truck.

School Campaign Promotors

From student council campaigns to prom queen campaigns, high schoolers have many opportunities to market themselves. This business offers the chance for teens to hire a team of professional promotors who will do everything from design and hang posters to coordinate flash mobs for their campaign. Students will focus on learning about marketing techniques as they create this fun business.

School Project Success

The most successful high school business project ideas are ones that are creative and you're really invested in. Choose a type of business that suits your personality, talents, and skills and you're sure to get an "A." Starting a business as a kid can feel overwhelming, but if you follow a business plan, the process can be a lot simpler.

How To : Need More Time on a Work Assignment or School Project? Corrupt Your Files to Extend Your Deadline Without Question

You have an assignment due, whether it's homework for school or a project for work, but you've only got a few hours left. There's no way you're going to finish in time and do a good job, and you don't want to turn in anything incomplete or half-assed. While it may seem you're out of luck, there's a simple way to buy yourself more time.

This trick may work if you're supposed to be giving a presentation in person or over a video call on Skype , Zoom , or another video conferencing software. And it may also work if you have to turn in a document or file of some sort. What it comes down to is the digital file that you either need to turn in or need to rely on for your presentation, whether it's a PowerPoint slideshow, notes in a text document, images or videos, data spreadsheets, audio files, and so on.

• Don't Miss: Turn Google's 'Files' App into a Full-Fledged File Manager

Digital files are always susceptible to data corruption, and corrupted files can lead to postponement. If you're giving a presentation, you could always take off because you're "sick" or claim a bad connection if it's a phone or video conference, but those excuses are easy to see through because they happen so frequently. So manually corrupted the file you need to use or turn in can extend your deadline.

When you turn in a corrupted file via email, an online portal, or a communications platform like Slack , your boss, team, colleagues, teacher, professor, or whoever won't be able to open or read the information in the document. In that case, they could extend the due date automatically or after you request it. And if you need it for your presentation, you won't be able to open it, so you can ask for more time to fix it. It could buy you a few hours, and if you're even luckier, a few more days.

• Recommended Book on Amazon: Master Your Focus: A Practical Guide to Stop Chasing the Next Thing and Focus on What Matters Until It's Done

If you don't know how to corrupt files manually, the Corrupt-a-File website makes it easy to do in seconds for any file on your iPhone , Android phone , or computer.

Note About Privacy

If you're unsure about uploading personal files to Corrupt-a-File's web app, rest assured that all files uploaded cannot be accessed by Corrupt-a-File, are not shared by Corrupt-a-File, and are removed from Corrupt-a-File's servers after a few hours. See its privacy policy for more info.

Step 1: Locate the File on Your Device

If you already know where the file is located, skip to Step 2. Otherwise....

You likely already know how to find the file in question on a computer, but things can be more confusing on a smartphone. Both iOS and Android have file managers where you can access downloads, documents from certain apps, and, in some cases, files synced from other devices. On stock Android, there's the " Files " app, and the iOS file manager is also called " Files ."

• Learn More: Guides for Apple Files | Guides for Google Files

If the file you need to corrupt is located in Dropbox or Google Drive, you don't have to worry about moving it since Corrupt-a-File will give you an option to choose files from one of those. Otherwise, you'll need the file in your operating system's file manager or photo gallery. You'll also be able to take a new photo or video.

Step 2: Upload Your File to Corrupt-a-File

In the web browser of your choice, head over to corrupt-a-file.net . At the top of the website, a short introduction will quickly explain why you should corrupt a file and that it can corrupt any file, including Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, MP3 audio clips, and zip files. However, the service is limited to files that are no larger than 10 megabytes (MB) in size.

Scroll down a tiny bit to view your options for uploading files. The first option is to upload a file from your device, including photos and videos from your camera or photo apps. Additionally, you can upload a document from your operating system's file manager. And if you use Dropbox or Google Drive, you can upload files from there as well, but you'll need to sign in to your account.

For a file on your device or in your device's default cloud storage service, choose the appropriate action. On iOS, select "Browse" to open Files or "Photo Library" to open up the image picker. On stock Android, choose "Files" for Google Files. Your options may vary depending on your Android skin if it's not stock Android; for example, on Samsung Galaxy devices, you can also choose "My Files" or "Gallery." Then, find and choose the file that you located in Step 1.

Step 3: Corrupt Your File

Once the file uploads to Corrupt-a-File, you'll see the file's name listed, and the option to corrupt the file will be unlocked. Tap on "Corrupt File" and give it a few seconds. If your file is successfully corrupted, you'll see a message that says, "Your file was dutifully corrupted."

• Recommended Book on Amazon: Save Time & Get Things Done

Step 4: Download the Corrupted File

Once your file is corrupted, you have several options to save the file to your device. The first option simply lets you download the file to your device.

On an iPhone, if you're in Safari , tap the download button, then tap "Download" on the pop-up to store it in your default location for downloads . In Firefox , long-press the downloads button, choose "Download Link," then "Download Now." In the Chrome browser, it's not possible to download the file, but you can send it to Chrome on another device. Other browsers will vary.

On Android, in Chrome, tap the download button, and it should download automatically. If not, tap "Download" on the pop-up. You'll likely just tap the download button in another browser, then "Download" on the pop-up.

Another option to download the corrupted file includes a QR code that you can scan with another device. For example, if you corrupted the file on your computer, you could scan the code with your phone to download it onto that device.

You can also upload the corrupted file to either Dropbox or Google Drive, but you'll need to log in first. The reset button next to Dropbox and Google Drive resets the website so that you can upload another file to corrupt.

Step 5: Verify the File Has Been Corrupted

Now that the corrupted file is on your device, you can check on it to see if it is truly corrupted. On an iPhone, open up the Files app. If you used Safari, it'd be wherever your default location was set. For Firefox, it will be in the "Firefox" folder in either your iCloud Drive or On My iPhone directories. For other browsers, it should appear in their default download folders.

Now, once you find the file, tap on it. You should see a white screen that says the name, kind, and size of the file, but it will not give a preview since it's corrupted.

On Android, find and tap on the document in the Files or My Files app. It will likely be in the "Downloads" directory. Once you tap the file, a pop-up will appear, saying that there has been a file read error and that the file type is either unsupported or corrupted.

On either device, if the document is .docx and you attempt to open it in Google Docs, you'll get an error regarding file conversion, and the document should show a bunch of text and characters instead.

Now, all that's left to do is send the corrupted file to the person or group you need to turn it into. Or you can try to open it during an in-person or video conference, so they see it's corrupted right away. Then, just hope that you get more time to finish the project or assignment properly.

Just updated your iPhone? You'll find new features for TV, Messages, News, and Shortcuts, as well as important bug fixes and security patches. Find out what's new and changed on your iPhone with the iOS 17.6 update.

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• Using ChatGPT for Assignments | Tips & Examples

Using ChatGPT for Assignments | Tips & Examples

Published on February 13, 2023 by Jack Caulfield and Tobias Solis. Revised on November 16, 2023.

People are still figuring out the best use cases for ChatGPT , the popular chatbot based on a powerful AI language model. This article provides some ideas for how to use ChatGPT and other AI tools to assist with your academic writing .

