GPT Chatbots and Academic Integrity: Why Generative AI Should be Allowed in the Classroom

The International Baccalaureate, a prestigious college prep organization, recently allowed students to use ChatGPT on the IB exam as long as they do not claim it as their work. This surprising development is the latest in the string of headlines related to generative AI. Many school systems have already banned ChatGPT out of fear of academic dishonesty. Turnitin has announced the development of an AI-detection software that will be rolling out in April. Generative AI has made many rapid improvements, but students will not completely forego traditional learning in favor of bot-generated responses. Educators should integrate AI into the classroom so students know how to use the developing technology effectively and ethically.

Limitations with AI

An educator’s biggest fear is that students will use ChatGPT to do their work for them. While this is a valid fear it is often exagerrated. Olya Kudina’s students were tasked with comparing their assignments with an AI generated assignment. They were initially blown away by “how quickly the chatbot rendered information into fluid prose;” that is until they reread the bot’s work. The students realized that the bot was using incorrect information and it was unable to provide sources for the things it was claiming . Kudina’s students concluded that “copying from ChatGPT wouldn’t actually net them a good grade.”

On the other hand, Pieter Snepvangers received a passing grade on a 2,000 word essay that was written by AI. While AI generated work is passable at first glance, it fails to produce high quality academic work. Snepvangers’ essay was very generalized and didn’t include any citations. The lecturer grading the essay said it had “fishy language.”

Many teachers are horrified at the thought that students will be able to type an essay prompt into an AI generator and submit a paper in about 20 minutes; however it is not always that simple. ChatGPT can only produce up to 365 words, meaning that the student must ask the AI multiple questions to meet a higher word count. Snepvanger asked ChatGPT ten different questions related to the essay prompt. After receiving the paragraphs, Snepvanger selected the best ones and “copied them in an order that ‘resembled the structure of an essay,’” Even when trying to use Chat GPT, students must use fundamental writing skills to create a coherent paper.

An AI is unlikely to do well on any assignment that requires anything more than a surface-level understanding of the material. AI can’t properly source an article, and it doesn’t tell its users where its information came from. Any analysis produced by AI will be far too shallow to receive a good grade because the AI is unable to understand the deeper themes of texts or form original perspectives.

AI and Academic Integrity

Many institutions are grappling with the ethics of allowing AI in the classroom. Some are simply requiring that students state when they are using AI generated text. Others are claiming that use of AI in any form is plagiarism. Kalley Huang equates the current status of ChatGPT to Wikipedia in the early 2000’s, which educators also saw as the end of traditional education. Villanova University’s Chair of the Academic Integrity Program, Alice Dailey, believes that schools should allow AI, but they should develop a blanket policy that covers a wide range of circumstances. The advancement of AI technology is going to force educators revolutionize the way they evaluate student progress.

Many schools are moving away from take home essays and are using “in-class assignments, handwritten papers, group work and oral exams” to combat AI plagiarism. Stephen Marche claims that the essay is the “way we teach children how to research, think, and write.” Though these skills are important, there are better ways to teach them in an AI world. Antony Aumann is requiring students write their first draft in the classroom and explain each revision. This method of teaching is not only teaching the students how to write an essay, but is also forcing them to think critically about why they are writing it in this way.

AI in the Classroom

Instead of banning ChatGPT because of its risk to academic integrity, educators should use it as a tool in the classroom. The technology is not going away and students will be unprepared for the future if they are not taught how to use AI efficiently and ethically.

Students can only know the limitations of AI by using it. Ethan Mollick is not only allowing AI in his classroom, but he is mandating it. Mollick’s AI policy requires students to assume the AI is wrong, adding that students will be responsible for errors and omissions on behalf of the AI. Mollick also requires his students to include a paragraph at the end of their work disclosing the use of AI, as well as the prompts used.

Contrary to popular belief, turning in a research paper is not the height of academic evaluation. According to Kathy-Hersh Paseck, it is more important that students develop writing skills, like how to write a thesis and support it, rather than turning in a paper. Students are able to learn these necessary skills by interacting with AI.

Donnie Piercey’s fifth grade class plays a game of “find-the-bot,” which asks students to pick the AI summary out of a lineup with peers’ work. The students said that the exercise helped them identify proper capitalization and punctuation, as well as how to correctly summarize information. This exercise also led to a discussion on writing voice, and why the AI text sounds “stilted.”

AI text generators are tools that should be embraced in the classroom. Like other technology that was new for its time, AI will not go away. The best thing educators can do for their students is to teach them efficient and ethical ways to use AI text generators while still honoring academic integrity and learning essential writing skills.

Digital “Ownership”

According to a study conducted by Virtua, 77% of Americans would prefer to own digital items rather than stream them. Between video streaming services, news publication subscriptions, audiobook subscriptions, and eBook subscriptions, Americans are exhausted by recurring fees without retention of a digital item. With the purchase of a physical book, consumers maintain the book until it is damaged or lost. Ownership of the physical book copy belongs to the purchaser of the book. This is not the case for the purchase of digital media.

