Is using EthiWrite cheating? No — here is exactly why.

EthiWrite has two writing modes, and both are built around the same rule: the ideas and the sentences are yours.

Guided mode writes nothing. It gives you a plan for your essay, points to the sources that support each part, and critiques your paragraphs as you write them — the way a writing-center tutor would. The coach is instructed to describe what to write, never the words.

Autocomplete mode offers short continuations — a sentence at a time, hard-capped at about thirty words — that appear as grey ghost text. Nothing enters your essay unless you explicitly accept it, and you can dismiss or re-roll any suggestion. It is a drafting aid you steer, not a ghostwriter.

When EthiWrite suggests a citation, the AI is not allowed to invent one. The mechanism: your attached sources are indexed, the app retrieves the passages most relevant to your claim, and the model may only select from that retrieved set. The citation label — author, year, formatting — is generated from the source record in the database, never composed by the model. If nothing in your library supports a claim, you get an empty result, not a fabricated reference.

Every reference you insert is one you can open, read, and defend. APA, MLA, and Chicago are rendered with the official Citation Style Language definitions — the same style files used across academic software.

Examiner Mode maps your argument section by section, flags unsupported claims, thin evidence, and structural gaps — the things a grader notices. It is deliberately analytical: it has no ability to rewrite, patch, or “fix” your text. You decide what to do with its findings, in your own words.

It will not write paragraphs from a prompt. It will not invent sources or pad a bibliography. It will not rewrite your essay to “sound better.” It will not answer questions from outside your attached sources in cited work — if your library cannot support an answer, it says so.

Your documents and uploaded sources live in your account and are used to provide the product’s features — grounding suggestions, formatting citations, generating feedback. Your essays are yours; we do not use them to train AI models.

The claims above are verifiable. Paper search is powered by OpenAlex ↗, the open index of 250M+ scholarly works. Citation formatting uses the official Citation Style Language ↗ styles. And if you are an instructor — or a student who wants to show this to one — the For educators page says all of this in your professor’s language.