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• CAREER COLUMN
• 08 April 2024

Three ways ChatGPT helps me in my academic writing

• Dritjon Gruda 0

Dritjon Gruda is an invited associate professor of organizational behavior at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon, the Católica Porto Business School and the Research Centre in Management and Economics.

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For Dritjon Gruda, artificial-intelligence chatbots have been a huge help in scientific writing and peer review. Credit: Vladimira Stavreva-Gruda

Confession time: I use generative artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the debate over whether chatbots are positive or negative forces in academia, I use these tools almost daily to refine the phrasing in papers that I’ve written, and to seek an alternative assessment of work I’ve been asked to evaluate, as either a reviewer or an editor. AI even helped me to refine this article.

I study personality and leadership at Católica Porto Business School in Portugal and am an associate editor at Personality and Individual Differences and Psychology of Leaders and Leadership. The value that I derive from generative AI is not from the technology itself blindly churning out text, but from engaging with the tool and using my own expertise to refine what it produces. The dialogue between me and the chatbot both enhances the coherence of my work and, over time, teaches me how to describe complex topics in a simpler way.

Whether you’re using AI in writing, editing or peer review, here’s how it can do the same for you.

Polishing academic writing

Ever heard the property mantra, ‘location, location, location’? In the world of generative AI, it’s ‘context, context, context’.

Context is king. You can’t expect generative AI — or anything or anyone, for that matter — to provide a meaningful response to a question without it. When you’re using a chatbot to refine a section of your paper for clarity, start by outlining the context. What is your paper about, and what is your main argument? Jot down your ideas in any format — even bullet points will work. Then, present this information to the generative AI of your choice. I typically use ChatGPT, made by OpenAI in San Francisco, California, but for tasks that demand a deep understanding of language nuances, such as analysing search queries or text, I find Gemini, developed by researchers at Google, to be particularly effective. The open-source large language models made by Mixtral, based in Paris, are ideal when you’re working offline but still need assistance from a chatbot.

Regardless of which generative-AI tool you choose, the key to success lies in providing precise instructions. The clearer you are, the better. For example, you might write: “I’m writing a paper on [topic] for a leading [discipline] academic journal. What I tried to say in the following section is [specific point]. Please rephrase it for clarity, coherence and conciseness, ensuring each paragraph flows into the next. Remove jargon. Use a professional tone.” You can use the same technique again later on, to clarify your responses to reviewer comments.

Remember, the chatbot’s first reply might not be perfect — it’s a collaborative and iterative process. You might need to refine your instructions or add more information, much as you would when discussing a concept with a colleague. It’s the interaction that improves the results. If something doesn’t quite hit the mark, don’t hesitate to say, “This isn’t quite what I meant. Let’s adjust this part.” Or you can commend its improvements: “This is much clearer, but let’s tweak the ending for a stronger transition to the next section.”

This approach can transform a challenging task into a manageable one, filling the page with insights you might not have fully gleaned on your own. It’s like having a conversation that opens new perspectives, making generative AI a collaborative partner in the creative process of developing and refining ideas. But importantly, you are using the AI as a sounding board: it is not writing your document for you; nor is it reviewing manuscripts.

Elevating peer review

Generative AI can be a valuable tool in the peer-review process. After thoroughly reading a manuscript, summarize key points and areas for review. Then, use the AI to help organize and articulate your feedback (without directly inputting or uploading the manuscript’s text, thus avoiding privacy concerns). For example, you might instruct the AI: “Assume you’re an expert and seasoned scholar with 20+ years of academic experience in [field]. On the basis of my summary of a paper in [field], where the main focus is on [general topic], provide a detailed review of this paper, in the following order: 1) briefly discuss its core content; 2) identify its limitations; and 3) explain the significance of each limitation in order of importance. Maintain a concise and professional tone throughout.”

I’ve found that AI partnerships can be incredibly enriching; the tools often offer perspectives I hadn’t considered. For instance, ChatGPT excels at explaining and justifying the reasons behind specific limitations that I had identified in my review, which helps me to grasp the broader implications of the study’s contribution. If I identify methodological limitations, ChatGPT can elaborate on these in detail and suggest ways to overcome them in a revision. This feedback often helps me to connect the dots between the limitations and their collective impact on the paper’s overall contribution. Occasionally, however, its suggestions are off-base, far-fetched, irrelevant or simply wrong. And that is why the final responsibility for the review always remains with you. A reviewer must be able to distinguish between what is factual and what is not, and no chatbot can reliably do that.

Optimizing editorial feedback

The final area in which I benefit from using chatbots is in my role as a journal editor. Providing constructive editorial feedback to authors can be challenging, especially when you oversee several manuscripts every week. Having personally received countless pieces of unhelpful, non-specific feedback — such as, “After careful consideration, we have decided not to proceed with your manuscript” — I recognize the importance of clear and constructive communication. ChatGPT has become indispensable in this process, helping me to craft precise, empathetic and actionable feedback without replacing human editorial decisions.