Individual Readers

This issue of ownership is further exacerbated by the possibility of eBooks disappearing from a person’s device if a company wishes. In 2009, Amazon infamously remotely removed copies of George Orwell’s 1984 from purchasers’ devices. This quiet remote removal perfectly exemplifies this issue of ownership. While the issue was remedied and the books returned, the possibility of remotely removing digital media still exists, meaning that purchasers may lose access to a book they paid for.

If a platform is discontinued or a business goes under, the eBooks supported by the platform will become inaccessible. Unlike a physical book, access to an eBook is dependent on the platform that supports it. Currently, no procedures are in place to preserve the ability to access the book. If the platform disappears, so do the eBooks supported by that platform. In 2019, Microsoft shut down its eBook store, causing all eBooks purchased through its platform to be inaccessible. The retention of an eBook is contingent on the platform remaining intact.

The possibility of removal or disappearance of a purchased eBook reveals that the purchaser does not truly own a copy of the book. The purchase of an eBook is a license to read it, not true ownership. Additionally, purchasers are unable to allow others to borrow their eBook or to resell it as they could with a physical book copy.

“Digital retailers insist that ownership depends on the terms of an end user license agreement (‘EULA’)—that incomprehensible slew of legalese you reflexively click ‘I agree’ to dismiss. Those terms—negotiated by lawyers working for retailers and publishers—determine your rights, not the default entitlements of personal property. And buried within those thousands of words that we all ignore is one consistent message: you don’t own the books you bought; you merely license them. That is to say, you have permission to read them. Until one day, you don’t.”
The End of Ownership

Libraries

Libraries experience problems with digital ownership as well. Libraries cannot retain unlimited access to disperse digital media because it would be financially harmful to the publisher. From the library’s perspective, Libraries must repurchase eBooks after a certain amount of borrows. Libraries are bound to expensive subscriptions to eBooks that must be renewed. Therefore, libraries do not truly own the material they are purchasing.

Over the past few months, lawsuits in several states pertaining to libraries’ purchase and retention of eBooks have arisen. Multiple states are attempting to create legislation requiring publishers to sell eBooks to libraries at a “reasonable” price. Maryland passed legislation requiring this but was overruled in higher court due to copyright issues and constitutional boundaries. To quote the Opinion of the court, “Striking the balance between the critical functions of libraries and the importance of preserving the exclusive rights of copyright holders… is squarely in the province of Congress and not this Court or a state legislature.”

Legislation passed by states on this issue has proven unsuccessful thus far. This allows publishers to ensure that digital books are only borrowed or accessible through subscription, not owned. Libraries are left with soaring eBook subscription prices that must be paid over and over again, instilling fear that they may be unable to access the desired media due to cost.

Subscription Model

While many areas of digital media are shifting towards the subscription model, eBooks may be shifting away from it. Recurring fees and the possibility of losing a purchased digital book are concerning to consumers. Individual readers and libraries alike are concerned about the lack of ownership. If you must repurchase your book, do you really own it?

As a publisher, digital ownership must be approached from both a financial and ethical perspective. In a world moving steadily more digital, the thought of not truly owning any purchased digital material is concerning. Americans’ attitudes about digital media are changing, and publishers should adapt their methods to align with consumers. Publishers should consider how to best accommodate the needs and wants of consumers in a way that preserves financial growth.

Dreamwidth: The Free-for-all that Tumblr was and LiveJournal Could have Been

Dreamwidth was created as a replacement for the blogging site LiveJournal and has gained many former Tumblr users. Both sites censored content that Dreamwidth is more than happy to allow. Dreamwidth is a text-based social media platform focusing on posts and comments, giving users the ability to post content and make friends.

Navigating Dreamwidth

Dreamwidth describes itself as an open-source social networking and content management platform based on the LiveJournal code. Unlike many similar platforms like facebook or Tumblr, Dreamwidth users cannot repost and can only share links, keeping the feeds from cluttering up with reposted material. Dreamwidth has attracted a wide variety of users, with an avid fan fiction community and many others looking to share adult content that might be censored on other platforms, though users can voluntarily add content warnings.

Users have icons, and posts can vary from facebook-style life updates to art. User freedom comes at the price of basic packaging, with a plain aesthetic. There are a variety of different communities with a range of interests. Users have control over what others see, and some journals are locked and require permission from their creators for access.

How They Snagged Tumblr Users

Many users started coming to Dreamwidth when Tumblr started censoring NSFW posts. Even for those who don’t seek to share adult content, Tumblr’s censorship filter has caused issues, with many posts falsely flagged as inappropriate. Paige Leskin lists Dreamwidth as one of four main replacements for Tumblr. Dreamwidth even has a post welcoming former Tumblr users to their site.

