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Our Review of EssayJack: Help Your Students Write Better Essays

Helly Douglas

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Enter essayjack, how to use essayjack, how students use essayjack, ready to get started try essayjack now., use code prowritingaidej to get one month of access to essay jack for free ..

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Is there anything more soul destroying than reading your students’ essays? All that amazing teaching you did. The note taking, discussions, and revision. Then you read what they’ve submitted and want to cry. Where did it go wrong?

The problem your students are having isn’t with the knowledge. It’s how they get those thoughts down into a well-organised essay. All too often they’re paralysed by fear of the blank page.

That’s where EssayJack comes in. It’s a web-based tool that helps students write academic essays and develop critical thinking skills. They use prompt questions, sentence starters, and tips to fill text boxes for each section of the essay.

Developed by experienced educators with an impressive 7 degrees and 2 postdoctoral fellowships between them, it’s ranked as one of the top English Language teaching digital innovations in the world by the British Council and Cambridge English.

As a teacher, I couldn’t wait to try it. Could this help me teach essay writing and support my learners to write effectively?

When you first log on to EssayJack, a short welcome video pops up from Dr. Lindy Ledohowski, the CEO. This helps you get started immediately without wasting time getting familiar with the platform. After the 30 second video, you’ll know exactly where everything is.

The left-hand bar is where you’ll find all the navigation choices. You can add students to assignments and select essays to review.

Look here to create:

• Essay templates
• Assignments

The centre dashboard gives you bird's-eye view of your data.

When you click an icon, the screen display will change, but the familiar layout remains. The left section always helps you navigate, whilst the centre is working space. Any tips or information will appear on the right-hand side. I found it very easy to find everything with just one or two clicks.

EssayJack lets you quickly create a complete essay template. Everything is customisable, and you can reuse templates again for multiple courses. Perfect for busy teachers who don’t want to reinvent the wheel.

There are lots of different choices for types of essays. Scroll down the list and select the one you want.

The default layout provides you with everything you need. Press the blue button next to each sub-point to turn it on or off.

You have complete control over the choices. Take the sentence starters. Just remove any you don’t want, or return to the default with one click.

Building Courses

EssayJack lets you build courses. This helps you keep on top of student submissions, review their work, and mark all essays in one place.

If you work collaboratively, you can add other managers to each course using their email address.

EssayJack has rubric-based review and individual commenting options. You can use both for ongoing assessment and formative support, or for feedback after final submission.

When I review essays, I’m easily overwhelmed with all those open documents. I can see how EssayJack would significantly speed up and simplify the marking process.

After logging in, students start drafting within seconds.

They’ll use the left-hand side to move between sections of their writing. But this is far more than the navigation bar on Word. EssayJack breaks everything down further into subsections.

The centre area displays a text box to fill. They can select from the sentence starters and use prompt questions, with a live word count to keep them on track. On the right of the display, students see explanations and tips to make sure they are writing exactly what they need.

Referencing sources is always a challenge. I love how EssayJack helps. Students select which type of source they are using.

Then use the pop-up box to fill in the details.

Reviewing Their Work

Students select ‘split screen composing’ to see how their essay is being built and get a full preview.

They can send work to you for review within the platform. But if they’re using EssayJack and their teacher isn’t, they can also export as a document or email it to themselves.

Teachers are rightly wary of programs that write students’ essays for them. That’s where EssayJack stands out.

It’s far more than a ‘paint-by-numbers’ approach. All the thinking comes from the student. EssayJack not only provides the structure, but also teaches them how to organise their ideas and write critically.

Technology doesn't have to take over. You can use programs like EssayJack to enhance your students' writing abilities. They're learning how to open their paragraphs, how to structure their ideas, and what they need to include to write the best essay they can.

ProWritingAid takes a similar approach. Once a student has written their essay in EssayJack, they can run it through ProWritingAid to edit it. Like with EssayJack, your students will learn as they edit. ProWritingAid doesn't just make suggestions like a spellchecker. It includes articles and videos to explain to your students why they're making the changes they are.