For instance, after evaluating a paper and noting its pros and cons, I might feed these into ChatGPT and get it to draft a suitable letter: “On the basis of these notes, draft a letter to the author. Highlight the manuscript’s key issues and clearly explain why the manuscript, despite its interesting topic, might not provide a substantial enough advancement to merit publication. Avoid jargon. Be direct. Maintain a professional and respectful tone throughout.” Again, it might take a few iterations to get the tone and content just right.

I’ve found that this approach both enhances the quality of my feedback and helps to guarantee that I convey my thoughts supportively. The result is a more positive and productive dialogue between editors and authors.

There is no doubt that generative AI presents challenges to the scientific community. But it can also enhance the quality of our work. These tools can bolster our capabilities in writing, reviewing and editing. They preserve the essence of scientific inquiry — curiosity, critical thinking and innovation — while improving how we communicate our research.

Considering the benefits, what are you waiting for?

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01042-3

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged .

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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How ChatGPT (and other AI chatbots) can help you write an essay

ChatGPT  is capable of doing many different things very well, with one of the biggest standout features being its ability to compose all sorts of text within seconds, including songs, poems, bedtime stories, and essays . 

The chatbot's writing abilities are not only fun to experiment with, but can help provide assistance with everyday tasks. Whether you are a student, a working professional, or just getting stuff done, we constantly take time out of our day to compose emails, texts, posts, and more. ChatGPT can help you claim some of that time back by helping you brainstorm and then compose any text you need. 

How to use ChatGPT to write: Code | Excel formulas | Resumes  | Cover letters  

Contrary to popular belief, ChatGPT can do much more than just write an essay for you from scratch (which would be considered plagiarism). A more useful way to use the chatbot is to have it guide your writing process. 

Below, we show you how to use ChatGPT to do both the writing and assisting, as well as some other helpful writing tips. 

How ChatGPT can help you write an essay

If you are looking to use ChatGPT to support or replace your writing, here are five different techniques to explore. 

It is also worth noting before you get started that other AI chatbots can output the same results as ChatGPT or are even better, depending on your needs.

Also: The best AI chatbots of 2024: ChatGPT and alternatives

For example,  Copilot  has access to the internet, and as a result, it can source its answers from recent information and current events. Copilot also includes footnotes linking back to the original source for all of its responses, making the chatbot a more valuable tool if you're writing a paper on a more recent event, or if you want to verify your sources.

Regardless of which AI chatbot you pick, you can use the tips below to get the most out of your prompts and from AI assistance.

1. Use ChatGPT to generate essay ideas

Before you can even get started writing an essay, you need to flesh out the idea. When professors assign essays, they generally give students a prompt that gives them leeway for their own self-expression and analysis. 

As a result, students have the task of finding the angle to approach the essay on their own. If you have written an essay recently, you know that finding the angle is often the trickiest part -- and this is where ChatGPT can help. 

Also: ChatGPT vs. Copilot: Which AI chatbot is better for you?

All you need to do is input the assignment topic, include as much detail as you'd like -- such as what you're thinking about covering -- and let ChatGPT do the rest. For example, based on a paper prompt I had in college, I asked:

Can you help me come up with a topic idea for this assignment, "You will write a research paper or case study on a leadership topic of your choice." I would like it to include Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid, and possibly a historical figure. 

Also: I'm a ChatGPT pro but this quick course taught me new tricks, and you can take it for free

Within seconds, the chatbot produced a response that provided me with the title of the essay, options of historical figures I could focus my article on, and insight on what information I could include in my paper, with specific examples of a case study I could use. 

2. Use the chatbot to create an outline

Once you have a solid topic, it's time to start brainstorming what you actually want to include in the essay. To facilitate the writing process, I always create an outline, including all the different points I want to touch upon in my essay. However, the outline-writing process is usually tedious. 

With ChatGPT, all you have to do is ask it to write the outline for you. 

Also: Thanks to my 5 favorite AI tools, I'm working smarter now

Using the topic that ChatGPT helped me generate in step one, I asked the chatbot to write me an outline by saying: 

Can you create an outline for a paper, "Examining the Leadership Style of Winston Churchill through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid."

After a couple of seconds, the chatbot produced a holistic outline divided into seven different sections, with three different points under each section. 

This outline is thorough and can be condensed for a shorter essay or elaborated on for a longer paper. If you don't like something or want to tweak the outline further, you can do so either manually or with more instructions to ChatGPT. 

As mentioned before, since Copilot is connected to the internet, if you use Copilot to produce the outline, it will even include links and sources throughout, further expediting your essay-writing process. 

3. Use ChatGPT to find sources

Now that you know exactly what you want to write, it's time to find reputable sources to get your information. If you don't know where to start, you can just ask ChatGPT. 

Also: How to make ChatGPT provide sources and citations

All you need to do is ask the AI to find sources for your essay topic. For example, I asked the following: 

Can you help me find sources for a paper, "Examining the Leadership Style of Winston Churchill through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid."

The chatbot output seven sources, with a bullet point for each that explained what the source was and why it could be useful. 

Also:   How to use ChatGPT to make charts and tables

The one caveat you will want to be aware of when using ChatGPT for sources is that it does not have access to information after 2021, so it will not be able to suggest the freshest sources. If you want up-to-date information, you can always use Copilot. 

