How to read a writing record
For instructors, markers and anyone reviewing a student’s work.
A student has shared a link to a writing record. It is the record their own editor kept while they wrote: how long they worked, how the document grew, and where its text came from. They chose to publish it. Here is how to read it fairly, and what it cannot tell you.
Where the text came from
The composition bar splits everything added to the document into these shares:
Typed here
Written keystroke by keystroke in the editor.
In-voice suggestions
Short continuations the editor suggested and the student accepted.
Pasted
Pasted in: quotes, notes, sources, or text from anywhere else.
Written by Domicad
Text Domicad's own tools wrote into the document, such as a rewrite. Counted as AI writing.
Inserted another way
Edits the editor could not classify. Counted, never folded into typing.
Brought in from outside the editor
Text that arrived whole, like an uploaded file or text carried over from another tool. The record did not see it written.
The shape of the line
“How it grew” plots the document’s length over active writing time. Drafting looks like a line that climbs with small dips where the student cut and rewrote. A paste is a vertical step, marked in amber. A line that starts high means the document arrived already written.
Check it is the same document
The record holds a fingerprint of the finished document, not the document itself. Paste the text you received into the box on the record page. It is checked in your browser and never uploaded. A match means it is the document that was recorded. A mismatch means it changed after the record was published, which can be as innocent as a last edit before submitting, so it is a question to ask, not a finding.
What a record cannot show
- Anything outside the editor: notes, other apps, AI used in another window, or help from another person.
- Who was at the keyboard. Someone can retype text they did not write, so a record shows a process, not authorship.
- Every writer’s habits. Dictation, spelling support and other assistive tools can change how a record looks. If something seems unusual, ask before assuming.
It is a record of the writing process, not a certificate that no AI was used, and a strong-looking record is not proof on its own either.
Three records, read fairly
88% typed, 12% pasted, four sessions over two days, a line that climbs with small dips
Consistent with drafting and revising in the editor. The pasted part may be quotations or notes; asking which is a normal question.
15% typed, 85% brought in from outside the editor, one short session
Most of the document was written somewhere else, so this record says little about how. Drafts or version history from where it was written are the better evidence.
55% typed, 40% written by Domicad, 5% pasted
The student used Domicad's AI tools for a large share of the text. Whether that was allowed depends on your course policy; the student's own declaration, if they added one, appears below the record.
If a detector flagged the work
An AI detector’s score, ours or anyone’s, is a probability, not a finding, and careful or non-native writing is misread most often. A score is not evidence of misconduct. The fairest next step is a conversation about the work: how the student reached their conclusions, what they changed, and why.
Privacy
Only the student can publish a record, and only by choice. The link cannot be guessed, the record stores numbers and the document’s fingerprint but never the essay, and the product has no way to edit a record once it is published. The student can revoke the link at any time.