EssayJack and ProWritingAid work beautifully together to keep students learning as they write.

Personalised Support

I love how much control I have over the essay templates, making it suitable for all ages and abilities.

Some students will use the structure prompts as guides, others will rely heavily on the sentence starters and prompt questions. You can offer as much or as little support as you want.

Increasing Grades

EssayJack is a great tool for teaching critical thinking, so it’s no surprise this results in improved student grades.

They’ve completed five rounds of research studies from Grade 8 through to University level, and each one shows an increase in student grades. They’re currently writing this up into a peer-reviewed paper.

Flexible Purchasing

You’re not tied-in with EssayJack. By offering a monthly or yearly purchase options, you can choose how to use it. Some schools buy it for a few crucial months each year. Perfect for squeezed budgets. The larger the number of student accounts, the lower the price.

Others suggest it as a resource for parents to purchase, like a digital textbook. You can still make custom changes by connecting your account with theirs.

Teaching essay-writing is always difficult, however old your students are. The minds behind EssayJack know the challenges because they’ve experienced it first-hand. They know what teachers are looking for with essay writing support, and this delivers everything you’ll need.

Younger students will need training to use this platform, but the results will be worth the effort. Well-structured, thoughtful essays with accurate citations and clear conclusions – what’s not to love?

EssayJack teaches students how to write critically and organise their ideas into effective essays.

Your students will be able to put your lessons into practise using software that supports and reinforces your teaching. Before long, you'll be seeing well organized, well supported essays, leaving you more time to focus on teaching content and improving their writing even further.

Quick disclaimer. When we find a software we love, we often reach out to the company and ask if we can help promote it. As such, this review contains affiliate links. This means if you buy EssayJack, ProWritingAid receives a small commission at no extra cost to you. It's a great way to help our team keep improving the editing technology you love.

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Helly Douglas is a UK writer and teacher, specialising in education, children, and parenting. She loves making the complex seem simple through blogs, articles, and curriculum content. You can check out her work at hellydouglas.com or connect on Twitter @hellydouglas. When she’s not writing, you will find her in a classroom, being a mum or battling against the wilderness of her garden—the garden is winning!

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Wize Acquires EssayJack to Enhance Its Full-Suite Learning Tool to Further Support Student Success

VANCOUVER, BC, July 20, 2021 - Wize, a full-suite EdTech offering for secondary and postsecondary students announces its acquisition of EssayJack, an award-winning, patented software solution for academic writing, founded by two professors.

Wize has helped over 100,000 students excel in STEM subjects, and EssayJack has helped over 30,000 students master academic writing, everything from book reports to persuasive speeches to academic essays. Together, Wize and EssayJack will support students in building lasting numeracy and literacy skills which will carry them through high school, university, and into the economy.

"Our acquisition of EssayJack rounds out our core, curricular content by complementing our robust STEM offering with a world-class literacy tool," said Cyrus Moradian, Wize's CEO. "We know that students and educators alike are hungry for resources that build students' knowledge and confidence - not just take a shortcut to the answer," Moradian said. He continued: "our combined platform will help students understand, critically evaluate, and effectively communicate in STEM, English and beyond."

As part of the acquisition, Dr. Lindy Ledohowski, EssayJack's CEO, joins Wize's leadership team as Vice President of Operations. "This pandemic has changed education," stated Ledohowski, a former high school English teacher and university professor who also served 8 years on the Board of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. "When Cyrus and I first met, it was our mutual goal of seeing all students succeed that started us on a path to joining forces. With the huge learning loss unequally experienced by students in North America, we knew now was the time to combine our efforts to most effectively support student and educator success."

Moradian said: "I'm particularly excited by how the addition of EssayJack increases the value and reach of our offering in advance of our new All-Access Pass on-demand subscription launching this 2021-2022 academic year. With the inclusion of EssayJack's tools, we will have the most cost effective and impactful STEM and literacy supplemental learning offering in the Market."