Another perk of using Copilot is that it automatically links to sources in its answers. 

4. Use ChatGPT to write an essay

It is worth noting that if you take the text directly from the chatbot and submit it, your work could be considered a form of plagiarism since it is not your original work. As with any information taken from another source, text generated by an AI should be clearly identified and credited in your work.

Also: ChatGPT will now remember its past conversations with you (if you want it to)

In most educational institutions, the penalties for plagiarism are severe, ranging from a failing grade to expulsion from the school. A better use of ChatGPT's writing features would be to use it to create a sample essay to guide your writing. 

If you still want ChatGPT to create an essay from scratch, enter the topic and the desired length, and then watch what it generates. For example, I input the following text: 

Can you write a five-paragraph essay on the topic, "Examining the Leadership Style of Winston Churchill through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid."

Within seconds, the chatbot gave the exact output I required: a coherent, five-paragraph essay on the topic. You could then use that text to guide your own writing. 

Also: ChatGPT vs. Microsoft Copilot vs. Gemini: Which is the best AI chatbot?

At this point, it's worth remembering how tools like ChatGPT work : they put words together in a form that they think is statistically valid, but they don't know if what they are saying is true or accurate. 

As a result, the output you receive might include invented facts, details, or other oddities. The output might be a useful starting point for your own work, but don't expect it to be entirely accurate, and always double-check the content. 

5. Use ChatGPT to co-edit your essay

Once you've written your own essay, you can use ChatGPT's advanced writing capabilities to edit the piece for you. 

You can simply tell the chatbot what you want it to edit. For example, I asked ChatGPT to edit our five-paragraph essay for structure and grammar, but other options could have included flow, tone, and more. 

Also: AI meets AR as ChatGPT is now available on the Apple Vision Pro

Once you ask the tool to edit your essay, it will prompt you to paste your text into the chatbot. ChatGPT will then output your essay with corrections made. This feature is particularly useful because ChatGPT edits your essay more thoroughly than a basic proofreading tool, as it goes beyond simply checking spelling. 

You can also co-edit with the chatbot, asking it to take a look at a specific paragraph or sentence, and asking it to rewrite or fix the text for clarity. Personally, I find this feature very helpful. 

The best AI chatbots: ChatGPT isn't the only one worth trying

How ai can rescue it pros from job burnout and alert fatigue, adobe's pdf-reading ai assistant starts at $4.99/month - here's how to try it for free.

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This list of writing prompts covers a range of topics and tasks, including brainstorming research ideas, improving language and style, conducting literature reviews, and developing research plans.

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A Custom GPT for Literature Review Generator has been released. It efficiently parses PDF files of research publications, extracts key themes, and creates a literature review section for your academic publications.

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ChatGPT Prompts for Academic Writing

In this repository, this list of writing prompts covers a range of topics and tasks, including brainstorming research ideas, improving language and style, conducting literature reviews, and developing research plans. Whether you're a student, researcher, or academic professional, these prompts can help you hone your writing abilities and tackle your writing projects with confidence.

Use directly in: chat.openai.com

The list is regularly updated, so you can keep track of new prompts by following this repository.

TIPS: As there is a limit to the number of words that can be used in ChatGPT, you can input your text multiple times using the prompt "Read this [PARAPGRAPH]:" and then run your final prompt "Considering the above text...".

You can also use prompts splitter: chatgpt-prompt-splitter.jjdiaz.dev

BRAINSTORMING

Article sections, title/topic sentence, introduction, literature review.

NOTE: Be careful and double-check article existence. ChatGPT may generate fake references

Methodology

Experiments, future works, improving language, summarization, plan/presentation, working with documents (available only in gpt-4).

Upload a PDF file of a paper then:

Upload a PDF file of your paper then:

Upload PDF files of papers then:

Upload a figure image then:

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Should I Use ChatGPT to Write My Essays?

Everything high school and college students need to know about using — and not using — ChatGPT for writing essays.

Jessica A. Kent

ChatGPT is one of the most buzzworthy technologies today.

In addition to other generative artificial intelligence (AI) models, it is expected to change the world. In academia, students and professors are preparing for the ways that ChatGPT will shape education, and especially how it will impact a fundamental element of any course: the academic essay.

Students can use ChatGPT to generate full essays based on a few simple prompts. But can AI actually produce high quality work, or is the technology just not there yet to deliver on its promise? Students may also be asking themselves if they should use AI to write their essays for them and what they might be losing out on if they did.

AI is here to stay, and it can either be a help or a hindrance depending on how you use it. Read on to become better informed about what ChatGPT can and can’t do, how to use it responsibly to support your academic assignments, and the benefits of writing your own essays.

What is Generative AI?

Artificial intelligence isn’t a twenty-first century invention. Beginning in the 1950s, data scientists started programming computers to solve problems and understand spoken language. AI’s capabilities grew as computer speeds increased and today we use AI for data analysis, finding patterns, and providing insights on the data it collects.

But why the sudden popularity in recent applications like ChatGPT? This new generation of AI goes further than just data analysis. Instead, generative AI creates new content. It does this by analyzing large amounts of data — GPT-3 was trained on 45 terabytes of data, or a quarter of the Library of Congress — and then generating new content based on the patterns it sees in the original data.

