How to Use kidswriting.ai

Getting Started

Do I need to create an account?

No — you can try kidswriting.ai without signing up. Anonymous users get 4 free essay marks. If you create a free account, you get 12 marks per month and your history is saved so you can track progress over time.

How do I submit an essay for marking?

• Go to kidswriting.ai/marking
• Type or paste your essay into the text box (or upload a file — see below)
• Enter the writing prompt your essay was responding to
• Select the exam type (e.g. NAPLAN Persuasive, NSW Selective, HSC English, General Writing)
• Select your year level
• Click Mark My Essay

Your AI feedback will appear in a few seconds.

What exam types are supported?

kidswriting.ai supports:

• NAPLAN — Narrative and Persuasive (Years 3, 5, 7, 9)
• NSW Selective School — writing test format
• VIC Selective School — writing test format
• HSC English — NSW Year 12
• VCE English — VIC Year 12
• IELTS Academic — Writing Task 2
• General Writing — adapts to any grade level
• Informative Writing — school reports and explanations

Can I upload a file instead of typing?

Yes. You can upload:

• PDF or Word (.docx) documents
• Images (JPG, PNG) — including photos of handwritten essays

For handwritten work, our AI uses OCR to read the text from the photo. Results are best when the image is clear and well-lit.

Understanding Your Feedback

What does the feedback include?

After marking, you'll see:

• Overall score out of 100 (or the exam's native scale for Selective/IELTS)
• Rubric breakdown — each criterion scored individually with a brief explanation
• Strengths — 2–3 specific things your essay did well
• Areas to improve — 2–3 specific weaknesses with clear guidance
• Sentence corrections — individual sentences flagged with the original, a corrected version, and an explanation
• Improvement plan — 3 prioritised, actionable steps to focus on next time

What are the rubric criteria?

Each exam type uses a different rubric. For example:

• NAPLAN uses 10 official criteria including Audience, Ideas, Vocabulary, Text Structure, Sentence Structure, and Spelling
• NSW Selective uses a 7-criteria rubric scored out of 25
• HSC/VCE focuses on argument quality, textual evidence, expression, and structure

You can view all rubrics at kidswriting.ai/rubrics.

How accurate is the AI marking?

The AI is trained to align with official Australian marking rubrics. For NAPLAN, it uses the 10 published criteria and the same band descriptors that human markers use. For most essays, scores are within 1–2 marks of what a human marker would give.

That said, AI marking is a learning tool, not an official assessment. Use it to identify patterns in your writing and focus your practice — not as a definitive exam score.

Can I see a model essay to compare against?

Yes. After any marking, click View Exemplar to see a top-band example response for the same prompt, exam type, and year level. This is generated fresh for your specific prompt — not a generic template.

Tracking Progress

How do I see my progress over time?

Once you have an account, your My Writing dashboard shows:

• All your past essays with scores and dates
• A progress chart showing score trends over time
• Goals you've set (e.g. "reach 75 in NAPLAN Persuasive")

Can I set a target score?

Yes — go to your dashboard and set a goal for any exam type. The platform will track how close you are based on your recent markings.

The AI Writing Tutor

What is the AI Writing Tutor?

The AI Writing Tutor (Pro feature) is a chat-based assistant that knows your marking history. It can:

• Explain why you lost marks on specific criteria
• Give you targeted practice exercises
• Answer questions about writing technique
• Suggest what to focus on for your next essay

It's like having a writing tutor available any time — including 11pm the night before an exam.

How do I access the AI Tutor?

The AI Tutor is available to Pro subscribers. Once subscribed, it's accessible from your dashboard. It comes preloaded with context from your most recent marking sessions.

Technical Questions

What languages is kidswriting.ai available in?

The platform is available in English (Australian), Chinese (Simplified), and Korean. All feedback, rubric explanations, and AI responses are delivered in your selected language.

Is my essay data private?

Yes. Essays are processed to generate feedback and are not shared publicly or used to train external models. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Does kidswriting.ai work on mobile?

Yes — the site is fully responsive and works on phones and tablets. For longer essays, a tablet or desktop is more comfortable, but mobile marking works fine.