The combination of Wize and EssayJack creates a Canadian powerhouse ed-tech company ready to come alongside students and educators in North America to fulfill student potential.

Wize and EssayJack will be launching in schools, colleges, and universities across Canada and the United States this August 2021. The Wize and EssayJack content will be available to students through the All-Access Pass for one low monthly fee.

For more information on this acquisition or details of what you can expect in the Wize "all access pass," please contact below.

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Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wizeprep

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Media Contact -

Rylan Kinnon,  Chief Strategy Officer WIZE [email protected]

SOURCE: WIZE

Getting Acquired: Lindy Ledohowski from EssayJack

• in Founder Spotlight

​​EssayJack is a web platform developed by Dr Lindy Ledohowski and her cofounder to help students in high school and university with academic writing, and to help instructors in schools, colleges, and universities teaching academic writing to students. Mastery of critical thinking and critical writing skills is linked to job success and lifetime earnings, yet not all student start from the same starting point when it comes to mastering these skills. The EssayJack platform demystifies academic writing conventions in an easy-to-use platform that guides students in real time with tips, prompts, sentence starters, and video guides. EssayJack was launched in beta in 2015 and by 2021 it was acquired by Vancouver-based Wize to be added to its educational software offerings for students in high school, college, and university.

Social Media Links: Lindy Twitter: https://twitter.com/doctorlindy EssayJack Twitter: https://twitter.com/essayjack Wize Twitter: https://twitter.com/wizeprep

Lindy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindy-ledohowski EssayJack LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/essayjack/ Wize LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wizeprep

First time here? Newsletter

For Founders

For m&a advisors, submit a tip, two professors built a saas that helped 30,000 students tackle academic writing, essayjack acquired by wize.

Lindy Ledohowski and Rueban Balasubramaniam, co-founders of EssayJack

Here's the Deal

Type of company : saas, price : not disclosed, buyer : wize, year sold : 2021, founders : lindy ledohowski and ​​rueban balasubramaniam, year founded : 2015, amount raised : $340,000 ($500,000 cad), # of users at sale : 30,000, why we're watching.

Who said you need tech skills to build a SaaS company? These founders were humanities professors when they noticed a need — and went on to create a product that helped tens of thousands of students.

During their years of teaching English, writing and law, Drs. Lindy Ledohowski and ​​Rueban Balasubramaniam encountered a recurring problem: Their students were creative, driven and intelligent, but they didn’t seem to be equipped to deal with the demands of scholarly writing.

The two wanted to address the challenge with technology but struggled to come up with a solution… until Balasubramaniam found inspiration in an unlikely place.

“Rueban had the opportunity to tour a massive scaffolding factory and seeing the connecting bits and pieces of scaffolding inspired him,” wrote Ledohowski . The two professors, who are married, decided to “build scaffolding for writing.”

Founded in 2015 in Toronto, EssayJack is a SaaS platform that helps college and post-secondary students in writing-intensive courses understand the conventions of academic writing. Its interactive writing templates and prompts support students as they learn to write better and more efficiently.

To build the app, the co-founders hired software development firm Hivekind , which is based in Malaysia. Ledohowski also cultivated her own tech skills with the partnership, as Hivekind offered her an informal “apprenticeship” through which she learned how to run a development team with Agile and Scrum methodologies .

“I learned a whole heck of a lot about software development,” Ledohowski told us. “So while not a techie by training, I’m definitely a techie by trade at this point.”

An unexpected offer to acquire EssayJack

Over six years, Ledohowski and Balasubramaniam used EssayJack to help over 30,000 students with academic writing ranging from book reports to speeches to scholarly essays, Ledohowski told They Got Acquired. The company’s website drew in more than 20,000 unique visitors each month.

By 2021, EssayJack’s success compelled Ledohowski and Balasubramaniam to pursue venture capital to fuel the company’s growth. But in the midst of fundraising, the co-founders began receiving interest from buyers. They hadn’t seriously considered selling until they received an offer from a strategic buyer — the ed tech firm Wize — that appeared to be a great fit, Ledohowski said.

