Essay assistant

An essay assistant that argues with you instead of writing it for you

Thaxas helps with the parts of essay writing that are actually hard: working out what you are arguing, whether your reading supports it, and where the argument has a hole in it. It works from the sources in your space, so when it suggests evidence, the evidence is something you have actually read and can actually cite.

What this tool deliberately is not

It is not a ghostwriter. There is no button that turns a title into a finished essay, and we are not going to add one — not out of primness, but because that product is a trap. Submitting it is misconduct; detection is improving; and the work it replaces is the work that the degree is actually made of.

It is also, therefore, not the tool to reach for if what you want is words on a page by morning without having done the reading. It will be annoying, because it will keep asking what your sources say.

What it is good at

  • Interrogating a thesis. You state your argument; it tells you what a marker will attack first.
  • Finding the evidence you already have. It searches your uploaded reading for passages that support — or contradict — the claim you're making, and cites the page.
  • Structure. Turning a pile of points into an order that builds, rather than a list that repeats.
  • The counterargument you're avoiding. It will find the objection your reading raises and you have quietly skipped, which is usually the difference between a 2:1 and a first.
  • Editing your prose — tightening what you wrote, rather than replacing it.

A workflow that survives a viva

  1. 1

    Put your reading list in a space

    The papers, chapters and lecture notes the essay is supposed to draw on.

  2. 2

    Argue the thesis out loud

    State the claim. Let it push back. Rewrite the claim. This is the part that decides the grade, and it happens before you write a word.

  3. 3

    Map the evidence

    For each section, ask what in your reading supports it. Where nothing does, you have found either a hole in the argument or a gap in your reading — both worth knowing now.

  4. 4

    Write it yourself, then edit hard

    Your words. Then use the assistant to cut, tighten, and find the paragraph that doesn't earn its place.

Common questions

Will it write my essay for me?

No. It plans, structures, finds evidence in your own sources, tests your argument and edits your prose. Handing in generated work is misconduct at essentially every institution, and building the button that makes that easy would not be doing you a favour.

Can it find quotes and sources for me?

It finds them in your own uploaded reading, with page citations. It will not invent a reference — a failure mode that has ended real students' essays, because fabricated citations are trivially easy for a marker to check.

Does it work for any subject?

Yes — anything argumentative, from history and literature to law and philosophy. Because it reads your sources, it works within your course's framing rather than a generic one.

Will markers be able to tell I used it?

If you use it the way it is designed — to plan, to test your argument, and to edit your own writing — then what you hand in is your own work, and there is nothing to detect. If you use it to generate text you did not write, that is a different question and a worse one.

Try it on your own material

Upload your notes, slides or lecture recordings and get a tutor that answers only from them — and says so when they don't cover it.

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