These tools can assist you with the following steps when writing a paper, thesis , or dissertation :

• Developing a research question
• Creating an outline
• Generating literature ideas

Paraphrasing and summarizing text

• Getting feedback

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Table of contents

Developing a research question with chatgpt, creating an outline of your paper with chatgpt, generate literature ideas, getting feedback from chatgpt, limitations of chatgpt, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions.

You can use ChatGPT to help you formulate a clear and concise research question by generating and improving potential questions.

With the help of ChatGPT, you can develop a large number of possible research questions within a short time. This is a great way to generate ideas and different approaches to a topic.

However, make sure that the generated questions make sense and meet your needs. As you can see from our example, you can keep working with ChatGPT to adapt its suggestions to your needs (or just edit the text directly if you already have a clear idea of what you want).

First input

Develop three possible research questions on the following topic: “The influence of social media on political opinion formation.”

ChatGPT output

• To what extent does exposure to diverse political perspectives on social media affect individuals’ political opinions and behaviors?
• How does the personalized algorithm of social media platforms shape the formation of political opinions among its users?
• What are the underlying factors that determine the effect of social media on political opinion formation, and how can they be measured and analyzed?

Second input

Based on the second research question, develop three further research questions on the topic of polarization in US politics.

• Build my scientific method, qualitative discourse analysis, into each question
• Include the term “filter bubble” in each question
• How does the filter bubble effect on social media platforms contribute to the polarization of political attitudes in the US? A qualitative discourse analysis.
• What is the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers in the US? A qualitative discourse analysis.
• How does the influence of filter bubbles on social media affect the ability of individuals to engage in productive political discourse across ideological divides in the US? A qualitative discourse analysis.

Third input

Try to incorporate “qualitative discourse analysis” into the questions themselves, instead of using it as a separate sentence.

• How does a qualitative discourse analysis of filter bubble effect on social media platforms contribute to understanding the polarization of political attitudes in the US?
• What is the contribution of a qualitative discourse analysis to understanding the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers in the US?
• How does a qualitative discourse analysis of the influence of filter bubbles on social media inform our understanding of the ability of individuals to engage in productive political discourse across ideological divides in the US?

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You can also use ChatGPT to help you draft a research paper outline or thesis outline . To do this, try generating possible headings and subheadings and then improving them. ChatGPT can help to generate a clear and well-structured outline, especially if you keep adjusting the structure with its help.

However, it doesn’t have a deep understanding of your topic. As a result, inappropriate headings may sometimes be generated. It’s important to check that the outline makes sense and covers all the points needed to answer your research question.

You should also ensure that the headings and subheadings follow a logical structure. Scribbr’s Proofreading & Editing service can help you with this.

Create an outline for an academic research paper with the following research question:

“What is the contribution of a qualitative discourse analysis to understanding the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers in the US?”

The paper will be about 8 pages long.

• Background information on filter bubbles and political echo chambers
• Purpose of the study
• Research question
• Thesis statement
• Definition and concept of filter bubbles
• Definition and concept of political echo chambers
• Previous studies on the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers
• Critiques and limitations of previous studies
• Research design
• Participants
• Data collection and analysis
• Validity and reliability
• Findings from qualitative discourse analysis
• Results related to the research question
• Implications of the findings
• Interpretation of the results
• Comparison with previous studies
• Limitations of the study
• Implications for future research
• Summary of the results
• Implications for understanding the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers
• Conclusion and recommendations for future research
• List of references used in the paper
• Data collection materials
• Examples of qualitative data analysis

This seems like too much information to fit into only 8 pages. Can you condense the outline, for example removing the appendices and simplifying the structure?

• Background on filter bubbles and political echo chambers
• Definition of filter bubbles and political echo chambers
• Previous studies on the role of filter bubbles
• Limitations of previous studies
• Implications for understanding the role of filter bubbles
• Final thoughts

ChatGPT can be a useful way to generate ideas regarding what sources you might use in your work. Try asking it for suggestions about where to look and what to consider.

However, we advise against using it to find sources directly. It’s not designed for this and, if asked to do it, often just creates fake sources and presents them as real. Search a database like Google Scholar instead.

What types of sources could I use to write a paper on the following research question?

When writing a paper on the contribution of qualitative discourse analysis to understanding the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating and reinforcing political echo chambers in the US, you could use the following types of sources:

• Academic journals and articles: These are a good place to start when you’re looking for information on specific topics and they can provide you with in-depth analysis and perspectives on the topic at hand.
• Books and book chapters: These sources can provide comprehensive overviews of a particular topic and can also offer theoretical frameworks and historical perspectives.
• Government reports and studies: Government agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), may have conducted studies on the role of filter bubbles in perpetuating political echo chambers.
• News articles and media reports: These sources can provide insight into the current state of the issue, as well as opinions from various stakeholders.
• Online sources: Websites, blogs, and online forums can provide a range of perspectives on the topic and can also be useful in exploring the experiences of individuals who are affected by filter bubbles and political echo chambers.
• Data and statistics: Relevant data and statistics on the prevalence and impact of filter bubbles and political echo chambers in the US can be useful in providing evidence to support your arguments.
• Expert interviews and focus groups: Conducting expert interviews or focus groups with individuals who have experience with or knowledge of the topic can provide valuable insights and perspectives that can be used to support your arguments.

You can also try using ChatGPT to paraphrase or summarize text. ChatGPT can quickly condense the text or generate a number of different paraphrases of the same idea. You can keep typing “again” in the chat until you are satisfied with the result.

This kind of paraphrasing/summarizing can be helpful to, for example, non-native speakers who want to improve the fluency of their text. However, be careful. The outputs often:

• Contain grammatical errors
• Include false information

So you should always check the output to make sure it’s correct. If you’re unsure, you can run the text through the Scribbr Grammar Checker and cross-reference the information against other, more credible sources .

An alternative is to use the Scribbr Paraphrasing Tool or Scribbr’s free text summarizer , which were designed specifically for these purposes.

Paraphrase the following text:

“A filter bubble results from a social media algorithm’s attempts to cater to an individual user based on data such as their search history and previous behavior on the site. It results in the user only being presented with information that confirms their biases.”

Restructure the sentences and use other phrasings for the following parts:

• “results from”
• “only being presented with”

“A filter bubble is created when a social media algorithm customizes its content for a particular user based on their data, such as their search history and past actions on the platform. This leads to the user being confined to information that reinforces their pre-existing beliefs.” Note We strongly advise against having ChatGPT write text for you and trying to pass it off as your own work. This is academically dishonest and is widely considered plagiarism . It will usually result in an automatic fail, as well as other potential consequences .

You can also use ChatGPT to get feedback on the argumentation and structure of your paper and suggestions for improvements.

An advantage of this is that you can get feedback from ChatGPT on different text excerpts at any time. However, one downside is that ChatGPT does not have a deep understanding of your research question, so its feedback and suggestions may be shallow or inappropriate.

This kind of feedback cannot replace input from an experienced academic supervisor who’s familiar with your topic. Use ChatGPT feedback as a supplement, not a substitute for human feedback.

If you need in-depth feedback on your writing from someone with academic expertise, try Scribbr’s Proofreading & Editing service .

[Text you want to get feedback on.]

Thank you for submitting your research paper for review. Let me provide you with my constructive criticism:

Clarity of Explanations: Overall, the explanations are clear and concise, but there are a few areas that could benefit from additional clarification. For example, in the first paragraph, you mention “the mental lexicon,” but do not provide a definition or further explanation for what this is. It would also be helpful to provide a definition of “lemma.”