“I was still pretty committed to raising venture capital and growing the company ourselves, but yet also curious about whether or not this acquisition would work,” Ledohowski said. “We gave ourselves a tight 30-day timeline to complete the due diligence and negotiations. It was intense to say the least.”

Despite the tight window, the two parties signed paperwork and Wize cut a check within 30 days, Ledohowski said. While Ledohowski couldn’t share the value of the sale, she said it was a combination of cash and shares in Wize.

Based in Vancouver, Wize is an education technology platform that offers access to university course tutorials, exam-prep sessions, tutors and other study tools. The company serves students and schools throughout North America.

Ledohowski now serves as vice president of operations for Wize, and Balasubramaniam is an associate professor at Carleton University teaching the philosophy of law.

We conduct original reporting whenever possible. Other sources we relied on for this story:

• Wize Acquires EssayJack to Enhance Its Full-Suite Learning Tool to Further Support Student Success (AccessWire)
• Ottawa edtech startup EssayJack acquired by Vancouver’s Wize (Ottawa Business Journal)
• New classmates: Wize acquires Ottawa-based startup EssayJack (Vancouver Tech Journal)
• Getting Acquired with Lindy Ledohowski from EssayJack (FoundersBeta on YouTube)

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Freshly funded edtech startup Wize acquires EssayJack

Vancouver-based Wize, an online education platform, has acquired EssayJack, a Toronto-based patented software solution for academic writing.

Vancouver-based Wize, an online education platform for secondary and post-secondary students, has acquired EssayJack, a Toronto-based patented software solution for academic writing. No financial terms were disclosed. Wize earlier this year secured $3 million in financing. It is backed by Luma Launch, Panache Ventures and other investors.

PRESS RELEASE

Wize Acquires EssayJack to Enhance Its Full-Suite Learning Tool to Further Support Student Success

VANCOUVER, BC, July 20, 2021 – Wize, a full-suite EdTech offering for secondary and postsecondary students announces its acquisition of EssayJack, an award-winning, patented software solution for academic writing, founded by two professors.

Wize has helped over 100,000 students excel in STEM subjects, and EssayJack has helped over 30,000 students master academic writing, everything from book reports to persuasive speeches to academic essays. Together, Wize and EssayJack will support students in building lasting numeracy and literacy skills which will carry them through high school, university, and into the economy.

“Our acquisition of EssayJack rounds out our core, curricular content by complementing our robust STEM offering with a world-class literacy tool,” said Cyrus Moradian, Wize’s CEO. “We know that students and educators alike are hungry for resources that build students’ knowledge and confidence – not just take a shortcut to the answer,” Moradian said. He continued: “our combined platform will help students understand, critically evaluate, and effectively communicate in STEM, English and beyond.”

As part of the acquisition, Dr. Lindy Ledohowski, EssayJack’s CEO, joins Wize’s leadership team as Vice President of Operations. “This pandemic has changed education,” stated Ledohowski, a former high school English teacher and university professor who also served 8 years on the Board of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. “When Cyrus and I first met, it was our mutual goal of seeing all students succeed that started us on a path to joining forces. With the huge learning loss unequally experienced by students in North America, we knew now was the time to combine our efforts to most effectively support student and educator success.”

Moradian said: “I’m particularly excited by how the addition of EssayJack increases the value and reach of our offering in advance of our new All-Access Pass on-demand subscription launching this 2021-2022 academic year. With the inclusion of EssayJack’s tools, we will have the most cost effective and impactful STEM and literacy supplemental learning offering in the Market.”

The combination of Wize and EssayJack creates a Canadian powerhouse ed-tech company ready to come alongside students and educators in North America to fulfill student potential.

Wize and EssayJack will be launching in schools, colleges, and universities across Canada and the United States this August 2021. The Wize and EssayJack content will be available to students through the All-Access Pass for one low monthly fee.

For more information on this acquisition or details of what you can expect in the Wize “all access pass,” please contact below.

