Nowadays, lots of students use AI for their schoolwork. In 2025, 66% of students will use ChatGPT for their homework. Even British students use it a lot; over 90% of them look for ways to incorporate generative AI into their assignments. But the big question is: how do you modify a ChatGPT write-up so that it’s not as obvious? How do you retain the advantages of utilizing AI—without losing the main reason why ChatGPT is such a valuable tool to begin with—its accuracy and speed?
The answer isn’t simply copying and pasting it. AI-generated writing sticks out a mile. Cornell University research from 2025 shows that AI writing is most of the time too similar and generic to be reliably used. This means that it frequently does not sound like you. Even worse, Information Integrity Institute research from 2024 shows that 14% of AI-generated articles contained factual errors in more technical topics. You need to rewrite AI writing to balance the benefits of utilizing AI while also doing verification work. We break down what’s required to do so below.
Why Accuracy Matters More Than Ever in AI-Assisted Writing
Before we get into structural techniques, it’s vital to briefly understand what’s really at stake at the moment. AI detection tools are now highly accurate—over 98% average accuracy rate at picking up if you’re using ChatGPT (or anything built from a large language model). More sophisticated tools like Winston AI and Pangram can even now pick up rewrites and mixed ChatGPT/ Human written essays. Most universities now list a greater than 20% AI score as a potential academic misconduct case.
But that is not actually the main problem. In fact, a new 2025 study that had markers look at 300 different physics essays found that they could not even consistently tell the difference between a human and a machine. The accuracy rates were just over 50%. What this means is that rewrites that mix ChatGPT writing and human written writing are not enough anymore. The real reason is because it doesn’t actually matter if it “sounds” like a human. Because if your essay contains factual errors and lies and made up source material, it’s going to get a bad mark anyway.
The Foundation: Start With Verification, Not Style
The most common mistake students make when rewriting ChatGPT written essays is that they focus on making it sound more human before ensuring that the writing is correct and accurate. You want to do the opposite. Fact-checking should always be your first step.
You always want to rewrite ChatGPT’s output by cross-checking all of its information and data with other sources. You want to make sure that what the AI is saying is actually the truth. This is because ChatGPT confidently presents you with information that sounds incredibly real, but it is completely made up. Researchers call this a hallucination.
You want to pay especially close attention to anything involving dates, names, numbers and technical language. If ChatGPT says that there is a study from 2023 corroborating a specific point, you need to look up that study and ensure that what the essay is saying is actually what it says. If it uses a percentage, you want to track down the actual source of that percentage. It is the only way to determine if an essay is accurate.
Strategic Rewriting: Preserve Structure, Transform Expression
Once you’ve verified the accuracy of your content, your focus should shift to rewriting for authenticity. The central idea to understand about rewriting is what to change, and what not to touch. ChatGPT’s structural frameworks and logical argument flows are more often than not solid. There’s usually no reason to blow them up and rewrite them from scratch.
But you do need to change the expression of that structure. When it comes to expression, AI writing defaults to predictable patterns—formulaic transitions, repetitive sentence structures, generic phrasing. A 2024 Stanford study found that experienced readers could identify AI content with 63% accuracy largely by sniffing out patterns of blandness and predictability. The surest way to break up those patterns is to deliberately vary your sentence lengths and replace generic transitions with specific references and connectors. Even more important, inject specificity wherever you can—transform vague statements into precise claims and back them up with concrete data and sources.
Adding a Personal Perspective and Critical Thinking
A common issue is that writers only focus on changing AI-generated text to avoid detection. They submit essays that still lack true human thoughts. Solving this is simple: add a few things that AI cannot do, like your own opinions, your own thoughts, your critique and outside sources.
Every time you see a main idea or claim in your essay, ask yourself, “Why do I think that? Do I agree? Am I adding any additional nuance?” Then write 2-3 sentences answering that question.
Having your own analysis humanizes the content and serves two purposes. First, you’re making this essay truly yours by providing knowledge and opinions that ChatGPT never could have produced. The other advantage is that it provides a natural change in tone and complexity, which will make your writing seem more human.
The Importance of Using Humanization Tools to Preserve Accuracy
As rewriting demand increases, the use of humanization tools becomes essential for efficient rewriting and for maintaining accuracy in the output.
GPTHumanizer is another approach to this challenge: help the AI-generated text become more human-written without changing the accuracy of the output. The important thing to know is that humanization tools are not a standalone solution but rather a supplement to your manual rewriting.
The ideal rewriting process should have multiple steps. An AI-generated text, fact-checking, manual rewriting to show your voice and perspective, and pick certain paragraphs to use humanizer tools to further polish the rewritten paragraph. Remember, you still need to do multiple rounds of manual rewriting. Just use AI humanizer in some paragraphs rather than the entire essay. Focus on the most awkward and formulaic paragraph and apply humanizer. Make sure to read carefully and ensure the humanizer has not made any factual errors or fundamentally changed your meaning.
Proofreading for Accuracy and Personal Sound
When you reach the final step of rewriting, you need to take a completely different perspective from before. You need to look at accuracy and your true tone. This is the fundamental difference that sets excellent rewriting apart from low-quality paraphrasing.
There are two kinds of checking. The first is to read the essay to see if the information in the essay is accurate. Did you get every number correct? Does the source match what’s stated on your bibliography page? Did you use difficult words and scientific concepts correctly? Jot down questionable facts and confirm these are true before moving to the next step.
The second round of checking is for tone and wrong information. Read the whole essay and read it out loud. When you say the sentences, it’s much easier to spot strange-sounding phrasing or changes than if you silently read it. You’ll also easily notice when there are strange tone shifts and if there are certain words that are too advanced or too easy for your essay’s readers.
Final Thoughts: Mastering Skills for Future Use
In this guide, we explained some techniques on how to rewrite specific essays. The effective way of rewriting is that it is a skill you will constantly use in your school life. Every single essay you rewrite—whether for this class or any of your other classes—will help your writing, critical reading, and fact-checking.
We recommend keeping a “rewriting journal.” Take notes on some patterns in your own writing. What AI-generated sentences do you normally have to rewrite in other ways? What factual statements do you need more research? These are your own weaknesses.
The goal is not to be completely reliant on AI writing tools or rewriting techniques. You should use them in a smart way while increasing your own writing skills. The more you know about how to identify and correct AI’s errors, the less rewriting you need to do.