Replacement for LiveJournal

While LiveJournal had several problems, inconsistent censorship was a big issue. Abe Hassan, a former LiveJournal employee discussed the problems they had in controlling inappropriate content: “We should’ve taken more of a stance on what ‘sexualized’ meant, and moved in the direction of community standards, like what [image sharing site] Flickr had, rather than freedom of speech.” The lack of consistent standards led to angry users who became increasingly dissatisfied with the site and the lack of clear rules.

Unlike Hassan, Denise Paulucci, who formerly led the LiveJournal support team, went in the opposite direction and sided with user freedom. Paulucci describes LiveJournal’s downfall: “We wanted to be the mom-and-pop corner store of social media, but we sold to somebody who didn’t understand that. And that’s where Dreamwidth comes in.”

By selling to a company that focused on advertising, Dreamwidth was forced to curtail its user’s freedom. This sudden shift in expectations contributed to LiveJournal’s demise. This led Paulucci and Livejournal software engineer Mark Smith to found Dreamwidth as an alternative that lacked the censorship LiveJournal was trying to implement.

The transition from LiveJournal to Dreamwidth appears so natural there are even posts on LiveJournal about how to use Dreamwidth , including one post by user ljlee covering how Dreamwidth’s mood indicators work and how to create your own custom mood theme.

What’s Different About Dreamwidth

Covering the exodus from Tumblr, Sean Captain writes about what makes Dreamwidth unique, quoting Paolucci: “Our user base is very, very appreciative of the fact that they are our users and not the product that we’re selling.” Since Dreamwidth is user supported, it has been able to avoid relying on adds or engaging in mass data harvesting. However, user freedom comes at the cost of limited finances, especially compared to major platforms like Tumblr. Dreamwidth has no video platform, and the site focuses more on facilitating the very sort of text-based posts that might come under fire by advertisers.

In the war between users and advertisers, Dreamwidth sides with the users. Whether the users will be able to back them up with the needed funding is still unknown. For devoted users, a plain platform is the price for freedom.

Technology and Teaching Poetry

Poetry is a difficult subject to entice students to immerse themselves in. Poetry is often neglected throughout elementary and high school, as well as in teacher-education courses entirely. Digital poetry can be taught in so many unique ways that cannot be done with an old poetry textbook. Allowing students to find and create poems that resonate with them encourages students to discover the diversity of poetry. The accessibility for digital poetry is at an all-time high, as is every form of digital media. Most schools in America issue their students electronic devices. At this rate, digital poetry is significantly more accessible than paper format.

Audiobook Poetry for Children

Poetry and audiobooks are two terrific resources for children learning to read. Poetry is a literary form that emphasizes language structures in unique ways to connect lines inside a poem. Poetry frequently rhymes, which is an excellent approach to improving phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the capacity to perceive and control sounds in language through writing. Children learn to break words down into phonemes through rhyming, which strengthens their decoding and comprehension skills. Poetry introduces children to new words, enhancing their vocabulary. Reading longer materials might be challenging for a new reader. On the other hand, poetry presents concise texts that are rich in significance. Additionally, poetry’s frequent use of metaphors enables more nuanced readings of the material. Children learn to become more self-assured, independent thinkers because poetry allows for personal interpretation.

The benefits of audiobooks for new readers are very similar to that of poetry. Students can hear the precise letter sounds and word-forming letter patterns through audiobooks. In addition to increasing vocabulary, understanding, and critical thinking abilities, audiobooks encourage student interaction with the material and expose them to a wider variety of terms. Students who listen to audiobooks are exposed to academic jargon and book language. Their previous knowledge, a crucial element for a developing student, is built through exposure. Audiobooks also promote the growth of higher-order thinking abilities. Combining these two resources for new readers could make a significant difference in children’s reading skills and their appreciation for poetry as they get older.

Digital Poetry vs. Poetry Textbooks

Students are only exposed to a narrow variety of poetry styles, subjects, and writers since teachers rely on overly well-known poems and ways of studying them. Handing a student a poetry textbook comprised entirely of the same authors and the same kinds of poetry is dull and uninspiring. Poetry textbooks have been done to death and can be listed as a contributing factor to students’ distaste for the writing medium.

A study called “The Transpoemation Project” chose a group of ninth graders to explore digital poetry with. They gave these students a project where they wrote their own poem, took it from pages to devices, and then transformed their poem into a movie. The students’ knowledge that they were going to make a short film of their poem allowed them to be more creative with their uses of themes and language. Translating a poem from the page to the screen highlighted the importance of analyzing their work. The same poem was read by various students in different ways, and the aesthetic decisions creators made when utilizing technology to animate the poem encouraged the other students to experience the ‘filmmaker’s’ interpretation of the text.

Poetry inspires us to consider how to use the various multimedia tools at our disposal to increase students’ comprehension and appreciation. Students must use creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and interact with a poem multiple times to translate verse from the page to the screen. It would have been impossible for the students in this study to complete this project without extensively re-reading their poems. This repetitive reading exercise improved understanding and aided interpretation.