Media Contact –

Rylan Kinnon, Chief Strategy Officer WIZE [email protected]

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Online Learning Platform Wize Acquires Academic Writing Solution Provider EssayJack

Wize, a full-suite EdTech offering for secondary and post-secondary students, has acquired EssayJack, an Ottawa-based startup that develops tools and templates for academic writing.

According to a press statement, the combined platform will support students in building lasting numeracy and literacy skills that will carry them through high school, university, and the economy.

EssayJack was launched in 2014 by Lindy Ledohowski, a former high school English teacher and university professor, with her husband Rueban Balasubramanian, an associate professor at Carleton University, after seeing students persistently struggle with essay writing. The startup has helped over 30,000 students master academic writing, everything from book reports to persuasive speeches to academic essays.

Commenting on the development and how the combined platform will further support student success, Cyrus Moradian, CEO of Wize, said in a statement,

“Our acquisition of EssayJack rounds out our core curricular content by complementing our robust STEM offering with a world-class literacy tool. We know that students and educators alike are hungry for resources that build students’ knowledge and confidence – not just take a shortcut to the answer. Our combined platform will help students understand, critically evaluate, and effectively communicate in STEM, English, and beyond.”

Expressing his excitement, Moradian further said that the addition of EssayJack will increase the value and reach of its offering in advance of its new All-Access Pass on-demand subscription, which the company will launch this 2021-2022 academic year. With the inclusion of EssayJack’s tools, he added the platform will have the most cost-effective and impactful STEM and literacy supplemental learning offering in the market.

Wize offers video lessons, guided practice problems, and prep courses. The startup has helped more than 100,000 students excel in STEM subjects.

Lindy Ledohowski, Co-founder & CEO of EssayJack, added,

“This pandemic has changed education. When Cyrus and I first met, it was our mutual goal of seeing all students succeed that started us on a path to joining forces. With the huge learning loss unequally experienced by students in North America, we knew now was the time to combine our efforts to most effectively support student and educator success.”

As part of the acquisition, Lindy Ledohowski will join Wize’s leadership team as Vice President of Operations.

Wize and EssayJack will be launching in schools, colleges, and universities across Canada and the United States this August 2021. The combined platform’s content will be available to students through the All-Access Pass for one low monthly fee, according to a statement.

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EssayJack is a web-based writing tool that helps students structure written documents and reduce writing anxiety. Educators can customize it, create assignments, use templates, allow peer review and upload resources. Ranked as one of the top English Language teaching digital innovations in the world by the British Council and Cambridge English.

Schools and districts that already have an EssayJack subscription can connect their EssayJack accounts to Edsby. To configure EssayJack to work from Edsby, follow Edsby’s Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) guidelines here .

Jack Ma: A Humble Visionary Essay

Jack Ma is the founder and CEO of Alibaba, one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in the world. This Chinese businessman is the wealthiest man in his home country, a philanthropist as well as entrepreneur, and one of the most influential people in the world of global commerce. I have selected this leader because I am fascinated with his transformational leadership skills, and I hope one day to be able to inspire people in a similar way. Up until now, I had seen a friend of mine successfully graduate from a prestigious Music School, an idea I introduced them to when we were together in a band as teens.

Transformational leadership requires abilities that allow the leader to recognize the need for change, to create a leadership vision to guide that change through inspiration and to execute the change effectively together with the delegates and other members of the company. The leader’s personality traits allow them to become a role model for the followers, and to make change through example, motivating others to take on challenging goals.

When Jack Ma founded Alibaba in 1999, he was a humble English teacher who has failed several math exams in his life and had but a user’s knowledge of the Internet. Recognizing the market’s need for a domestic e-commerce platform, he started Alibaba working from his home with the help of friends and a small starting capital. Transforming smaller companies, Taobao or AliExpress among them, into bigger ones, he proves that tenacity is key to success. Most importantly, a leader must empower the followers to become better than himself. Therefore, though he has never studied at Harvard, he is a frequent speaker at the institution to a great acclaim. It is this Jack Ma’s leadership vision of humility that inspires me the most.

