Evidence guide

How to Prove You Didn't Use AI: The Complete Evidence Guide.

A bare denial does not work. An integrity panel cannot distinguish between an honest student saying "I didn't do it" and a dishonest one. The evidence that does work is the record of your writing process. This guide walks through the five strongest forms, ranked, with step-by-step instructions for the most common writing tools.

The five strongest forms of evidence, ranked

1. Time-stamped version history — Google Docs, Microsoft Word (cloud save), Notion. The gold standard.
2. Process playback — Draftback or Revision History extensions for Google Docs. A movie of your typing.
3. File metadata — Created, Modified, Total Editing Time on the document file. Less detailed but courts and panels know how to read it.
4. Handwritten notes, outlines, drafts — photographed with visible dates. Especially valuable for ESL students and writers who use longhand pre-drafts.
5. Live oral defense — offering to walk a panel through how you wrote the paper, in person, with the document open. Reasonable institutions will accept this offer.

Google Docs — step by step

Most students writing online use Google Docs. The version-history panel is your single most important asset. (For how to present it so a panel believes it — freezing the doc, playback, the paste problem — see the version-history evidence deep dive.)

1. Open the document. Click Tools in the menu bar.
2. Click Version history → See version history. A panel opens on the right showing dated versions of your document.
3. Take a full-page screenshot of the panel. On macOS: Cmd + Shift + 4 then drag. On Windows: Snipping Tool or Win + Shift + S.
4. Click into a few specific dated versions and screenshot those too. The panel shows what changed at each step.
5. Do not edit the document further until your case is resolved. Each new edit creates a new version, which can complicate the timeline.
6. Optional but recommended: install Draftback or Revision History from the Chrome Web Store. These extensions play back your typing as a movie — extremely persuasive in front of a panel.

Microsoft Word (with cloud save / OneDrive) — step by step

1. Open the document. File → Info → Version History.
2. Take a full-page screenshot of the panel.
3. Open File → Info → Properties → Advanced Properties. Note the Total Editing Time field (minutes of active editing) and Created / Modified dates.
4. Download a copy of the document to your local drive as a separate file, so you have an offline backup.
5. Stop editing the document until your case is resolved.

Microsoft Word (offline) — step by step

Offline Word is harder but not hopeless.

1. Open the document. File → Info → Properties → Advanced Properties. Screenshot the panel, with attention to Total Editing Time, Created, Modified, and the Author field.
2. In your operating system, right-click the file. On Windows: Properties → Details. On macOS: Get Info. Screenshot both.
3. Check AutoRecover. Word saves recovery files at intervals; the folder is:
   • Windows: %AppData%\Microsoft\Word\
   • macOS: ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word/Data/Library/Preferences/AutoRecovery
4. Any older recovery files become exhibits.

Notion, Scrivener, Obsidian — step by step

Notion: open the page, click the ··· menu, choose Page history. Screenshot every visible version. Scrivener: File → Backup → Backup To and save the timestamped backup. Obsidian: if you use the File Recovery core plugin, snapshots are stored locally.

Pen-and-paper writers — step by step

Handwritten evidence is undervalued. Many ESL students and humanities students draft on paper first. The fact that you have handwritten notes is itself nearly impossible to fabricate.

1. Photograph every page of notes, outline, and drafts. Use good light. Capture a visible date on at least one page in each session (today's newspaper, a phone clock, a dated piece of mail).
2. Modern phones embed timestamps in photo metadata. Do not edit the photos.
3. Label each photo set: "Session 1 — March 14 evening, kitchen table." A label is not proof, but it organizes your story.
4. If you transcribed handwritten notes into a digital file, screenshot the file's creation metadata.

Browser history and email

Your browser history for the days you were working on the paper is corroborating evidence. Chrome: chrome://history/. Safari: History → Show All History. Firefox: Library → History → Show All History. Export the history for the relevant dates. Library databases, JSTOR, Google Scholar, and similar visits each become a small data point.

Emails you sent to yourself — drafts, links, "send me this article" — are also dated process evidence. So are messages to a friend or family member where you discussed the assignment.

The chronology document

Sit down with all of this evidence and write a one-page narrative: when you started, where you were, what you did first, what you did next, when you stopped. This is the thread the panel will follow. The exhibits hang from the thread.

What the named cases tell us

William Quarterman at UC Davis was cleared with two to three hours of time-stamped Google Docs edit history after his exam essay was flagged. Louise Stivers, also at UC Davis, was cleared with Google Docs version-history timestamps. The Adelphi University ruling in favor of Orion Newby (February 2026) cited deficiencies in the evidence the university had relied on. Process evidence works in named cases. Make yours specific, dated, and complete.

Sources: Quarterman case · Stivers case · LibreTexts evidence-tools list. Full list on the sources page.