Smoothness of Language: The language in the paper is generally smooth, but there are a few instances where it could be refined. For example, the sentence “The symptoms vary from adding superfluous words and taking pauses to hoarseness of the voice” could be rephrased to “The symptoms of these disorders can range from excessive use of words and pauses to hoarseness.”

Structure of Text: The structure of the text is clear, with each paragraph building on the previous one. However, the transition between the first two paragraphs could be smoother. Perhaps you could add a sentence or two to bridge the gap between the two topics.

Even though ChatGPT is a powerful writing tool, you should keep the following limitations in mind:

No original research

Risk of plagiarism, fake sources, fake “facts”.

ChatGPT was trained using existing texts, and the texts created by the AI are based on this data. It’s not capable of doing its own research, only of synthesizing sources that it was trained on.

Additionally, because the texts that it was trained on only go up to 2021, it’s unfamiliar with more recent world events, cultural trends, and developments in different fields of research. This means it may provide outdated information.

Because ChatGPT was trained using existing text, the AI tends to reuse that content in a way that may be considered plagiarism. The AI may copy text from an online publication in its responses.

Additionally, using ChatGPT to write your assignment for you is considered plagiarism regardless of where it got the content from, because you’re passing off something you didn’t write as your own work.

ChatGPT was trained on a wide variety of sources, but it’s not able to accurately tell you what sources it’s using for any given output. Worse, it has a tendency to make up sources that don’t actually exist when you ask.

In addition, ChatGPT is not designed as a citation generator and cannot add correctly formatted citations to your work. Instead, try a tool designed for this purpose, like the Scribbr Citation Generator .

ChatGPT is not always trustworthy when it comes to giving you factually correct information. While it doesn’t deliberately lie, it also doesn’t have “knowledge” in a traditional sense, and it lacks the ability to verify its claims.

Instead, its responses are based on recognizing and reproducing patterns that it has seen in other texts. This means that if it doesn’t “know” something, it tends to guess. And its guesses are presented with full confidence, just like established facts.

So it’s very important that you carefully check any factual claims made by ChatGPT against more credible sources —and don’t cite ChatGPT as a source of factual information for your research.

If you want more tips on using AI tools , understanding plagiarism , and citing sources , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations, examples, and formats.

• Citing ChatGPT
• Best grammar checker
• Best paraphrasing tool
• ChatGPT in your studies
• Deep learning
• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Best plagiarism checker

Citing sources

• Citation styles
• In-text citation
• Citation examples
• Annotated bibliography

You can use ChatGPT to assist in the writing process for your research paper , thesis , or dissertation in the following ways:

• Paraphrasing text

No, it’s not a good idea to do so in general—first, because it’s normally considered plagiarism or academic dishonesty to represent someone else’s work as your own (even if that “someone” is an AI language model). Even if you cite ChatGPT , you’ll still be penalized unless this is specifically allowed by your university . Institutions may use AI detectors to enforce these rules.

Second, ChatGPT can recombine existing texts, but it cannot really generate new knowledge. And it lacks specialist knowledge of academic topics. Therefore, it is not possible to obtain original research results, and the text produced may contain factual errors.

However, you can usually still use ChatGPT for assignments in other ways, as a source of inspiration and feedback.

No, it is not possible to cite your sources with ChatGPT . You can ask it to create citations, but it isn’t designed for this task and tends to make up sources that don’t exist or present information in the wrong format. ChatGPT also cannot add citations to direct quotes in your text.

Instead, use a tool designed for this purpose, like the Scribbr Citation Generator .

But you can use ChatGPT for assignments in other ways, to provide inspiration, feedback, and general writing advice.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. & Solis, T. (2023, November 16). Using ChatGPT for Assignments | Tips & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved August 21, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/ai-tools/chatgpt-assignments/

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Outsmart ChatGPT: 8 Tips for Creating Assignments It Can’t Do

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Since the latest version of ChatGPT emerged late last year, educators have been puzzling over how to reconcile traditional writing instruction with tech that can churn out everything from essays to haikus with uncanny sophistication.

Some educators contend ChatGPT can be a learning tool, while others say it’s more likely to be used as a cheating tool. In fact, more than a quarter of teachers say they’ve caught students using ChatGPT to cheat, according to a survey from Study.com, an online learning platform .

That raises the question: Can educators remove students’ temptation to use ChatGPT and other so-called “large language models” to plagiarize by coming up with assignments that the ChatGPT won’t be able to handle? If yes, what might those assignments look like?

We asked educators and experts on all sides of the broader debates about ChatGPT to give us some strategies for AI-proofing assignments. Here’s what they told us:

1. Ask students to write about something deeply personal

Consider having students delve into their scariest moment, the biggest challenge they ever overcame, or even answer a quirky personal question: Would you rather be the bucket or the sand?

It’s difficult at this point for AI to fake highly personal writing, said Joshua Rosenberg, an assistant professor of STEM education at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. (For the record, Rosenberg thinks it’s valuable for teachers to incorporate AI writing tools into some assignments.)

To be sure, even with these personal essays, students “could make it up,” acknowledged Kristin Daley Conti, a 7th grade science teacher at Tantasqua Junior High School in Massachusetts. But most of her middle schoolers are too eager to share their stories to outsource the job to AI, she explained. “They like to center things around themselves,” she said.

One wrinkle: Writing only about personal heroes or big life challenges isn’t as effective as other types of assignments for teaching students the reasoning and critical thinking skills that good writers must master, said Michelle Brown, the founder and CEO of CommonLit, an online reading program.

“I cringe a little bit at the idea that we will overcorrect and make a lot of writing personal,” she said. “What makes writing instruction good is that you’re synthesizing complex information from a complex text or complex sources. So, if we’re trying to make our assignments ChatGPT-proof that could be one way, but I worry about the consequences on student learning.”

2. Center a writing assignment around an issue specific to the local community

ChatGPT doesn’t have a strong background in hyperlocal issues, though that is likely to change as the tool becomes more sophisticated, experts say. But for now, educators may be able to minimize how much help ChatGPT can be on a particular assignment by grounding it in the school community—maybe even by asking students to write about a new school rule or the student council election.

Teachers could also ask their students to connect information about the water quality in a nearby pond the class studied to global patterns in environmental conservation. “There probably just isn’t a lot of data” available online about such a small body of water, Rosenberg said.

Did We Miss Anything?

Got a tip for making assignments ChatGPT-proof not mentioned here?

📧 Email [email protected] with your ideas.

3. Direct students to write about a very recent news event

At this point, ChatGPT can’t capture much information about things that happened just days earlier, Rosenberg said. Teachers could ask students to compare a very recent news event to a historical one, say the balloon that was reportedly sent by the Chinese government to spy on the United States with the Cuban missile crisis.

While ChatGPT may be able to spit out some sort of answer, it is likely to be muddled, Rosenberg said. “The model might generate just factually wrong things about time-sensitive events,” he said. “That can be a good cue to teachers that something’s fishy.”

4. Have students show or explain their work

In math class, students usually show how they arrived at a particular answer to get credit for solving a problem. That concept could apply to writing, Rosenberg said. For instance, teachers could prompt students to detail their brainstorming process, explaining why they choose to write about a particular topic.