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IvyPanda. (2021, May 28). Jack Ma: A Humble Visionary. https://ivypanda.com/essays/jack-ma-a-humble-visionary/

"Jack Ma: A Humble Visionary." IvyPanda , 28 May 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/jack-ma-a-humble-visionary/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Jack Ma: A Humble Visionary'. 28 May.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Jack Ma: A Humble Visionary." May 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/jack-ma-a-humble-visionary/.

1. IvyPanda . "Jack Ma: A Humble Visionary." May 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/jack-ma-a-humble-visionary/.

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IvyPanda . "Jack Ma: A Humble Visionary." May 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/jack-ma-a-humble-visionary/.

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Hundreds of Jan. 6 Prosecutions—Including Donald Trump’s—Are Suddenly in Peril at the Supreme Court

Will the Supreme Court jeopardize the prosecution of more than 350 defendants involved with Jan. 6, including Donald Trump, by gutting the federal statute that prohibits their unlawful conduct? Maybe so. Tuesday’s oral arguments in Fischer v. United States were rough sledding for the government, as the conservative justices lined up to thwap Joe Biden’s Department of Justice for allegedly overreaching in its pursuit of Jan. 6 convictions. Six members of the court took turns wringing their hands over the application of a criminal obstruction law to the rioters, fretting that they faced overly harsh penalties for participating in the violent attack. Unmentioned but lurking in the background was Trump himself, who can wriggle out of two major charges against him with a favorable decision in this case.

There are, no doubt, too many criminal laws whose vague wording gives prosecutors near-limitless leeway to threaten citizens with decades in prison. But this isn’t one of them. Congress wrote a perfectly legible law and the overwhelming majority of judges have had no trouble applying it. It would be all too telling if the Supreme Court decides to pretend the statute is somehow too sweeping or jumbled to use as a tool of accountability for Jan. 6.

Start with the obstruction law itself, known as Section 1552(c), which Congress enacted to close loopholes that Enron exploited to impede probes into its misconduct . The provision is remarkably straightforward—a far cry from the ambiguous, sloppy, or muddled laws that typically flummox the judiciary. It’s a mainstay of the Department of Justice’s “Capitol siege” prosecutions, deployed in about a quarter of all cases. Overall, 350 people face charges under this statute, Trump among them , and the DOJ has used it to secure the convictions of about 150 rioters . It targets anyone who “corruptly … obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so.” And it clarifies that an official proceeding includes “a proceeding before the Congress.”

The government argues that some rioters attempted to “obstruct” an “official proceeding” by halting the count of electoral votes through “corrupt” means. That includes Joseph Fischer, the defendant in the current case. Fischer, who served as a police officer before Jan. 6, allegedly texted that the protest “might get violent”; that “they should storm the capital and drag all the democrates [sic] into the street and have a mob trial”; and that protesters should “take democratic congress to the gallows,” because they “can’t vote if they can’t breathe..lol.” Video evidence shows Fischer assaulting multiple police officers on the afternoon of Jan. 6 after breaching the Capitol.

Would anyone seriously argue that this person did not attempt to corruptly obstruct an official proceeding? For a time, it seemed not: 14 of the 15 federal judges—all but Judge Carl Nichols in this case—considering the charge in various Jan. 6 cases agreed that it applied to violent rioters bent on stopping the electoral count. So did every judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit except one, Judge Gregory Katsas. Both Nichols and Katsas were appointed by Trump. Their crusade to kneecap the law caught SCOTUS’ attention, and the court decided to intervene despite overwhelming consensus among lower court judges. The Supreme Court’s decision will have major implications for Trump: Two of the four charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith in the former president’s Jan. 6 prosecution revolve around this offense. A ruling that eviscerates the obstruction law would arguably cut out the heart of the indictment.