It’s like the predictive text feature on your phone; as you start typing a new message, predictive text makes suggestions of what should come next based on data from past conversations. Similarly, ChatGPT creates new text based on past data. With the right prompts, ChatGPT can write marketing content, code, business forecasts, and even entire academic essays on any subject within seconds.

But is generative AI as revolutionary as people think it is, or is it lacking in real intelligence?

The Drawbacks of Generative AI

It seems simple. You’ve been assigned an essay to write for class. You go to ChatGPT and ask it to write a five-paragraph academic essay on the topic you’ve been assigned. You wait a few seconds and it generates the essay for you!

But ChatGPT is still in its early stages of development, and that essay is likely not as accurate or well-written as you’d expect it to be. Be aware of the drawbacks of having ChatGPT complete your assignments.

It’s not intelligence, it’s statistics

One of the misconceptions about AI is that it has a degree of human intelligence. However, its intelligence is actually statistical analysis, as it can only generate “original” content based on the patterns it sees in already existing data and work.

It “hallucinates”

Generative AI models often provide false information — so much so that there’s a term for it: “AI hallucination.” OpenAI even has a warning on its home screen , saying that “ChatGPT may produce inaccurate information about people, places, or facts.” This may be due to gaps in its data, or because it lacks the ability to verify what it’s generating. 

It doesn’t do research  

If you ask ChatGPT to find and cite sources for you, it will do so, but they could be inaccurate or even made up.

This is because AI doesn’t know how to look for relevant research that can be applied to your thesis. Instead, it generates content based on past content, so if a number of papers cite certain sources, it will generate new content that sounds like it’s a credible source — except it likely may not be.

There are data privacy concerns

When you input your data into a public generative AI model like ChatGPT, where does that data go and who has access to it? 

Prompting ChatGPT with original research should be a cause for concern — especially if you’re inputting study participants’ personal information into the third-party, public application. 

JPMorgan has restricted use of ChatGPT due to privacy concerns, Italy temporarily blocked ChatGPT in March 2023 after a data breach, and Security Intelligence advises that “if [a user’s] notes include sensitive data … it enters the chatbot library. The user no longer has control over the information.”

It is important to be aware of these issues and take steps to ensure that you’re using the technology responsibly and ethically. 

It skirts the plagiarism issue

AI creates content by drawing on a large library of information that’s already been created, but is it plagiarizing? Could there be instances where ChatGPT “borrows” from previous work and places it into your work without citing it? Schools and universities today are wrestling with this question of what’s plagiarism and what’s not when it comes to AI-generated work.

To demonstrate this, one Elon University professor gave his class an assignment: Ask ChatGPT to write an essay for you, and then grade it yourself. 

“Many students expressed shock and dismay upon learning the AI could fabricate bogus information,” he writes, adding that he expected some essays to contain errors, but all of them did. 

His students were disappointed that “major tech companies had pushed out AI technology without ensuring that the general population understands its drawbacks” and were concerned about how many embraced such a flawed tool.

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How to Use AI as a Tool to Support Your Work

As more students are discovering, generative AI models like ChatGPT just aren’t as advanced or intelligent as they may believe. While AI may be a poor option for writing your essay, it can be a great tool to support your work.

Generate ideas for essays

Have ChatGPT help you come up with ideas for essays. For example, input specific prompts, such as, “Please give me five ideas for essays I can write on topics related to WWII,” or “Please give me five ideas for essays I can write comparing characters in twentieth century novels.” Then, use what it provides as a starting point for your original research.

Generate outlines

You can also use ChatGPT to help you create an outline for an essay. Ask it, “Can you create an outline for a five paragraph essay based on the following topic” and it will create an outline with an introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion, and a suggested thesis statement. Then, you can expand upon the outline with your own research and original thought.

Generate titles for your essays

Titles should draw a reader into your essay, yet they’re often hard to get right. Have ChatGPT help you by prompting it with, “Can you suggest five titles that would be good for a college essay about [topic]?”

The Benefits of Writing Your Essays Yourself

Asking a robot to write your essays for you may seem like an easy way to get ahead in your studies or save some time on assignments. But, outsourcing your work to ChatGPT can negatively impact not just your grades, but your ability to communicate and think critically as well. It’s always the best approach to write your essays yourself.

Create your own ideas

Writing an essay yourself means that you’re developing your own thoughts, opinions, and questions about the subject matter, then testing, proving, and defending those thoughts. 

When you complete school and start your career, projects aren’t simply about getting a good grade or checking a box, but can instead affect the company you’re working for — or even impact society. Being able to think for yourself is necessary to create change and not just cross work off your to-do list.

Building a foundation of original thinking and ideas now will help you carve your unique career path in the future.

Develop your critical thinking and analysis skills

In order to test or examine your opinions or questions about a subject matter, you need to analyze a problem or text, and then use your critical thinking skills to determine the argument you want to make to support your thesis. Critical thinking and analysis skills aren’t just necessary in school — they’re skills you’ll apply throughout your career and your life.

