Flagged by Turnitin, innocent

Being flagged by Turnitin's AI writing indicator for work you wrote is distressing and more common than institutions admit. It is also defensible, but how you respond in the first day matters.

First, do not do this

• Do not rewrite the document. You will destroy the version history that is your strongest evidence.
• Do not run it through a humanizer. That looks exactly like what you are being accused of.
• Do not delete drafts, notes or search history.

Gather process evidence

Document version history is the single most persuasive thing you have. Google Docs and Word both retain revision timelines showing the document being written over time, with pauses, deletions and rewrites. Generated text does not have that history. Export it before anything else.

• Full version history from your word processor.
• Handwritten notes, outlines, photographs of them.
• Library and browser history showing research.
• Any drafts sent to friends, tutors or supervisors, with timestamps.

Know what Turnitin says

Turnitin's own guidance is that the AI writing indicator should not be used as the sole basis for an academic misconduct finding. Quote that. It is the strongest single point available to you, and many assessors have not read it.

Explain the mechanism

The indicator measures word predictability and sentence-length variance. Plain, careful, consistent prose scores as machine-written because it genuinely has those properties. This bias falls hardest on non-native English speakers, if that applies to you, say so explicitly, because it is a documented pattern rather than an excuse.