Teachers could also ask questions such as: “How did you decide to structure your paper this way? Did you just start writing or did you think ‘my first paragraph is going to be on this and then my second paragraph on this?’” Rosenberg said. “That could just hold students a little bit more accountable for their process of writing.”

On a similar note, two literacy focused technology nonprofits, CommonLit and Quill, would love to see developers come up with new technology that analyzes keystrokes or various versions of a draft to decide whether a particular piece of writing was produced by a human or a robot, a more sophisticated process-based approach to discouraging cheating.

5. Ask students to give an oral presentation, along with the written work

One way to make this work: Ask students to record themselves on a video platform such as FlipGrid, talking about their essay, story, report, or other assignment, Daley Conti, the middle school science teacher, suggested.

That could deter cheaters. And it would provide students who did get help from AI in completing their assignment with an incentive to at least learn the content. “Even if they did get it from ChatGPT, they would have had to read it, digest it, and then talk about it,” Daley Conti said.

6. Return to a pre-digital age and ask students to handwrite their essays in class

This low-tech solution seems obvious. And it might be the most surefire way to make certain that students aren’t getting help from AI or even their parents or other students in the class.

Sal Khan, founder of one of the most prominent education technology tools, Khan Academy, sees value in having students do their writing the old-fashioned way , even as he thinks K-12 schools should help students learn to write using ChatGPT as well.

“One mitigation, which isn’t a bad idea, is to have students do more writing in class periods, in front of you,” Khan said in an interview. “I think it’s a good idea to do more of your actual writing and workshopping in class. The best writing classes are the ones where it’s like a real writers’ workshop, and kids are writing all the time. And the teacher and peers are giving each other feedback.”

7. Put project-based learning to work

Teachers could lean towards big, multi-disciplinary projects that an AI essay “isn’t going to be an appropriate measure of,” said Joseph South, the chief learning officer for the International Society for Technology in Education, a nonprofit.

For instance, he said, several school districts explored water quality in different parts of the country for a social studies course, looking at different policies in different states and cities. They tested the water in their own communities, looking for contaminates. Then they created graphs and charts showing the impact of local policies on local water supplies, and presented their findings.

“ChatGPT was never going to do that project for them,” South said. “It’d be impossible to cheat on that project with it. And the kids didn’t want to cheat because they were doing something really cool and interesting and relevant to their lives.”

If students are “taking pride in their work, they don’t want a robot to write it,” he said.

8. Run the assignment through ChatGPT before giving it to students

Maybe asking students for their take on a local issue—the school board election, perhaps—is one way to get around the power of ChatGPT. One hiccup: If users point ChatGPT to specific sources, it will use them in crafting a response to a prompt. So, if students put in links to a few articles in the local newspaper about the election, the tech may produce a surprisingly sophisticated take.

Teachers hoping to come up with assignments the tool can’t handle should keep that in mind, said Peter Gault, the founder and executive director of Quill, a literacy-focused technology nonprofit. “The trick is if you could say read this article, and then give a link and then do it and then see how it performs,” he said.

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How AI Writing Tools Are Helping Students Fake Their Homework

Creativity could be on the way out

• Macalester College
• Columbia University

• Western Kentucky University
• Gulf Coast Community College
• AI & Everyday Life News
• The increasing use of AI writing tools could help students cheat.
• Teachers say software that helps generate text can be used to fake homework assignments. 
• One teacher says content from programs that rewrite or paraphrase content sticks out like a "sore thumb" at the middle school level.

Cavan Images / Getty Images

Getting good grades in school may soon be about artificial intelligence (AI) as much as hard work. 

Online software tools that help students write essays using AI have become so effective that some teachers worry the new technology is replacing creativity during homework assignments. Students are increasingly turning to these programs that can write entire paragraphs or essays with just a few prompts, often leaving teachers none the wiser. 

"As far as I can tell, it is currently not that easy to detect AI writing," Vincent Conitzer , a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University , told Lifewire in an email interview. "These systems do not straightforwardly plagiarize existing text that can then be found. I am also not aware of any features of the writing that obviously signal that it came from AI."

Homework Helpers

The use of AI writing tools by students is on the rise, anecdotes suggest. Conitzer said he’s heard one philosophy professor say he would shift away from the use of essays in his classes due to concern over AI-generated reports.

Tools based on Large Language Models (LLMs), such as GPT-3/X, have seen tremendous improvement over the last few years, Robert Weißgraeber , the managing director of AX Semantics , an AI-powered, natural language generation (NLG) software company, said in an email interview. Users enter a short phrase or paragraph, and the tool extends that phrase or section into a lengthy article.

These systems do not straightforwardly plagiarize existing text that can then be found.

Don't expect LLMs to replace real authors anytime soon, though, Weissgraeber said. GPT-3X tools are just "stochastic parrots" that produce perfect-sounding text, "however when looked at in detail, they produce defects called 'hallucinations,'—which means they are outputting things that cannot be deduced from the arguments built into the input, data, or the text itself. The perfect syntax and word choices can dazzle the reader, but when looked at closely, they actually produce semantic and pragmatic gibberish."

Catching AI Cheaters

AI-assisted writing programs are now so effective that it's hard to catch cheaters, experts say. Other than making students write in a supervised setting, perhaps the best way for teachers to avoid the use of AI writing is to come up with unusual topics that require common sense to write about, Conitzer said.

"For example, I just had GPT-3 write the beginning of two essays," he added. "The first was about whether free speech should sometimes be restricted to keep people safe, a generic essay topic about which you can find all kinds of writing online, and GPT-3 produced sensible text listing the pros and cons.

"The second was about what a teenager who was accidentally transported to the year 1000 but still has her phone in her pocket should do with her phone. GPT-3 recommended using it to call her friends and family and do research about the year 1000."

The perfect syntax and word choices can dazzle the reader...

Erin Beers , a middle school language arts teacher in the Cincinnati area, told Lifewire in an email interview that content from programs that rewrite or paraphrase content sticks out like a "sore thumb" at the middle school level. 

"I can usually spot fraudulent activity due to a student's use of complex sentence structure and an abundance of adjectives," Beers said. "Most 7th-grade writers simply don't write at that level."

Beers said she's against students using most AI writing programs, saying, "Anything that attempts to replicate creativity is likely limiting a writer's growth."

Krit of Studio OMG / Getty Images

Weißgraeber recommends teachers not be fooled by smooth-looking prose that may have been generated by AI. "Look at the argumentation chains," he added. "Are all statements grounded in correlating facts and data that are also listed?"

However, despairing teachers take note. There's at least one upside to students using AI tools, Conitzer contends. 

"In principle, students could learn quite a few things from AI writing," he said. "It often produces clear and well-structured prose that could serve as a good example, though the style is usually generic. Students could also learn more about AI from it, including how it sometimes still fails miserably at commonsense reasoning and how it reflects the human writing it was trained on."

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A new tool helps teachers detect if AI wrote an assignment

Janet W. Lee

Several big school districts such as New York and Los Angeles have blocked access to a new chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to produce essays. One student has a new tool to help.

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Empty copywriting portfolio? How to make up client-wowing samples

• April 27, 2016
• 61 Comments
• Copywriting

When you’re just starting out as a copywriter, your empty samples portfolio can feel like a neon sign telling potential clients “I HAVE NO COPYWRITING EXPERIENCE.”