At least three justices seem ready to do just that. Justice Clarence Thomas—back on the bench after yesterday’s unexplained absence —grilled Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar over the law’s application to Jan. 6. “There have been many violent protests that have interfered with proceedings. Has the government applied this provision to other protests in the past?” Thomas asked, as if to nail the Justice Department for inconsistency and reveal some improper motive for wielding the law against violent insurrectionists. Justice Neil Gorsuch trolled Prelogar by alluding to Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s infamous fire alarm incident . “Would pulling a fire alarm before a vote qualify for 20 years in federal prison?” he asked. Justice Samuel Alito joined in to ask about “protests in the courtroom” when an audience member interrupts the justices and “delays the proceeding for five minutes.”

“For all the protests that have occurred in this court,” Alito noted pointedly, “the Justice Department has not charged any serious offenses, and I don’t think any one of those protestors has been sentenced to even one day in prison.” Why, he wondered, weren’t they charged under the obstruction statute?

Alito, audibly angry, continued: “Yesterday protestors blocked the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and disrupted traffic in San Francisco,” he told Prelogar. “What if something similar to that happened all around the Capitol so … all the bridges from Virginia were blocked, and members from Virginia who needed to appear at a hearing couldn’t get there or were delayed in getting there? Would that be a violation of this provision?”

To be clear, this is trolling: There is simply no comparison between a violent attack on the Capitol and protests that take the form of civil disobedience. And these justices expressed no similar concern about an ongoing red-state effort to persecute peaceful protesters who participate in Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Gorsuch and Alito’s hypotheticals ignore the reality that there are two layers of protection between minor protests and this rather major law. First, the Constitution affords prosecutorial discretion to the executive branch, allowing the Department of Justice to decide when an illegal “protest” is dangerous enough to warrant the use of a criminal law like the obstruction statute. Second, prosecutors must always prove the alleged offense to a jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, creating a democratic check on the abusive use of a stringent law to punish a silly crime.

Prelogar highlighted this latter point, explaining that juries have indeed acquitted Jan. 6 defendants of obstruction. If prosecutors ever apply this (or any other) criminal statute to a questionable set of facts, they may always be thwarted by a jury. That is how the system is meant to work.

This kind of behavior from Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito is no surprise at this point. And the liberal justices countered them as best they could. What’s troubling is that the other conservative justices jumped in to join the pile-on. Chief Justice John Roberts insistently pressed Prelogar to prove that the Justice Department has interpreted and enforced the obstruction law consistently in the past. This question ignored the fact that, as Prelogar reminded the court, there has never been any crime like the assault on the Capitol , so the agency had no prior opportunity to apply the law in any similar way.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that the Justice Department didn’t really need this statute because it has other laws at its disposal. “There are six other counts in the indictment here,” he told Prelogar. Why “aren’t those six counts good enough just from the Justice Department’s perspective given that they don’t have any of the hurdles?” Of course, the DOJ brought the obstruction charge specifically because it was more serious than the others; prosecutors felt an obligation to enforce Congress’ strong protections against intrusions on official proceedings, including those in the Capitol. Kavanaugh appears to think the DOJ should have settled for a smattering of lesser charges. Justice Amy Coney Barrett was not so obtuse; she earnestly worried that the statute was too broad and fished around for narrowing constructions. Yet she seemed unsatisfied with the many options Prelogar provided to keep the law limited to the most egregious interruptions of government business.

What all six justices seemed tempted to do was rip up Section 1552(c) because it happens to include another sentence that applies to the destruction of evidence and other official documents. Jan. 6 rioters didn’t destroy evidence, this argument goes, so they can’t be culpable under a law. That reading is untenable , something Prelogar impressively reinforced at every turn on Tuesday, but it may be attractive if a majority wants to defuse this statute before it’s used against Trump in a court of law.

Smith’s indictment of the former president for his participation in Jan. 6 doesn’t entirely hinge on obstruction. It does, however, weave obstruction into both the facts and the legal theory of the case, placing it at the center of a broader criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. If SCOTUS defuses the law now, Smith would have to scrap two of four charges and restructure the entire indictment, making it that much easier for Trump to demand further delay and, eventually, evade a conviction.