Improve your research skills

Writing your own essays will train you in how to conduct research, including where to find sources, how to determine if they’re credible, and their relevance in supporting or refuting your argument. Knowing how to do research is another key skill required throughout a wide variety of professional fields.

Learn to be a great communicator

Writing an essay involves communicating an idea clearly to your audience, structuring an argument that a reader can follow, and making a conclusion that challenges them to think differently about a subject. Effective and clear communication is necessary in every industry.

Be impacted by what you’re learning about : 

Engaging with the topic, conducting your own research, and developing original arguments allows you to really learn about a subject you may not have encountered before. Maybe a simple essay assignment around a work of literature, historical time period, or scientific study will spark a passion that can lead you to a new major or career.

Resources to Improve Your Essay Writing Skills

While there are many rewards to writing your essays yourself, the act of writing an essay can still be challenging, and the process may come easier for some students than others. But essay writing is a skill that you can hone, and students at Harvard Summer School have access to a number of on-campus and online resources to assist them.

Students can start with the Harvard Summer School Writing Center , where writing tutors can offer you help and guidance on any writing assignment in one-on-one meetings. Tutors can help you strengthen your argument, clarify your ideas, improve the essay’s structure, and lead you through revisions. 

The Harvard libraries are a great place to conduct your research, and its librarians can help you define your essay topic, plan and execute a research strategy, and locate sources. 

Finally, review the “ The Harvard Guide to Using Sources ,” which can guide you on what to cite in your essay and how to do it. Be sure to review the “Tips For Avoiding Plagiarism” on the “ Resources to Support Academic Integrity ” webpage as well to help ensure your success.

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The Future of AI in the Classroom

ChatGPT and other generative AI models are here to stay, so it’s worthwhile to learn how you can leverage the technology responsibly and wisely so that it can be a tool to support your academic pursuits. However, nothing can replace the experience and achievement gained from communicating your own ideas and research in your own academic essays.

About the Author

Jessica A. Kent is a freelance writer based in Boston, Mass. and a Harvard Extension School alum. Her digital marketing content has been featured on Fast Company, Forbes, Nasdaq, and other industry websites; her essays and short stories have been featured in North American Review, Emerson Review, Writer’s Bone, and others.

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Using ChatGPT to Write Your Thesis the Right Way

Who hasn’t heard about ChatGPT, the chatbot that took the internet by storm with a click!

For the lesser known, ChatGPT seems to represent a significant advance in AI writing technology, as it can respond to prompts and questions with very natural, human-like capabilities. It can write a Shakespeare-style poem for you about admission to law school, or offer five tips for taking better care of curly hair. In fact, ChatGPT is so good that  many students have already been using it to do their homework for them.

If you’ve already tried ChatGPT, you’ve probably been impressed by what it can do (I certainly have been). While it can miraculously write a full-length essay with you just commanding it with a single-line prompt, ChatGPT isn’t quite there when it comes to writing your thesis . However, it can be of some use in helping you research and write. Wonder how? Let’s find out.

Using ChatGPT for Thesis Research

There are a couple of ways that you can use ChatGPT to help you with thesis research. These include:

• Collating literature: You can use ChatGPT to research and gather information on a specific topic related to your thesis. The AI can provide reference articles, research papers, and other relevant sources regarding your subject.  
• Brainstorming ideas: If you're struggling to find a topic idea for your thesis, ChatGPT can help by generating new ideas or suggesting different angles to explore.  
• Providing feedback: ChatGPT can read your thesis and offer suggestions for improvement. (Well, I am not trusting a robot here!)

How Can You Find Relevant Information Using ChatGPT?

One thing to consider about AI, no matter how advanced, is that its outputs are only as good as its inputs. In other words, in order for AI to provide you with useful answers, you need to be specific about what you are looking for. 

If you want ChatGPT to find you some relevant information about your research topic, provide the program with a detailed prompt or background information about the topic. The more details you offer, the more targeted the results will be. Consider the following two prompts:

• I want to research how the pharmaceutical industry prices drugs.
• Can you find me some sources that explain how therapeutic novelty is priced into patent-protected pharmaceuticals?

If you type the first prompt into ChatGPT, the program will offer you some strategies for how to go about your research. It suggests consulting academic databases (Google Scholar, JSTOR) and specifies some journals that deal with relevant topics (Health Affairs, Journal of Health Economics). It also offers keywords that will help you find articles about the topic (“pharmaceutical pricing,” “drug costs,” etc.).

The second prompt, however, gives you an actual list of academic articles and a summary of each one. You can ask ChatGPT for more sources, and it will continue to offer specific article titles and summaries. 

How Can You Use ChatGPT for Thesis Writing?

Just like you can ask ChatGPT to help you find resources and narrow down your research topic, ChatGPT can also help you generate a thesis statement and write some of the trickier parts of your thesis. While I don’t personally recommend using ChatGPT’s writing word-for-word, it can be a helpful tool for getting started.