You feel like it’s the only thing they will notice about your beautifully written website.

There are a few ways to fill up your copywriting portfolio while you’re filling up your pipeline with actual clients.

One is approaching local businesses and offering your services in exchange for a testimonial and use of the sample in your copywriting portfolio.

Another is working with not-for-profit organisations , which are often crying out for help with their marketing efforts.

You can also accept copywriting projects from any number of freelance job sites . However, I do not recommend getting too embroiled in these sites. Some freelancers do very well, but when you’re competing against low prices, it’s a race to the bottom.

The option I want to explore in this post is making up copywriting samples for your portfolio.

This actually came up in a recent coaching call for my Copywriting Inkubator , and a student asked, “Is that legit? Can we just make it up?”

Yes. You can just make it up.

Potential clients want to see that you’ve written something. In most cases, they don’t care about the businesses behind the pieces they see in your portfolio. They want to see something in that portfolio!

A quick aside: Don’t lose your mind over having an empty portfolio. The easiest way to get around it is to leave that page off your website until you have something to show off!

Where do you even begin making up copywriting samples?

Whipping up an advertisement, brochure or website page sounds relatively easy, right? I mean, you’re a copywriter. How hard can it be?

When I tried to do this as a newbie copywriter, I remember staring at a blank page, wondering where the hell to start. My mind was blank. I questioned my skills as I struggled with this simple task.

With more than a few years of copywriting under my belt, I can confirm that writing about a client who has given you a real copywriting brief is MUCH easier. So creating a copywriting brief is the first step.

1. Write a fake copywriting brief

My copywriting brief is very detailed. I ask clients a lot of questions because buried in the details of their responses is the gold that helps me differentiate their businesses.

This is where to begin your made-up project.

Choose a business from a local business directory or your hood. Pool supplier. Accountant. Bakery. Whatever. Just keep it relatively straight-forward. Then fill out a copywriting brief for the company.

2. Choose a type of copywriting project

Will you write an advertisement, brochure, flyer, email or website page? These aren’t the only options of course, but they are the most common copywriting projects asked for and so make a great start for your fictional client.

You don’t want to make this harder than it needs to be, so keep it simple.

If you choose a brochure, make it relatively short. If you choose a website page, just write one page.

Remember, most clients just want to see something .

3. Look at examples for inspiration

I broke into a sweat the first time I had to write a small ad for a newspaper.

So much to say and almost no space! But looking through other ads gave me some reminders about the key elements to focus on. The same applies for a short brochure, flyer or an About page. This is exactly why copywriting swipe files are so damned useful.

If you feel a bit vomity when you start to write your made-up sample for your copywriting portfolio, have a look at other examples and let the words flow from there.

4. Write and edit

This naturally is the hardest part of the process, but all the research you’ve done for your imaginary client will make the writing easier. And not just for this copywriting portfolio sample—for all your copywriting projects.

5. Format it for your portfolio

You might be wondering how much design work you have to do for your made-up copywriting sample. Don’t stress. Your focus is on the words, so formatting your sample in a word processing tool is just fine. However, if you’re whizzy with a design tool, go crazy!

Include a header that explains the business and some information about the project. For example,

Project: Website About page for a bakery

Objective: To help customers feel like they know us when they walk into the store.

Project: Flyer for a newsagent

Objective: To promote the sale on back-to-school stationery

When you do this, you are showing off that you write copy to achieve objectives!

Your copywriting portfolio has its first piece!

It’s nowhere near as hard as you might think. And once you go to the trouble of filling out that copywriting brief for your imaginary client, you may as well create a few pieces for them!

Then you can sit back and concentrate on bagging new clients, knowing that the neon sign in your copywriting portfolio has been taken down.

Will you use this process to create your first portfolio piece? Let me know how you do! And copywriters who already have a portfolio, how did you get your first pieces?

Belinda Weaver

61 responses.

Great tips Belinda.

Before I set out as a freelancer, I was studying Business Advertising and a number of our assignments were to review and rework existing advertisements and marketing copy. It was a really useful exercise in considering where weak points existed, and how to strengthen the message (I’m sure I’m not the only copywriter who rolls their eyes at some of the poorly worded ads on TV and in print). I definitely used some of these in my first portfolio.

In regard to point #5, I like to outline what the client brief was so potential clients can see what the challenges and objectives were and how the copy met those objectives.

Thanks Anna!

That’s great advice about setting the context for the portfolio piece. Remembering back to when I worried about empty portfolio, I don’t think I would have known about the challenges etc that a client would face! But it certainly does add a great context to the writing.

Thanks (always) for reading! 🙂

Great ideas, Belinda! When I taught writing (which included copywriting and scriptwriting), the final assignment was a portfolio of my students’ best work. I let them improve their grades by continuing to improve each assignment throughout the course of the semester (which also helped them learn the value of rewriting). Every year for a long time, I heard from students who used that portfolio to get a job. So I love that you’re advocating something very similar. Clients need to see great writing.

Thanks for sharing your experience Susan! That’s also one of the things my students get to create as part of my Copywriting Master Class – pieces that not only pull together all the skills they’ve learn but also pieces they can use in their portfolio. Just filling the empty page with something can be a real confidence booster!

Hi Belinda, These are excellent tips. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. I really appreciate your work. Great work, Belinda! Keep it up! 🙂

Hello Belinda, you just addressed one of the problems we are facing. Let me assure you that each of these tips is highly actionable. See you soon after implementing what you have told me. Many thanks for sharing.

Great stuff Kegesa.

Hi Belinda,

These are some great tips. I’ve been writing copy for years now, but I only did it for a single brand as I was a brand manager before going freelance. It didn’t occur to me that I can actually build my own sample portfolio!

Keep up the great work.

You sure can! It’s tougher than it looks when you actually sit down to write, hence the idea of creating a bit of a brief for yourself. I always found that much easier. Good luck with it!

Oh my goodness!! I’ve SO been stressing about building my portfolio. I’ve been taking a copywriting course that has placed a heavy emphasis on making sure I don’t try and design the piece by myself. Instead, I should only concentrate on the copy. So here I am trying to find a novice designer to help me accomplish this, and that in itself had been the most nerve-wracking thing. I’m pretty confident about designing it myself. Have I been overthinking this? Haha. Thank you Belinda.

Firstly, yes. You’re overthinking it! Seriously. Don’t stress. If you can design something up, great, but I’ve included many portfolio pieces that were just the copy, presented as formatted text. There have been a few reasons.

1) I’ve created the portfolio pieces myself (as samples created for clients or to round out my portfolio) 2) The client hasn’t published the copy I’ve written (for any number of reasons) 3) I couldn’t get a copy of the finished product (as it was a printed piece) 4) The client butchered my copy after the project ended and I wanted to show off the original piece.

So, lots of good reasons why I haven’t had the finished product in my portfolio.

I didn’t want to miss the chance to show off my writing so I just showed a screen shot of the copy alone. One benefit is that there are no distractions to the copy 😉

So don’t let the design hold you back from showing off great copy!

I have done a lot of copywriting for one company (my employer, who doesn’t employ me as a writer, but gives me lots of writing projects to do on the side… and yes, I get paid extra for doing them).

There is quite a diverse range of projects, covering a number of different types of output.

