Spot the AI Writing Quiz: Can You Catch the Bot?

Some phrases have become so common in machine-generated text that readers flinch when they see them: delve, tapestry, testament to, in today's fast-paced world. This spot-the-AI-writing quiz shows you four short sentences on an everyday topic and asks you to find the one carrying a phrase people associate with AI writing. Ten questions are drawn from a pool of twenty-four, and every answer names the tell and offers a plainer rewrite you can borrow.

This is not a detector and it makes no claim about who wrote any sentence. The point is practical: if you can spot these patterns in four lines about laundry, you can spot them in your own drafts before a reader does. Whether you write emails, essays, or marketing copy, knowing the tells helps you edit AI-assisted text until it sounds like you. Take it as a warm-up before you run a draft through the AI Writing Checker.

Sample questions

1. Four sentences about making coffee. Which one uses a phrase readers commonly associate with AI writing?
   • I grind the beans right before brewing because the flavor fades fast once they are ground.
   • My neighbor swears by a French press, but I have never had the patience for it.
   • Let's delve into the nuances of brewing the perfect cup of coffee at home.
   • The cheap drip machine in our office makes a surprisingly decent pot.
2. Four sentences about walking a dog. Which one carries a stock phrase people associate with machine writing?
   • Our morning walks are a rich tapestry of sniffing, pulling, and sudden stops.
   • The dog knows the word 'walk' and loses his mind every time someone says it.
   • I bring two bags because one always seems to have a hole in it.
   • We take the long route on Saturdays when nobody has anywhere to be.
3. Four sentences about doing laundry. Which one has the classic AI-writing tell?
   • I always forget to check pockets, which is how a pen ruined a whole load.
   • Cold water works fine for almost everything I own.
   • The dryer buzzer is loud enough to hear from the backyard.
   • The fact that these jeans still fit is a testament to the power of cold washes.

Start the quiz above to see the answers and explanations. Each attempt draws 10 questions from a pool of 24.

The most common AI writing tells

None of these words is wrong on its own, and people used all of them long before chatbots existed. They became tells because generated text leans on them far more often than most writers do, so readers now treat a cluster of them as a signal. The ones that come up most:

• Inflated verbs: delve, dive deep, navigate, harness, leverage, unlock, elevate, foster, embark on a journey
• Grand nouns: tapestry, landscape, realm, testament, game-changer, journey
• Empty openers: in today's fast-paced world, it's important to note, it's worth noting that, furthermore, moreover, in conclusion
• Padding adjectives: robust, seamless, crucial, pivotal, multifaceted, ever-evolving
• Structural habits: not only ... but also, lists of exactly three parallel items, several em-dashes in one sentence
• Assistant residue: 'As an AI language model,' 'I hope this helps!', 'Certainly!'

How to edit the tells out

Search your draft for the words above and ask what each one is doing. Most are standing in for a specific claim you have not made yet: replace the abstraction with the concrete thing, cut the opener, and let the sentence start with its subject. Where a tricolon or an em-dash chain appears, break it into two ordinary sentences.

Then read it aloud. Text that sounds like you speak rarely contains a tapestry. If you are working from an AI draft, ask the model for a rewrite with the tells named explicitly, or give it a paragraph of your own writing as a style sample. The AI Writing Checker highlights the usual suspects so you can decide sentence by sentence.