ChatGPT can help you generate a thesis statement if you provide it with some background information about your topic and are specific about the direction you would like your research to go. ChatGPT will also help you brainstorm thesis statements. For example, if you offer ChatGPT the words “pharmaceutical pricing,” “patent protection,” and “free trade agreements” and ask it to create a thesis statement, it provides the following:

"The impact of pharmaceutical pricing and patent protection on access to essential medicines is a critical issue in the context of free trade agreements, as it creates a trade-off between the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies and the public health needs of individuals."

Pretty impressive, right? You can also ask it to generate topic sentences, supporting paragraphs, introductions, or conclusions for your paper. Often, you don’t want to use what it produces word-for-word, but it can absolutely get you started and help you think of ideas.   

So, Why Can’t ChatGPT Just Write My Thesis For Me?

You might be wondering at this point why ChatGPT can’t just write your whole thesis for you. After all, it can research, proofread, edit, brainstorm, and fix logical problems. So what can’t it do?

Well, ChatGPT has a few limitations that are pretty important. First, ChatGPT doesn’t provide you with actual sources when it writes something. For example, if you ask how drugs are priced, it will answer, but it won’t provide you with sources for that answer unless you ask it specifically. If you copy an answer from ChatGPT word-for-word, you’ll likely end up plagiarizing another source.

As mentioned above, AI outputs are only as good as their inputs. ChatGPT gets its information from a variety of sources, and not all of them are accurate. Moreover, the program is incapable of distinguishing between correct and incorrect information. So, you should always verify any information the program provides you.

Finally, ChatGPT can have some issues understanding the vocabulary that is very specific to a narrow subject or context. For this reason, it may not always be able to provide you with the assistance you need. But as an AI model, it is learning all the time, so these gaps in knowledge may be filled later.

ChatGPT is a great tool that can help you research and write. It can even help you find sources, edit your work, and check for plagiarism. But AI is only as good as its sources, and ChatGPT can provide erroneous information. Therefore, you should consider ChatGPT a helpful tool rather than a replacement for academic work. So yes, ChatGPT can absolutely help write your thesis, but can’t own it up like you can!

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Step-by-step Guide to Using ChatGPT to Write a Report, Thesis and Dissertation

You must have heard or read about ChatGPT. What is it? A software or a magician? ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot developed and launched by OpenAI in November 2022. This chatbot can write answers, reports, codes, prompts, and more in seconds.

Moreover, it can write computer programs, compose music, teleplays, fairy tales, and write poetry and songs. It’s built with OpenAI’s GPT 3.5 and 4 families of large language models. The latest version of ChatGPT, released on 14th March 2023, is built on GPT 4 OpenAI model and can be purchased through a subscription for a specific time.

Benefits of using ChatGPT to write reports, theses, and dissertations

ChatGPT is a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot with many benefits. Today we shall be highlighting the benefits ChatGPT has on reports, theses, and dissertations.

Reports are professional documents submitted to an institute, department, company, and more. They are formal documents containing a written account of something observed or investigated. Below are some benefits of using ChatGPT to write reports.

Saves time:  ChatGPT saves your precious time; it writes your reports quickly and saves the time you would have spent researching and writing from the beginning.

Quality content:  The AI chatbot has been trained with massive data; hence it can write high-quality reports for you.

Variety of Styles:  Reports are usually long; thus, they can bore the reader if the content is not engaging. ChatGPT uses different styles, i.e., bullet points, lists, paragraphs, and more. This makes a report engaging.

Consistency and Productivity:  ChatGPT write the report in a consistent style and tone. This improves the readability of the report. Moreover, as ChatGPT saves your precious time, you can spend that time focusing on other tasks, improving your productivity.

Theses is a theory or personal research document. These are mainly written by university students proposing research papers on particular topics. Below are the benefits of using ChatGPT to write theses.

New idea:  ChatGPT helps you by providing a variety of ideas that can help you write your thesis. Moreover, the ideas can make your thesis stand out from others.

Guidance:  ChatGPT guides you throughout your thesis writing by providing references, and research material, summarising long research essays, and highlighting important points.

Writing Guidance:  The artificial intelligence model can advise and guide your style, tone, grammar, and more. ChatGPT guides you with this writing; further, it can proofread and rephrase your content.

3. Dissertation

Dissertation is a formal essay on a particular topic. It’s the same as the thesis and is mainly written and submitted by university students. Below are the advantages of using ChatGPT for writing a dissertation.

Knowledge:  ChatGPT is trained with vast knowledge and provides dissertation writers access to knowledge. The more diverse knowledge, the better dissertation.

Saves Time:  Dissertation writing is time-consuming; however, ChatGPT can generate texts for you instantly. You can ask ChatGPT to write sections, paragraphs, and particular dissertation headings. Moreover, it can proofread and check your dissertation's grammar, style, and errors.

Assistance with writing:  Dissertation requires a lot of time and effort. Moreover, quality is an essential factor you should keep in mind while writing a dissertation; chatGPT suggests ways to improve your dissertation writing. Moreover, ChatGPT can proofread, rephrase and highlight writing errors for you.

Step-by-Step Guide: Create a ChatGPT Account

Using ChatGPT might be complex; thus, we are here to help you. Below are steps to create an account and write reports and theses or dissertations.

1. Setting Up ChatGPT

Now that you know ChatGPT and its benefits associated with reports, theses, and dissertation writing, it’s time to set up a ChatGPT account.