Poetry Appreciation

Poetry is becoming near extinct in education as a whole. Even when poetry is taught, most teachers do not feel confident in teaching it. They resort to picking apart similar themes and never exposing students to anything new. Implementing technology into teaching poetry could be very influential. Translating a poem from the page to the screen and then taking it further and animating the poetry brings it to life. Projects similar to “The Transpoemation Project” have the potential to make learning poetry more enjoyable and influential. The ninth graders who participated in that study are sure to, at the very least, remember how fun their experience was. The potential of audiobook poetry to introduce children to it at a young age could create a lifelong appreciation for poetry. A new age of technology has ushered in new ways of teaching nearly everything. So why should poetry be an exception?

Publishing Digital Media

People commonly talk about the sale of fiction rights as if they were a bulk package. In reality, there is a broad spectrum of marketable rights that stem from a single work of fiction, one subset of which is electronic rights. Understanding how rights work is crucial for navigating digital publishing.

What Publishers are Looking For

Online fiction magazine sites differ slightly in terms of the rights they are looking for. Clarksworld wants first world electronic rights, first print rights, and non-exclusive anthology rights. Asimov’s Science Fiction wants First English Language serial rights, and Strange Horizons wants first-printing world exclusive English language rights. For beginning writers trying to publish online, deciphering these requests can require a little clarification.

An Author’s Rights Under Copyright

To better understand what rights publishing companies are asking for, it helps to understand what rights an author has under copyright in the first place. According to the Digital Media Law Project, there are six key rights protected under copyright which are: the right to reproduce, to distribute, to create derivative works, to perform a work, to publicly display it, and the right to perform it publicly for recordings. Electronic rights merely refer to how these rights protect an author’s work in electronic media.

Jerry Cornelius, in an article for Hubpages writes that authors don’t sell their rights but license a specific right or rights to a publisher. Yen Cabag, in an article for TCK Publishing, notes that when authors license their work rights are often broken up into specific parts. An author has a variety of marketable rights from one single work including the right to print their work electronically.

Defining Electronic Rights

Cornelius defines licensing print rights as allowing publishers to reproduce a work in any form of printed media. Licensing electronic rights allows a publisher to be the first to distribute a work electronically. Freelance Writing’s article Publication Rights for Freelance Writers discusses how granting all electronic rights gives publishers the ability to do anything from record a work on CD’s or post it on the internet. However, a publisher who only has electronic rights for a work cannot publish the work in print. Web rights give the publisher the right to post your article on the web but cannot reproduce it by CDs or similar means.

Claire E. White, writing in A Novice Writer’s Guide to Rights, advises that writers clearly define which electronic rights they are licensing and which they are not, as electronic rights themselves can be broken down into subcategories that are continually expanding due to advances in technology. Due to the broad scope of rights that authors possess, clarity of what you are offering and what you are not is key when negotiating contracts.

First Rights and Electronic Publishing

Brain A. Klems describes First North American Serial Rights (FNASR) in an article for Writer’s Digest. FNASR gives a publisher the right to be the first to publish a work in North America before any other publication.

While licensing first rights may seem straightforward, Cornelius writes that first rights are media-specific, allowing an author to sell first print rights and first electronic rights separately. An author can sell first electronic rights even after their work has long been in print, provided electronic rights were not included when they sold print rights. This gives authors an added stream of income and helps further monetize their work.

How to Keep from Losing First Electronic Rights

Writers also need to be aware of the consequences of posting material online. The editor of Clarkesworld Magazine Neil Clarke writes that editors consider a story published if it appears on your site or another publicly available website. While this might not fit many writers’ conceptions of publication, from an editor’s standpoint, the work has already been viewed, and first serial rights can no longer be sold. Taking care of what you post can save your first electronic rights.

When negotiating a book deal, it is important to know what rights you have and what they are worth to a publisher, allowing you to better understand your assets and the needs of the market.

Speechify for Authors and Editors

Have you ever been editing your content to find that the words are running together in your head? Authors and editors alike analyze and re-read texts repeatedly to weed out mistakes, and after time your brain can become overwhelmed. Reading the text aloud to see how the words flow is a tactic many people in these fields utilize. Speechify makes it possible for you to hear your writing aloud rather than reading it yourself, which makes it simpler for your mind to focus on seeing errors that are directly in front of you.

What Speechify is

Speechify is a multi-platform program using artificial intelligence (AI) voices to translate text into speech. The HD voices are one of the best features Speechify has to offer. From a distance, you can easily hear the voices, and you can alter the voice to suit your requirements. You can alter the reading’s pitch, tone, loudness, speed, and more. Instead of having to read the grammatical and readability errors yourself, you simply hear them. The ability to highlight the text while it is being read to you is another noteworthy feature. You can follow along with the text while highlighting the areas that require further attention as well as take notes within the software. Speechify also supports many languages. If you’d like, you can even translate across languages. The best part about Speechify is that it is a free program. There are premium features, but you can try them out for free first to see if you like them before deciding to pay for everything.