Despite the diversity, I have fears that it will impact on me negatively that everything I write has been written for the one company. When looking at a portfolio, does it need to have a greater scope of clients in order to appear “better”?

I would be surprised if it did Butch. Prospective clients really just want to see you’ve done some stuff . You have the benefit of having a wide range of project types and I think that has more influence than a wide range of companies.

And kudos to you for being paid to build your portfolio on the side!

Good tips. I’m going to try putting this into action.

I actually have a decent amount of experience writing, but haven’t had much confidence in selling myself as a copywriter, and haven’t done the best job at building a portfolio.

In pursuit of becoming a copywriter, I actually learned SEO several years ago, and then started getting jobs in that category. However, I always wanted to write, but got side tracked along the path. Now, I’m back in school studying nutrition and exercise – long story. Any how, I’ve made it a new goal to start getting freelance copywriting projects, as it’s always been a dream of mine, plus it would help with paying for school. And, I’m realizing how much knowledge and experience I actually have.

In any case, it starts with developing a portfolio. So, thanks for the tips. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Great stuff Jon. Do keep us posted!

Have you listened to my podcast with Kate Toon? Hot Copy podcast on iTunes and Stitcher. Check the early episodes for tips on getting clients! http://www.hotcopypodcast.com/

Reading this really put me at ease! I’m left with one question: how do you bring the pieces together both digitally and physically? Just printed pages bonded together? Do you have an online platform you used to display your portfolio?

I have never need to provide a physical portfolio so that just leaves a digital version. For me, it’s been as easy as installing a portfolio widget in WP or creating a page that displays my work. I’ve included a brief blurb about the client, the challenges and my copywriting solution with any links and screenshots. For work that I couldn’t link to I would include the raw copy, formatting in a branded (Copywrite Matters) document.

Clients really just want to know you can and have done stuff. Another way to show off your writing is a blog!

Great information here. I want to apply for a SEO Copywriter position. I don’t have a portfolio but I do have a blog. Would you suggest pulling posts from the blog for the portfolio or could I just send them the link to my blog?

If your blog posts are good examples of optimised copy, then pointing them to your blog is a great idea! You could also create before and after versions of existing copy to show off your optimisation skills.

Thanks for reading!

Okay, so this is waaay closer to the kind of answer I’ve been looking for. Thank you for this article.

I have a collection of blog articles I’ve written for imaginary businesses. I’m planning to put them on a portfolio and link to them when I’m asked for samples. Unfortunately, this has amounted to a body of random pieces that I feel uncomfortable shopping around, mainly because they are so unrelated to each other.

I’m wondering if it would be a better idea to write pretend articles that all cover one topical field, or if this is a bad idea altogether.

Regarding the idea of writing a “fake” piece for a portfolio, do you think this is viable for portfolios oriented around other fields of freelance writing besides copywriting? If yes, do you think these pieces should all be coherently tied to each other somehow?

Brilliant Isaac. I’m glad!

I wouldn’t worry about the disconnect. For me, it demonstrates that you can write on different topics (or at least that is how I would sell it to clients). If all your articles are on one topic, it doesn’t show off a diversity a copywriter needs to embrace.

Great article. Very informative too. I’m a writer and author and want to start a freelance copywriting business. I already have a blog- a lifestyle/relationship blog where I post my short stories. It’s about three years old now. Instead of starting a totally new copywriting website for the new business, can I create a separate page on the blog offering my copywriting services with my portfolio, sample works as you advised?

Thanks so much!

Hi Patience, Thanks! You could create a new page but I would create a separate website for your copywriting business. It will be a lot better for SEO and less confusing for your clients. More work I know but a single niche focus will give you better returns all round 🙂

Hi, thanks so much for the information. I would just like to clarify “reworking advertisements.” Is this literally cutting out a page from a magazine, and simply on a separate sheet of paper create your own copy? Is this okay for building portfolios? I enjoyed your idea with the header on the sheet of paper. Do you have any other suggestions for building copywriting experience for a resume… without any actual copywting experience? Unfortunately, I mainly have writing experience derived from education. How would I funnel that into my resume to build for copywriting or how can it serve as some sort of jumping off point? Does this make sense? Thanks so much.

Hi Crystal, Reworking advertisements is just about that! You don’t need to literally cut anything out – unless you want to! For myself, I would start taking photos of potential ads and saving them somewhere like Evernote. You’re looking for ads that you think, I could do that so much better! If you have a photo you can show the before and after.

And the after doesn’t need to be fancy, it could just be a paragraph in a text document. The idea is to show off your copywriting!

In terms of building copywriting experience, you could apply to a nonprofit who are often grateful for help BUT also often need someone who is a specialist in fundraising copywriting. You can also look at job boards like Upwork. Jobs often don’t pay well so I don’t recommend you hang around but it can be useful to get a few jobs to get experience, finesse your client/project process and get a testimonial too.

I would also look for opportunities with local businesses. You can offer to write copy for them probono in exchange for a testimonial.

You might find this Hot Copy podcast I did on getting clients >> http://www.hotcopypodcast.com/flashback-how-to-find-copywriting-clients-2/ Most of the tips will be useful whether you have experience or not!

Thank you taking the time to respond, Belinda! You rock! Definitely tuning into the podcast. I’ll follow up with progress. Thanks again!

Best, Crystal

Hi Belinda, I guess, would it be possible for you to expand on these two points from above? It would be great help.

“One is approaching local businesses and offering your services in exchange for a testimonial and use of the piece in your copywriting portfolio.

Another is working with not-for-profit organisations, which are often crying out for help with their marketing efforts.”

Thanks for any help.

I think I go into detail on the Hot Copy podcast so that’s a great place to start!

We can also schedule a coaching call to nut out some details for you, if you’d like 🙂

What if I have the opposite problem – I have tons of samples but it’s from my previous employers. I am able to use those samples in my portfolio for my freelance work?

My issue is that I have a tun of samples from previous work experience. Am I able to use that for my portfolio when trying to get freelance work?

Hey Daphne, thanks for reading. I think it’s polite to check in with your previous employer and make sure they’re okay with it. It does open the door for them to say not but it’s a professional courtesy. If they say no, you could suggest you take off their branding so they aren’t identifiable.

Hi, Do you know where I might find a good example of a copywriting portfolio?

Hi Marc, I would Google copywriters and check out their portfolio pages 🙂

This has been incredibly useful, thank you! I’ve just started copywriting, and while I have clients just now, their projects aren’t complete and so I can’t include them in my portfolio just yet. I hope to soon! My question is, do you need to disclose that these are samples and not real clients? Do you think that puts prospective clients off? Thanks for your time.

My pleasure Gill!

I think it’s worth disclosing but you don’t need to make a huge deal of it. For instance, you can just label the portfolio item as SAMPLE and then describe what it is.

Thank you very much Belinda. This has been so helpful. I am just starting out in copywriting was worried about putting together a portfolio for a potential client. Reading your article made me realise I already had material I could use, all I needed was to follow the tips you outlined. 2 days ago, I didn’t know what to do when they asked for a portfolio. Today, I have submitted my CV along with a link to my portfolio. Thank you once again.

Wahoo! That’s BRILLIANT Kemi! 😀

Dear Belinda,

And what should i do with about option? Should i wrote about courses i took or what? Regarding that i cannot write about years of experience and satisfied clients.