The first thing to do is to visit the official website of OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.

After successfully landing on the official website of ChatGPT, you’ll see a login and sign-up option. You need to login in using your login credentials and progress further. However, if you do not have an account, click sign up, add an email, and create a password. Moreover, you’ll need to add your personal data, i.e., your date of birth, and verify your mobile number.

Afterward, you need to log in with the same email and password. OpenAI allows people to log in through Microsoft and Google accounts. If you have a valid Microsoft or Google account, simply click on login, click on Microsoft or Google, and log in to the selected account. Verify your phone number, and you’ll successfully log in to OpenAI to use ChatGPT.

After successfully logging in to OpenAI, you can start a new chat or use previous ones (if you logged in before and used chatbot). Click the new chat button on the left and start using the chatGPT. You can ask questions, gain knowledge, ask to proofread your work, suggest edits, and do more instantly.

If you are in a country where the use of ChatGPT is not allowed and you wish to register an account, you can refer to my other article " How to use Chatgpt ". It provides a detailed tutorial on how to register an account in such countries.

How to use ChatGPT to write a report

Setting up the ChatGPT account is easier than using it. Below we’ll guide you thoroughly on how to write a report using ChatGPT.

Setting up the Parameters

The first thing you must do is set parameters. What are the parameters? Parameters are framework or structure. You need to set up the report's parameters as they help control the report’s content and use other reports’ material in arguments. You need to tell ChatGPT where to start and let it know the limits of your report. In short, you need to provide ChatGPT with a structure under which it should generate your report.

Creating an Outline

Create an outline for your report. The outline may start with an introduction, having headings, bullet points, paragraphs, and more. You must provide an accurate outline to enable ChatGPT to write your report. This ensures that your report covers all the aspects in a good flow and all the required information. Without an outline, chatGPT may be unable to write it in a flow or may write something unnecessary for your report.

Writing the Report

The last thing is to ask ChatGPT to write the report for you. You need to set parameters, provide an outline, write a good prompt, and wait for ChatGPT to generate the report for you for a minute or two.

Topic: Impact of remote work on employee productivity

Purpose: To understand and examine the impact of remote work on the productivity of employees with findings and recommendations.

How to use ChatGPT to write a thesis or dissertation

As writing theses or dissertations is complex and requires time and energy, many people want to learn to use chatGPT to write them. Here’s how to write a thesis using Chatgpt.

Choosing a topic

After logging in to your OpenAI account, click on the new chat and choose a topic you want ChatGPT to write a thesis or dissertation on. This can be any topic that a normal human being can think of.

After deciding on a thesis or dissertation topic, you must create an outline. Creating an outline has its own benefits, as your theses will cover all aspects and topics in a flow, and the knowledge in the theses will be organized.

Writing the Thesis

Now that you have decided on a topic and created an outline, the next thing to do is write the thesis. Writing a good prompt will result in a good thesis. After writing a prompt for the thesis, click on the save and submit button, and wait a few minutes before ChatGPT can complete generating the thesis for you.

Topic: ChatGPT and its importance in conversational AI applications.

Purpose: To access and understand ChatGPT, its importance, benefits, and uses. Moreover, to examine its importance in conversational AI applications.

Now, you can use AI to assist you in generating a thesis, but it's important to note that you still need to carefully review the content generated by the AI to avoid any fabrication. Additionally, there are some universities that currently do not allow AI-generated theses. These universities may employ AI detection tools to check if a thesis was written by AI. In such cases, you can try using a paraphrasing tool to rewrite the AI-generated content until it passes the detection:

Recommended AI detection tools:  GPT-2 Output Detector

Recommended paraphrasing tools:  Quillbot

Perform another round of detection

Other AI or productivity tools recommended

There are various other AI or productivity tools that you can use instead of ChatGPT. Below are some.

1.  MidJourney

MidJourney is an artificial intelligence program that Mid Journey, Inc created and launched. The AI program can generate images and art using the prompts. You can use MidJourney for 20 free jobs to create or generate images for you on prompts. This software can help you create amazing images for your report and thesis. A thesis or report would look boring without images that engage the audience; hence you can use MidJourney AI to generate images for your thesis or report.

2.  WPS Office

WPS Office is a free office software that allows users to use Word, Excel, PPT, and PDF documents under a single roof. It’s free software that promotes creativity and boosts the productivity of users. The software has more than 500 million active users worldwide. The software lets users view, edit, translate, annotate, print, and do more. It’s compatible with Windows, MacOS, IOS, and Android.

Moreover, it’s free and has various advanced features and functions. The software enables users to write reports and a thesis using diverse tools. You can add bullet points, comments, and suggestions, highlight texts, and translate sentences and words. This is the best software for writing a report or dissertation, as it has templates for the report and thesis that can help you.

3. Chinchilla AI

Developed and launched by DeepMind in March 2022, this AI language model can better write your reports and thesis, requiring less computer power for interference and fine-tuning. The Chinchilla AI is said to outperform a number of traditional language models in terms of accuracy; hence, it can generate better and more accurate reports and a thesis for you. However, the software is currently in the testing phase and cannot be accessed by the general public.