Competitors

Natural Reader and Murf are two large competitors for Speechify. With Natural Reader, you can turn written content from websites, ebooks, Word and PDF documents, and other types of written text into speech. There are 56 voices currently available in nine different languages, including American English, British English, French, Spanish, German, Swedish, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch. Natural Reader has a free plan as well.

Murf is Speechify’s largest competitor if you are looking for a tool to assist with your proofreading. Murf is not free, but it has a wide range of plans available. There are three different pricing options: Basic, Pro, and Enterprise. A full set of AI tools are included with Murf. If you don’t think you have the correct tone or accent for a piece of audio content but would prefer not to use a voice actor, there is even a Voice Changer tool that allows you to record something before it is changed into an AI-generated voice. Time Syncing, Grammar Assistant, and Voice Editing are additional capabilities. Having a grammar-assisting tool within the software is what makes Murf such a threat to Speechify. Although, as an author or editor just looking to have your work read back to you, this may not be worth spending money on when there are free applications.

What Makes Speechify More Useful to Authors and Editors

There are many text-to-speech applications on the market. What sets Speechify apart is its free plan. They offer a 3-day free trial of everything they offer. Moreover, the highlighting and note-taking features within Speechify are ideal features for editing. With free grammar assisting tools such as Grammarly available, the need for a grammar assistant within a text-to-speech application is not necessarily needed. As an author or editor, all you need is Speechify’s free plan to significantly improve the quality of your work. Hearing the way the words flow and being able to point out mistakes that way can make all the difference. The note-taking and highlighting tools are certainly useful and make the premium plan worth it, but besides that, the voices are the only other thing that might entice you to purchase the premium plan. They have a wide array of voices available. Celebrity voices are mimicked on Speechify as well, which can be incredibly entertaining. However, for editing what sets Speechify apart is the fact that authors and editors get everything they need out of it for free.

Downsides to Speechify

You would assume that by purchasing the premium plan you would have unlimited access to all of the features Speechify has to offer. With premium voices, speechify has a cap of 150,000 words each month. You can only hear the typical voices after you reach that limit. If you are an author or editor who already does not necessarily need the premium option but bought it for the voice options, this could be potentially frustrating. Also, with the standard version, the user experience may be hampered by the pushy ads intended to persuade you to upgrade to the premium plan.

Overall Assessment

Speechify is simple to use and a great tool for revision. Yet aggressive advertising can be irritating for users of any app, and this one is no exception. The note-taking and highlighting features on the premium plan are quite helpful, and the voice options might be amusing. Although those tools can be useful, they aren’t absolutely necessary for text editing. So, overall, as an author or editor using this to weed out mistakes in your work, the free plan gives you what you need, a second voice reading your work back to you.

The New Art of E-Book Covers

A physical book has about seven seconds to sell the book before the consumer puts it down. In that time, the consumer is connecting to the art on the cover, the title, and other design elements, such as foiling. Simultaneously, the customer also connects with the book through its weight, texture and scent. If the reader likes what they see and feel, they may flip the book over or open the cover to read a synopsis of the book. All of the sensory inputs allow the reader to form an emotional attachment to the book, making them more likely to buy it.

The digital shopping experience cannot offer the immersive experience that brick-and-mortar stores can. The digital storefront is only capable of connecting with the reader through sight, meaning that e-book covers must adapt to a visually heavy digital storefront.

How are E-Books Presented?

In online storefronts, the cover is reduced to a thumbnail. In physical stores, the books are typically presented spine-first, with a few books cover out; however, in a digital storefront, every book is presented with the cover. Additionally, a thumbnail has no reverse, so even if a reader chooses to click on the book, they have to search for the information that is found on the back of a cover.

Shortform Content and the Rise of Visual Shopping

George Chrysostomou makes the argument that TikTok is influencing book cover designs because content creators want something that will grab the viewers’ attention. Shortform content relies on the visuals of a cover to sell it, much like digital storefronts do. A common BookTok trend is the “Books That” trend, where a creator recommends books that made them cry or that they couldn’t stop thinking about. Creators typically only show the covers of the books against a simple background. Sometimes they will provide a “hook” or a rating system for each book, but the majority of the focus is on the book cover.

The value of aesthetics in shortform content has carried over into digital storefronts as readers expect aesthetically pleasing covers when choosing what books to purchase. A successful e-book cover should be simple and offer a promise of what the reader will find behind the cover.

Creating for Smaller Screens

The first step is to make sure your potential readers can clearly see the cover at its tiniest. An e-book cover is vastly important because it is the first thing, and often the only thing, that readers see when browsing. Smashwords founder, Mark Coker says that “a poor cover creates unnecessary friction that prevents a reader from clicking [on an e-book].” You want your book title to be clearly legible on the cover, as you cannot always count on the platform to format the title correctly or show the complete title. On Kindle, the preview thumbnail is only 60×90 pixels, which is incredibly tiny. Many stylistic choices that work for print books or for larger images will not translate into the thumbnail.