You can absolutely write about the courses you’ve done. You can also talk about the work you’ve done highlighting the transportable skills – the skills that you need as a copywriter too. Also, personal information that helps potential customers understand what you’ll be like to work with. Like, your hobbies and favourite things!

Thank you so much Belinda for this…

My pleasure Cheta.

This is extremely helpful. I’m trying to break into freelance writing and feeling heavy imposter syndrome thanks to having no portfolio to speak of. Thanks so much!

The bad news is that it doesn’t go away the longer you do it. The good news is that you can actively manage it. You have to!

Hi Belinda! thanks a lot for this super helpful article. I’m trying to build a copywriting portfolio to put into practice all the things ive learnt and to land some clients. However, with the copy done for fictional clients ,how do these get tested to prove that my copy actually works, since that’s what clients look out for ?

Well, you can’t. But here’s a little secret. Unless you’re pitching the kind of work where conversion is essential – like launch copywriting – then most clients just want to see that you’ve done some copywriting. Copywriting is just one part of a marketing picture and so while clients are looking for some certainty, you can’t give it as a copywriter. This is an opportunity to give them some certainty in other ways… like having a strong writing and project management process. This tells clients you are 100% on top of the pieces you’re in control of.

You spelled “organizations” incorrectly in your fourth line, it is in bold. I am looking to start a freelance career and would love to start out as a proofreader if there is demand.

Hey Robert, I think you’ll find it’s the correct British/Australian English spelling of the word 🙂 There is always demand. If you want to be accessible to an international audience, the different versions of English has a lot to cover.

— “Is that legit? Can we just make it up?” Yes. You can just make it up. I think what I was looking for was this permission, to start where we’re at. You article really gave me the ease I needed to just begin with what I’ve got. Thank you so much for sharing your kind insight with us.

Thanks so much for your concise directives and tips on copywriting.

I was thinking of how to start but now am confidently know when, where and how to start and how to go about it.

Hope to get more tips from you in order to nurture me to maturity in the world of copywriting skill.

This was super helpful – I’ve been doing some basic copywriting for work, for web content and newsletters etc, and wanting to pivot to a job that focuses on that specifically.

I’m wondering: to do made up/ spec pieces for a portfolio, can you look at local businesses and write your own copy for them as part of your portfolio? Does it need to be an imaginary business? I’m guessing it’s better to leave any real business names out.

Fabulous! You could use a real business as long as you mark it as a sample of copywriting 🙂

Hello Belinda. Good day, I don’t have any idea, concerning creation of portfolio. And can I get a means in which contact you personally,in order to ask questions that I don’t understand.

hi Emmanuel. Join my free Facebook group – For The Love of Copy – and search for “empty portfolio” as I just did a free training session on this topic and it might help!

Hi Belinda!

This information was so helpful! I am looking to get into copywriting from a job in education, and I was worried about being empty handed as far as samples! Your article has made me much more confident in my ability to have pieces prepared for a portfolio! I do have a question though, is it helpful/harmful to include fictional writing? A short story, for example. Is this something that would show off a specific voice and form of writing that I have as a skill, or is it too far from what clients may look for? In my mind, most marketable content tells some kind of story. Surely I am overthinking this, but I thought you may have a good answer! Thanks!

Great question Alicia. It’s something that could live in your portfolio to showcase your skills but the work you showcase will influence the requests you get so that’s a consideration.

This was very helpful. I am a primary school teacher who is leaving the profession after 20 years. I think I would make an amazing copywriter, but have zero experience . I am doing a course with The College of Media and Publishing. Each module focuses on a different style of copy and I have to create copy in the correct style/form for my assignments. Can I use these for my portfolio? There are jobs that I am not even applying for and therefore missing out on opportunities, because they want to see my portfolio.

Also, if it is only a fake piece, does that need to be mentioned? Do we have to call it spec or something similar (so as not to mislead)?

Hey Cal, you can absolutely use them in your portfolio. You can simple call them spec pieces or examples of style.

One thing you might want to do is to invest time building your network. While applying for jobs is not a bad idea most copywriters find their leads actually come fro people they know. Let everyone know you’re looking for copywriting work and start hanging out in copywriting groups as well as small business and digital marketing groups. Make connections and get to know people — and make sure they know you’re a copywriter, available for hire.

How do I set up the portfolio, does it have to be in my website or I can just attach it in a Google doc link. And what if I can’t afford a website. This was a nice article, very helpful.

There are lots of ways you can set up your portfolio. It could be a page on your website but it can just as easily be a Google docs on images and text. Or you can use Canva to create a professional looking PDF.

The main elements you’ll want to showcase are 1) the company name 2) the objectives of the piece 3) a summary of the project, challenges, your strategy 4) some screenshots of your copy.

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How to Find Trustworthy Sources for School Assignments (An Ultimate Guide)

Thanks to the internet, you might think it’s easy enough to find information for your latest assignment or project. But which websites are legitimate sources?

How to Do Online Research

Trustworthy resources, how to tell if a website is a good source, how to use wikipedia, what about social media, how to cite your sources, sourcing images, frequently asked questions.

Gone are the days of looking up a hard copy encyclopedia for your latest assignment—nowadays, you can find information on pretty much everything online. Although convenient, this creates a new problem—what's real and what's not? Not only can you run into the issue of handing in an assignment with incorrect information, but your teacher may not accept some of the sources you're using. 

Knowing how to find reliable sources and to reference them correctly is an essential skill in school, college, and later life. Every school will have specific requirements around acceptable sources and the number of sources used to corroborate evidence. Many schools will not allow for the use of Wikipedia in any academic paper. 

• (For more advanced topics, Google Scholar can help you find academic journals and articles.)
• Use online dictionaries : If you need to provide definitions of words, you can use the Mirriam-Webster dictionary or other official dictionaries (don't use Dictionary.com or Wikipedia).
• Use encyclopedias : Encyclopedias, like the Britannica , are excellent sources of information for many things and should be one of your first stops when researching a topic.
• Verify the websites : When you find the information you'd like to use, be sure to verify that the website is trustworthy is reliable first (more on that below).
• Find more than one source : Don't just use one source, especially if you're using a website that isn't well-known. Instead, try to find the facts on more than one website (or within an academic paper or journal).
• Put together your source list : This should be done as you go—the last thing you want is to write your essay then realize you don't remember which websites you pulled the information from. 

If you haven't been given clear guidelines on which websites you can and can't use for your research, your teacher may have told you only to use trustworthy or reputable sources. But what exactly does that mean? 

Generally, legitimate and accepted sources include:

• News websites
• Academic journal articles
• Print publications (including books)
• Public reports
• Government websites

Other websites are also accepted as trustworthy sources, and this is when you'll need to do a bit more research first.

Online and Print Sources

*There are some exceptions to the rule depending on your assignment. For example, a personal blog by someone probably won't be the best source of information on whales. However, it may be fine if the blog belongs to a renowned marine biologist. 

Similarly, if your assignment requires you to gather opinions on a particular issue, then Reddit may be an appropriate source.  

Examples of Acceptable Sources by Topic

To figure out if an article or website is trustworthy :

• Has written other pieces (or books) on the topic 
• Has a background in the subject matter (e.g., relevant college degree)
• Look for a resource list/bibliography : Some sites (especially health-related sites) will include a list of resources at the bottom of the article—this is a good sign that the site is trustworthy. Additionally, you can usually find a reputable source from this list. 
• Well-known and well-respected
• Check media coverage : Look for a Media or Press page on the website. This will show you press coverage that the company has had in the past and help you get a better idea of whether or not they're legit. 
• Check the published date : If an article doesn't have a publication date, you can't verify that the information is still valid. 