A. Can I write a thesis with ChatGPT?

Yes. You can use ChatGPT to write a thesis. Start with choosing a topic, creating an outline, and writing a prompt to enable ChatGPT to generate a thesis on the topic for you.

B. Can I write a report with ChatGPT?

Yes. Writing a report using ChatGPT is possible and easy. All you need to do is set the report's parameters, create an outline, and submit a prompt to enable ChatGPT to generate the report.

C. How do you use ChatGPT to improve your writing?

ChatGPT can improve your writing by suggesting edits, proofreading, and suggesting new ideas. Moreover, ChatGPT can highlight errors too.

D. Can ChatGPT rewrite paragraphs?

Yes. ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can rewrite your texts better and make them more engaging and readable.

ChatGPT is a powerful artificial intelligence model that can help users with numerous tasks. So far, we have learned about ChatGPT and its benefits associated with report, thesis, or dissertation writing. Moreover, we learned how to write a thesis and report using ChatGPT. Setting up and using ChatGPT to write reports and thesis. The article also highlighted the best alternatives to ChatGPT for writing reports and thesis; one of them is  WPS Office .

• 1. How to Use WPS AI/Chatgpt to Write Research Papers: Guide for Beginners
• 2. Top 10 Best Business Report Chatgpt Prompt Example 2024
• 3. How to Use WPS AI/Chatgpt to Write Essays: Guide for Beginners
• 4. How to Use Wps AI/Chatgpt to Write Technical Document: Guide for Beginners
• 5. How to Use WPS AI and ChatGPT to Analyze PDF Report
• 6. Ultimate Guide to Write A Seminar PDF Report

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About 1 in 5 U.S. teens who’ve heard of ChatGPT have used it for schoolwork

Roughly one-in-five teenagers who have heard of ChatGPT say they have used it to help them do their schoolwork, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17. With a majority of teens having heard of ChatGPT, that amounts to 13% of all U.S. teens who have used the generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot in their schoolwork.

Teens in higher grade levels are particularly likely to have used the chatbot to help them with schoolwork. About one-quarter of 11th and 12th graders who have heard of ChatGPT say they have done this. This share drops to 17% among 9th and 10th graders and 12% among 7th and 8th graders.

There is no significant difference between teen boys and girls who have used ChatGPT in this way.

The introduction of ChatGPT last year has led to much discussion about its role in schools , especially whether schools should integrate the new technology into the classroom or ban it .

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand American teens’ use and understanding of ChatGPT in the school setting.

The Center conducted an online survey of 1,453 U.S. teens from Sept. 26 to Oct. 23, 2023, via Ipsos. Ipsos recruited the teens via their parents, who were part of its KnowledgePanel . The KnowledgePanel is a probability-based web panel recruited primarily through national, random sampling of residential addresses. The survey was weighted to be representative of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 who live with their parents by age, gender, race and ethnicity, household income, and other categories.

This research was reviewed and approved by an external institutional review board (IRB), Advarra, an independent committee of experts specializing in helping to protect the rights of research participants.

Here are the  questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its  methodology .

Teens’ awareness of ChatGPT

Overall, two-thirds of U.S. teens say they have heard of ChatGPT, including 23% who have heard a lot about it. But awareness varies by race and ethnicity, as well as by household income:

• 72% of White teens say they’ve heard at least a little about ChatGPT, compared with 63% of Hispanic teens and 56% of Black teens.
• 75% of teens living in households that make $75,000 or more annually have heard of ChatGPT. Much smaller shares in households with incomes between $30,000 and $74,999 (58%) and less than $30,000 (41%) say the same.

Teens who are more aware of ChatGPT are more likely to use it for schoolwork. Roughly a third of teens who have heard a lot about ChatGPT (36%) have used it for schoolwork, far higher than the 10% among those who have heard a little about it.

When do teens think it’s OK for students to use ChatGPT?

For teens, whether it is – or is not – acceptable for students to use ChatGPT depends on what it is being used for.

There is a fair amount of support for using the chatbot to explore a topic. Roughly seven-in-ten teens who have heard of ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use when they are researching something new, while 13% say it is not acceptable.

However, there is much less support for using ChatGPT to do the work itself. Just one-in-five teens who have heard of ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use it to write essays, while 57% say it is not acceptable. And 39% say it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT to solve math problems, while a similar share of teens (36%) say it’s not acceptable.

Some teens are uncertain about whether it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT for these tasks. Between 18% and 24% say they aren’t sure whether these are acceptable use cases for ChatGPT.

Those who have heard a lot about ChatGPT are more likely than those who have only heard a little about it to say it’s acceptable to use the chatbot to research topics, solve math problems and write essays. For instance, 54% of teens who have heard a lot about ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use it to solve math problems, compared with 32% among those who have heard a little about it.

Note: Here are the  questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its  methodology .

• Artificial Intelligence
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Olivia Sidoti is a research assistant focusing on internet and technology research at Pew Research Center

Jeffrey Gottfried is an associate director focusing on internet and technology research at Pew Research Center

Many Americans think generative AI programs should credit the sources they rely on

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