Know Your Genre

Knowing the style of cover that is particular to your genre is imperative, especially in a digital storefront. You want your audience to immediately know that your book will interest them solely off of the cover. Kris Miller argues that one of the most important aspects of book design is a “harmonious cohesion between design elements and market. The art shouldn’t fight the typography. A romance novel shouldn’t look like a thriller or visa versa.” Beyond branding your book for a certain genre, your cover starts to curate your brand.

Develop Your Brand

Colleen Hoover’s branding strategy is clearly defined by her text placement, font, and cover colors. Most of her covers feature pink or blue backgrounds that often have an easily identifiable motif, such as floral accents, that integrate themselves into the other elements on the cover. Hoover’s books are bright, bold, and clearly advertising contemporary romance, except for Verity. Her 2018 novel, Verity, is the opposite of bright and bold, yet it is not completely removed from Hoover’s brand. The dark background offers a nice contrast to the desaturated gold of the title and central design element. More importantly, Hoover kept her name in her typical place at the bottom center of the cover. The success of Verity is dependent on the recognition of Hoover’s brand.

Color and Images

The color of the cover is often the first thing that readers recognize and can be a huge part of an author’s brand; however, different displays will show color differently. Light mode will generally work well with all colors. In dark mode, bright colors can induce eye strain and dark colors will blend in. The cover must also translate into grayscale since most e-readers do not support color. A high contrast between the background image and the text is a good way to make the cover “pop,” even without color. Coker argues that the image alone should convey the premise of the book. The cover art should promise the reader the experience they are searching out.

Typography and Text Placement

Though the color and art are the most easily recognizable part of the cover, the typography and text layout are key elements that can make or break a cover. Aside from the cover art, the text is the largest element on a book cover. It is important that the font categorizes the book into a specific genre and the text is easily readable in thumbnail form.

The largest text should be what will get the reader to click on the book. For established authors with a loyal fanbase, the author’s name is typically the largest piece of text on the cover. For authors who haven’t developed name recognition, an interesting title should be given prominence. While teasers and reviews on the cover can give a print book credibility, the small text shrinks down into a blur on the thumbnails for e-books. The focus for e-book covers should be on hooking the reader with strong visuals.

Text hierarchy and font can also define your brand. Danielle Steele’s books are easily distinguished from other books in her genre because of the specific font she uses for her name, which is always positioned at the top of her cover over the title.

The success of an e-book is dependent on its ability to hook a reader from the search page. Credibility is no longer sought through reviews or a clever synopsis, but the aesthetics of a book cover. With the increasing focus on visual content in shortform media, e-books have no choice but to adapt.

From Fanfiction to Film: How Wattpad is Ushering in A New Age of Writing

Wattpad is an online community of authors and readers that hosts stories from typically unpublished authors. The site is unique in combining social media and a reading platform, which allows readers to interact with the books and the author. Wattpad was founded in 2006 by Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen as an e-reading platform where “readers could download an app to read and chat about fiction shared by professional and aspiring writers from around the world.” According to Lau, being mobile was the top priority. This mobility allowed for interaction on the site to skyrocket. Wattpad appeals to up-and-coming writers who wanted to distribute their work without going through a publishing process.

Writers typically release the book a chapter at a time and readers can make in-line comments on stories, allowing the writer to adjust the book to the reader’s preferences. Wattpad readers are primarily young people who were drawn to the appeal of free books written by their peers instead of older, more established authors. Many of these young authors became success stories through the constructive criticism and praise they received from their fans.

Anna Todd and Happily Ever After

Wattpad has been a powerhouse for undiscovered authors in the past few years. Anna Todd’s After began as a Harry Styles fanfiction in 2013. Written under the name @imaginator1D, After became an almost overnight success, with the fanbase reaching the hundreds of thousands. Todd wrote the majority of After on her phone, with no outlining or proofreading before she uploaded the chapter to Wattpad. While some may dislike the lack of outline, Todd and her fans equally enjoyed the “social writing” model. Todd would listen to her fans’ feedback and adjust the story to their preferences in real time. Not only did Todd’s fanbase grow, but the relationship between the fan and the author grew as well. Readers felt like they had a say in the story, which increased their loyalty to the author, as well as their willingness to offer financial support.

With the help of Wattpad, Anna Todd received a book deal with Simon and Schuster in 2014, just one year after she published her first chapter on Wattpad. After was also granted a movie in 2019, with three sequels to follow. Todd’s story is a testament to the power that her fans and Wattpad hold. The first movie currently holds an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, though fans give it a significantly better rating of 66%.

Wattpad to Movie Pipeline

Though Todd’s story is one of the most notable, it is far from the only success story that has come from Wattpad. At seventeen, Beth Reekles became the youngest Wattpad writer to score a book deal for her story, The Kissing Booth. Reekle later went on to earn a movie deal with Netflix, though that movie also did poorly on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite the abysmal critic reviews, The Kissing Booth garnered immense fan support. According to Sara Perez, this disconnect is due to the “built in audience” of Wattpad users.

