By skyforbes 
The weird part is the content isn’t wrong. It’s just… too “ChatGPT tone.” You know what I mean:
- Perfect grammar (which I do not possess)
- Sentences that sound like they were written by a well-rested adult
- No personality
- Everything is just… smooth.
Meanwhile, I’m a student who writes essays half-asleep with 3 iced coffees and emotional damage. The vibe is NOT the same.
Last week I had a psych reflection essay due. I used ChatGPT to outline, rewrote a bit, turned it in. My professor literally wrote, “This seems overly formal and lacks personal voice.” Like bro… I WROTE ABOUT MY CHILDHOOD TRAUMA??? What more voice do you want 😭
So I went down a rabbit hole of “how to humanize ChatGPT” tutorials. Most were just “add typos” (no), “use slang” (absolutely not for APA), or “change random words” (makes everything worse).
This video was actually helpful though because it explains why AI text gets flagged instead of just saying “use synonyms”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltqHxgJcuDQ&t=1sIt breaks down the structure of AI writing and how to tweak tone without destroying meaning.
Also not gonna lie, the thing that actually saved me:
I started running the text through Grubby AI afterward. It doesn’t rewrite like a thesaurus, it makes the text sound like… a student who’s trying their best and maybe slightly tired.
It added little imperfections and tone shifts that didn’t look fake.
My last paper came back with 2% AI score, which is basically “human with coffee jitters.”
Not trying to be promotional, just saying:
If you’re in the same situation where you're like “I’M NOT EVEN TRYING TO CHEAT I JUST DON’T WANT TO FAIL,” that combo actually worked:
- Generate structure/points in ChatGPT
- Watch that video to understand how to reshape tone
- Run final draft through Grubby AI to humanize it
Now it reads like me. A person who is tired. And stressed. And real.
If anyone else has tricks for adding “personal voice” without sounding chaotic, drop them please because this semester is trying to kill me 🥲