The justices know this. They should have been on their best behavior on Tuesday to avoid any glimmer of impropriety. It was already profoundly disturbing that Thomas sat on the case given his wife’s involvement with the attempt to overturn the election. The other justices’ faux concern about overcriminalization of protesters only added to the foul smell emanating from arguments. There’s no telling how Fischer will turn out; maybe the liberal justices will help their colleagues rediscover their better angels behind the scenes. From Tuesday’s vantage point, though, the argument was a bleak reminder of how easy it is for cloistered jurists to wish away the massive stakes of a case like this.

Teacher's 'Clever' Hack For Catching Students Using ChatGPT On Essay

A leading educator has shared a simple hack for catching out students using ChatGPT to write their essays for them.

Though ChatGPT's terms of use say those aged 13 to 18 should only use it with parental permission, research suggests a worrying number of students are already misusing AI in the classroom.

Earlier this month, a survey conducted by the Center for Democracy and Technology revealed a significant increase in U.S. student discipline issues related to the use of generative AI chatbots.

The nationally representative surveys of K-12 public school teachers found 64 percent said students at their school had got into trouble for using or being accused of using AI on a school assignment . That represented a 16 percent increase on the previous year.

Daina Petronis is a full-time curriculum designer and former high school English teacher who runs the online teaching resources community mondaysmadeeasy.com. She believes that while there may come a day when the likes of ChapGPT have a place in the classroom, right now the biggest challenge facing teachers when it comes to language learning models (LLMs) is their potential misuse.

"In theory, LLMs can benefit learning, but there needs to be plenty of support in place to ensure that they are not being misused ," Petronis told Newsweek .

Much of Petronis's work involves researching trends in education, not least when it comes to the use of ChatGPT, the methods available to help teachers catch those using LLMs illicitly, and the limitations around them.

"I am often approached by companies developing AI-detection tools who are looking to promote their software to my audience," she said. "Before sharing these tools with my community, I always ask their representatives about their accuracy. The consistent response from these companies is that there is no surefire method to detect AI."

Another method endorsed by some involves asking the LLM if it produced the work in question. "I've actually tested this with several samples of original writing alongside text generated by an LLM," Petronis said. "I used my own writing that was published years ago and it falsely claimed to have generated it. I also used the writing that it had generated, and it didn't recognize it."

Thankfully, Petronis has hit upon a much simpler approach at weeding out the cheats using what she calls a "trojan horse" hack. In a video posted to her TikTok account mondaysmadeeasy, she explained "this hack is pretty clever and can show you exactly what to look out for without the use of any software of special programs."

She begins by splitting her essay prompt—the title of the essay given to her students—into two paragraphs before adding a sentence in-between in white using the smallest size possible. The idea is that if the essay prompt is copied and pasted into ChatGPT, the teacher can then search for the sentence hidden in the small white font when the assignment is submitted.

Though the video has been watched over one million times, garnering plenty of praise in the process, Petronis acknowledges there are "limitations" to the method.

"If a student happens to notice that there is hidden text in their assignment prompt, then there are some possible outcomes: they can either remove the text or mistake it as a part of the instructions," she said.

However, she feels the positives far outweigh the negatives. "What makes the trojan horse arguably more effective than other methods is that it offers a point of reference that is easy to identify and discuss with a student," she said. "I would not feel comfortable talking to a student about their writing process just because an AI detection tool or an LLM indicates that it's been plagiarized. But if I saw that their work had my trojan horse terms in it, I could simply ask them about it in an open-ended way."

Though the clip has been praised for highlighting a simple way to tackle plagiarism, Petronis said some watching the clip "misunderstood" the message of the video as being "anti-AI." Petronis refutes this suggestion.

"Even though this video sparked a lot of controversy, I think many of us have the same goal—we want what is best for students," she said. "While some people believe this involves training children on AI so that they can use it in the workforce, educators also understand literacy to be a more valuable skill and a prerequisite for using AI appropriately."

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