Oral Defense as AI Preventative

When I took English Composition at USC in 1974, the instructor was this nervous grad student, afraid of his own shadow, chain-smoking throughout the class. (Yes, a long time ago, when we watched the sky for pterodactyls between classes.)

USC was known for its football team, many of whom were not top of their class in high school. A football player in my class wrote an essay that so impressed our instructor that he asked him to read it to the class. To me, it was clear that this was his first read of his essay.

So, because some students may be breaking the rules by using AI; and worse not reading the paper closely enough before submission to notice "Insert Your Name Here," i am borrowing from MA Thesis practice by having them do an oral defense of their paper: trn minutes of answering questions about what they did.