Readers don’t just read and watch these stories, they create them. Wattpad utilizes the fan base when adapting stories for film. In an article for Quartz, Adam Epstein discusses Wattpad’s story-to-film process. The fans are integral to the adaptation process, with some “superfans” gaining access to the script to provide feedback before the film hits the box office. This process seems to work well. Epstein writes,

Most books come with a built-in audience, but this one comes with a built-in audience that’s also invested in the development process itself. It not only makes them more inclined to watch the show when it comes out, but leads them to become evangelists for the project on social media, which helps build buzz.
Adam Epstein, Quartz

Wattpad is unique in that its user base not only reads and shapes the stories on its platform, but also the way the stories transition off the platform.

Story DNA

According to Aron Levitz, the fans’ engagement is part of the “microtrend,” which allows Wattpad to know what will sell based on the size of the fanbase and reader engagement. Macrotrends are made possible by Story DNA. Story DNA is Wattpad’s deep-learning AI technology, which, according to Ashleigh Gardener, “deconstructs stories into their elemental features, such as sentence structure, word use, and grammar,” This gives Wattpad further insight into what makes a story popular outside of comments, likes, and shares. As a result, up-and-coming stories are given a greater chance at being discovered and transitioning off of Wattpad. The development of this technology is leading to a future of reading that is not just consumed by the reader but also formed by them.

Wattpad is unique in the fact that it is constantly reinventing itself to the benefit of its writers and readers. Wattpad has adapted from merely presenting stories to publishing them and promoting them outside of the digital platform. Wattpad not only publishes for fans but with the fans. The future of reading is driven by the reader, not the author or publisher.

The Substack Doctors

Covid-19 brought an interesting issue to the surface. What happens when social media sites decide to censor information that they deem false? During the Covid-19 pandemic, many doctors were censored for opposing things such as lockdowns, vaccinations, and mandates. Doctors expressing unpopular opinions or differing data findings were promptly flagged, suspended, or banned. Because of this, many of the censored doctors fled to Substack to continue writing.

What exactly is Substack?

Hamish McKenzie, Chris Best, and Jairaj Sethi created Substack in 2017. It is essentially a blog and email newsletter platform. Writers can decide whether to make their content accessible for free or with a paid subscription. Consumers are often able to access some of the content online for free, in blog format. Subscribers receive the content in their email inboxes. Writers that choose to utilize the subscription format pay a 10% fee to Substack.

Misinformation Station?

Substack received an influx of users and a place in the spotlight in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Social media sites like Twitter censored many users for propagating “misinformation.” Some of the censored users were simply online personalities such as Joe Rogan, who is well known for his conspiracy theories and polarizing opinions. However, some of the censored users were doctors. Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. Joseph Mercola, Dr. Robert Malone, and Dr. Rashid Buttar are just a few of the censored doctors.

For their remarks regarding the Covid-19 virus and frequently the MRNA vaccinations in particular, these censored physicians as well as numerous others faced harsh criticism. Much of their content is very controversial, hence becoming banned from social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

After becoming banned from social media platforms, many of these controversial doctors fled to Substack. Substack allowed them to continue expressing their findings and opinions freely. In turn, Substack received intense backlash for harboring doctors perceived by many as misleading frauds.

Substack responded in an article written by founders Hamish McKenzie, Chris Best, and Jairaj Sethi titled “Society has a trust problem. More censorship will only make it worse.” The title of the article perfectly encapsulates the sentiments of the founders. They quote in the article, “we will always view censorship as a last resort because we believe open discourse is better for writers and better for society.”

Rise of Subscriptions?

Those fleeing from social media censorship and Substack have formed a sort of symbiotic relationship. Many of the censored doctors are noted to have tens of thousands of Substack subscribers. Substack’s subscription model has proven very successful. Doctors choosing to write articles expressing opinions that are not politically accepted have grown a dedicated subscriber base. Many consumers appear interested in investigating the suppressed information.

The doctors voicing contentious Covid-19 results and opinions do not only attract a sizable subscriber base; they also represent one of Substack’s major revenue streams. According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Anti-vax content has supposedly brought in $2.5 million. While Substack takes their 10% cut, 90% of the revenue goes to the writer themselves.

Many social media sites are currently undergoing controversy due to their censorship, including that of the doctors. After Elon Musk purchased Twitter, he has been releasing information pertaining to the previous owners of Twitter’s suppression of information and collusion with the federal government.

With many content producers such as doctors and now many consumers fleeing social media and flocking to Substack, does this indicate a rise of the subscription model? Social media has driven away many doctors rejecting censorship. However, as a consumer, utilizing Substack and subscribing to many different doctors is both tedious and impractical. Before the rise of social media, a subscription to a publication would allow access to the work of multiple different writers. Social media allows you to follow many different accounts without cost and to easily access them in the home feed. To keep up with these methods, Substack must become more practical.

