Advice for students regarding translation and editing tools
There are a range of digital applications, services and plugins available that provide language translation and other types of editorial assistance. These are tools where you can input text and ask for:
- A basic spelling and grammar check
- Suggestions to improve general readability
- The text to be paraphrased or neatly summarised
- The text to be edited to change the style or tone (eg ‘make it more academic’)
- The text to be translated into another language
The purpose of this guide is to support you in understanding acceptable use of translation and editing tools in the context of academic integrity.
Translation and editing tools
Digital translation and editorial assistance tools have been available for decades and have been continuously improving in both quality and capabilities. These tools include the proofing functions in Microsoft Office, Google Translate, and applications like Grammarly. More recently, generative artificial intelligence platforms such as ChatGPT have started offering similar functions.
Increasingly applications are offering multiple types of technology and assistance. Examples include integration of generative artificial intelligence into Grammarly and the introductions of Copilot for Microsoft Office and Duet for Google Suite. It is important that you maintain awareness of the technology you are using and the level of assistance it provides.
Translation, editing tools and academic integrity
A fundamental principle of maintaining academic standards is that you are expected to create and express your own ideas. There are several ways that using translation and editing tools interact with this principle.
The first is in creating your own ideas. Using these tools may change the meaning of your work even if that was not your intent. It may become unclear whether an idea is genuinely yours, whether you are demonstrating your understanding of the subject, how the idea was generated or even the sources that were being used.
The second is in how you express your ideas. Learning to do this well is an important part of developing your academic skills. Expression or language use may be a learning outcome in your subjects or course. These tools can be used to the extent that the expression is no longer your own or you gain an unfair advantage over other students who have not used these tools.
Finally, translation and editing tools are sometimes associated with other types of misconduct such as plagiarism. The outputs of these tools may be identified by the Turnitin detector for artificial intelligence writing. Staff may need to ask you to explain or discuss your work as part of the academic integrity checks performed across all assessments at the University.
When is it OK to use these tools?
The limits of acceptable use of translation and editing tools might vary across disciplines, subjects and assessment tasks. Your subject coordinator may set specific rules in particular assessments, but it is your responsibility to check assessment guidelines and relevant policies, and to understand what is expected of you. Resources on academic integrity are available to you through your subject’s LMS site, Academic Skills, and the Library. If you are in any doubt about the tools you may use, or the extent to which you may use them, please speak to your subject coordinator before submitting your assignment.
As many of these tools now incorporate artificial intelligence, you are strongly encouraged to refer to the University’s general information on artificial intelligence and academic integrity, and advice on the use of Turnitin detection for artificial intelligence in writing. You are also reminded that you must acknowledge the use of artificial intelligence and it is strongly recommended that you also acknowledge any translation, editing or proofreading tools you have used as well.