Do the CRAAP Test

• Currency : How up-to-date is the information, or when was it shared?
• Relevance : Does the information fit your topic? 
• Authority : Is the author or website credible and trustworthy?
• Accuracy : Is the information correct?
• Purpose : What was the goal of the article? 

IMPORTANT: The Difference Between Google vs Google Scholar

It's extremely important to understand the difference between Google and Google Scholar as they are completely different systems. 

The process of researching, publishing, and peer reviewing of academic information is a foundation of our modern society (science, technology, mathematics, etc.). The internet, however, is another beast entirely. 

Google was invented to index websites and does an amazing job of that. However, anyone can make a website with their own facts and figures and use search engine optimization (SEO) to get it indexed. If you Google " flat earth society ," you will find people who believe that Earth is flat. This does not mean this claim is true, the results from that search are not guaranteed to be reliable sources.  

Google's job is to index the public internet (although it has become much better at removing mistruths and aggregating questions and answers). 

On the other hand, Google Scholar only indexes scholarly literature and academic sources. Google has been scanning books and research papers for many years and Google Scholar is now much more convenient than going to the library, although it still has limitations. 

Wikipedia isn't recognized by most (if not all) schools as a trustworthy source of information for student projects. This is because anyone can contribute to Wikipedia—literally anyone. Anyone can go into a Wikipedia article, edit, and publish it as they like. 

Wikipedia even states that there may be incorrect information on the site, making it a very unreliable source. Therefore, Wikipedia should never be your only (or primary source) of information.

However, Wikipedia can still be helpful for assignments. First, you can use Wikipedia to understand the topic better, so it's a great first step in the process. Secondly, you can use the References list on the Wikipedia article to find a better source. They may not all be accepted by your teacher, but most of them should be fine. 

While using specific social media posts and YouTube videos may be accepted, try to avoid using them as sources unless your essay calls for it. For example, suppose your assignment is about a celebrity. In that case, you may be able to use their Instagram posts as part of your assignments.

Additionally, don't use a social media post as your source of information. If the post references an article published online—use that instead. 

There are several different ways to cite social media posts and pages as a source:

• Chicago Manual of Style

Each school and class may have different requirements for citing sources. If your school doesn't provide you with guidelines, choose one of these options. (Note that there are various options for both in-text citations and resource lists.)

Remember, be consistent—don't jump from one style of sourcing to another. 

Choose Your Style Guide for Source Citation

Quick Guide to Citing Websites

(Check individual style guides for more information on citing other publications, such as journal articles.)

In-Text Citations vs. Reference Lists

In-text citations are included within the main body of your essay and refer to entries in the reference/source list (found at the end of your document). 

In these examples, we've used the following:

• Author name : John Taylor Smith
• Publication date : February 2, 2022
• Page title : Meet the biggest animal in the world
• Website name : World Wildlife Fund
• Organization name : WWF

Note that each style guide has other options on citing author names versus the entire website as the author (if no author is specified). If no date is specified on the website, put "(n.d.)" in place of the date.

Use EasyBib

Websites like EasyBib can help you generate citations for your source list. Simply paste the URL into the tool, and voila!

If you need to include images within your document, you'll also need to source them appropriately. You can cite and source them the same way you would a website or other publication (see above), but include the file format in your reference list. 

For example, using the APA format: 

World Wildlife Fund. (2022). How big is the blue whale [JPG]? World Wildlife Fund. https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/meet-the-biggest-animal-in-the-world 

Why isn't Wikipedia an accepted source of information?

Wikipedia generally isn't considered a reputable source of information because anyone can go in and edit a Wikipedia article. Therefore, there's no guarantee that information is correct or up to date. 

There is a way you can use Wikipedia for your research, however. If you find data you want to use on Wikipedia, find the source for the information by clicking on the in-text citation and use that source instead. 

Is Forbes a reliable source of information?

Forbes is generally a credible source to cite in school assignments and essays. However, you want to be careful with some articles since they accept posts from guest contributors who may not be experts in their topics. 

About This Article

• Toronto Public Library: Online Research Skills for High School Students: Tips and Strategies
• Scribbr: Credible Sources and How to Spot Them
• The Write Life: AP, Chicago, APA or MLA? Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Writing Style Guides
• Purdue Online Writing Lab: Reference List: Electronic Sources
• Scribbr: How to Cite a Website in Chicago Style | Formats & Examples
• Scribbr: Chicago In-text Citations | Styles, Format and Examples
• MLA Style Center: Works-Cited-List Entries
• Purdue Online Writing Lab: MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

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I Have My Students Create “Fakebook” Profiles for Historical Figures

And it’s one of my favorite projects that we do all year.

I love to engage my middle school students by incorporating one of their favorite things: social media. And one of their all-time favorites is the Fakebook project.

Here’s how it works:

Students use their notes to create a Facebook-style social media profile for a historical figure. What I love most about this assignment is that it allows students to express their humor and creativity. Since nearly every chapter contains numerous notable figures, this project is versatile and can be used for virtually any chapter or subject area.

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A Fakebook lesson plan, step by step

The directions, rubric, and examples here accompany my sixth grade world history unit on ancient Egypt. While I expect their information to be relevant and accurate, I give them some creative license by allowing them to use modern phrases and hashtags.

Here’s a list of what I ask my students to include in their Fakebook profiles:

• A profile picture
• Five Facebook-style statuses. For  example: Hatshepsut is on her way to Punt for a trade expedition!
• Three interests or likes.  For example: Senusret likes mines filled with gold and amethyst
• Three comments from fictitious people ruled by that pharaoh. For  example: Tut commented to Ramses II: Thanks for keeping us safe from enemies! You are a great military leader!

I encourage my students to create their Fakebook page using a small piece of poster board, construction paper, Google Docs (format: two columns), or Google Drawings to keep it simple.

My more tech-savvy kids sometimes use other programs, if they are familiar with them. I am aware that there are a few templates available for online Fakebook pages. However, in the past my students have had trouble with the save feature, losing all of their hard work before it was handed in or complete. The templates I’ve seen also have tons of ads and do not look aesthetically pleasing. I’ve also experimented with paper templates, but they can be quite restrictive as they have limited space. They are great to use as a guideline, but I personally only use them as a reference for the set up of a Facebook profile for students who aren’t familiar with the platform.

I include Student goes above and beyond by including additional information under the requirements section of the rubric because this assignment leaves a lot of room for creativity. My goal is for students to put their own unique spin on the project, therefore I like to make the rubric flexible.

This project has always been a huge hit in my classroom. The students entertain themselves and one another endlessly with their ideas and get a real kick out of modernizing different historical figures. I find it works especially well with the Founding Fathers of the United States and various world leaders. The best thing about this assignment is that it’s FUN! The students enjoy themselves while creating high-quality work by applying the knowledge that they have of the class material. It’s a great form of assessment for teachers and an engaging, creative activity for our kids.

We’d love to hear—how do you incorporate social media into your lessons?   Come and share in our  WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group  on Facebook.

Plus, How to Use Social Media as a Teacher .

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