A new tactic has already begun popping up. Some doctors are creating joint Substack accounts. Subscription to one Substack includes access to articles from multiple different writers. For example, Dr. Peter McCullough and John Leake have created a joint Substack called “Courageous Discourse.” The subscription includes articles from both writers pertaining to civil liberties and clinical science. This approach to Substack will likely grow in popularity, and as a consumer, it is certainly more convenient.

Despite the controversy, Substack is only rising in popularity. Doctors are finding new ways to share information and utilize Substack’s subscription model. Substack’s rejection of censorship will continue to set it apart from other media platforms unless others begin to follow suit. Substack has created a reputation as a haven for free speech, for better or for worse.

AI Writing Detectors Save the Day

Soon after the release of the new ChatGPT bot, Professor Darren Hicks caught two students in the act of AI-giarism. The term “AI-giarism” refers to the practice of presenting content written by artificial intelligence (AI) as your own. Hicks claimed that he became concerned when the student submitted an essay that was on subject but contained some well-written false information. He ran it through an AI detector, which determined that the piece was 99% likely produced by AI. As AI technology develops, this practice is becoming more and more common. As a result of situations like this with students, ChatGPT has caused controversy in academia. Fear not, several organizations have constructed AI writing detectors to weed out AI-giarism and save the day for teachers.

GPT-2 Output Detector

The GPT-2 Output Detector is a tool created by OpenAI. Even though this software was created for the more outdated GPT-2 bot, it is still quite good at pointing out ChatGPT’s outputs. In fact, Darren Hicks used this software to confirm his suspicions. The detector will provide you with its conclusion a few seconds after you paste in the text you want to study. However, this program is more compatible with shorter literature that is less than 1,000 characters long. To ascertain whether a piece of writing was created by AI, this software delivers a proportion of a “real” to “fake” ratio. The only version of this tool that is accessible online is a demo, which is free. However, as ChatGPT develops further, this software will become much less useful.

Giant Language Model Test Room

The Harvard Natural Language Processing Group and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab collaborated to create the Giant Language Model Test Room (GLTR). This software focuses on a piece of writing’s complexity, assessing how likely a word is to be used. If the term is among the top 10 most likely options, it will be highlighted in green. Yellow highlights the top 100 words likely to be used, while red underlines the top 1,000. A word that is more unlikely to be used than that is highlighted violet. The majority of words in most written works will be highlighted in green, but because human writings are a lot less predictable than AI texts, they will also frequently contain a lot of words that are yellow, red, and even violet. However, the online version of GLTR was created in 2019, making it less reliable with the advancement of current ChatGPT outputs.

GPT Zero

Edward Tian, a senior at Princeton University, developed GPT Zero. The only model that is free online is an older beta model, although Tian has been working on a new model. GPT Zero measures the randomness in sentences and the randomness of the text as a whole. Human writing almost always contains more random content than text produced by AI because we tend to use words and sentence structures that are less predictable. As a result, an AI likely created the text if GPTZero detects low levels of randomness.

AI Writing Check

AI Writing Check is a completely free service created with educators in mind by two nonprofit organizations, Quill.org and Commonlit.org. They created AI Writing Check to make it possible for teachers to determine whether a piece of writing submitted by a student was written by ChatGPT. It allows teachers (or anybody else) to copy and paste text and in a matter of seconds learn whether the material was created using ChatGPT. However, you must divide the content into distinct sections to check responses longer than 400 words. Based on testing with 15k essays, they believe this tool is 80–90% correct most of the time. Nevertheless, they have advised teachers to use caution while utilizing this tool to look for academic dishonesty because of potential errors. They have described AI Writing Check as a band-aid solution that teachers can employ this academic year until more sophisticated AI detection technologies become publicly accessible.

AI Text Classifier

AI Text Classifier was created by none other than the creators of ChatGPT. On January 31st, OpenAI launched AI Text Classifier, which is user-friendly while still maintaining accuracy. All you have to do is enter at least 1,000 characters (about 150–250 words) of text into the box and press the submit button. The paper is then marked as highly unlikely, unlikely, unclear if it was created by AI, probably, or likely by AI. Users receive $18.00 of credit as a sort of free trial, and it lasts for around four months before expiring. After that, you pay for what you use. Prices depend on how many “tokens” are used. Tokens can be compared to bits of text, with 1,000 tokens equaling roughly 750 words. There are numerous models offered, Davinci being the most powerful, and Ada the fastest.

Application In the Classroom

Finding a detector for your classroom, or for anywhere else, might be a challenging choice with so many options available. Cost is a factor to be taken into consideration. Free software is still useful to some extent, but the best technology available will never be offered for free. Teachers must remember to exercise caution when using open-source software to uncover academic dishonesty because these programs are never entirely accurate. Regardless, these programs can be very helpful in catching an essay produced by an AI.