How to Use Chat GPT to Write an Essay: Stop Wasting Time:

Written by Phil Collins
Essay Guides
12 min read
overview
Who would’ve thought five years ago that today you’d be able to get essay writing help from AI, right? Well, that’s the reality! Thanks to advances in machine learning, ChatGPT can be your co-pilot while you’re doing your homework.
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Who would’ve thought five years ago that today you’d be able to get essay writing help from AI, right? Well, that’s the reality! Thanks to advances in machine learning, ChatGPT can be your co-pilot while you’re doing your homework.

ChatGPT essay writing use cases are many. You can ask it to come up with ideas for fresh paper topics, list some academic sources on a specific subject, or even generate a draft for you!

Without further ado, let’s break down how OpenAi’s creation can speed up your homework process – and what you should keep in mind when turning to it for help.

Before We Start: Tool’s Limitations to Keep in Mind

While ChatGPT essay writing capabilities are outstanding, this chatbot isn’t without its limitations:

  • Inaccuracy. Since ChatGPT isn’t connected to the Internet, it’s prone to ‘hallucinating’ facts. This means your text may contain factual mistakes when it comes to dates, names, events, and so on. So, make it a point to double-check ChatGPT essays for correctness.
  • Limited sourcing. This tool doesn’t know anything about the world post-2021. So, you won’t be able to get any fresh information out of it. Statistical data is also limited since the application isn’t connected to the Internet.

1. Brainstorming Topic Ideas

Sometimes, you’re tasked with writing a paper on “the topic of your choice,” and it’s always more complicated than digging into a topic assigned to you. How do you pinpoint a topic that’s interesting, unconventional, and relatively easy to research?

OpenAI’s creation can help you out in coming up with such a topic! All you need to do is ask it to generate some ideas for a given discipline: e.g., “Generate 10 unusual essay topics for a philosophy class.”

To make the most out of ChatGPT essay topic generation capabilities, remember to:

  • Be specific in your request: name the class, type of paper, preferred subjects, etc.
  • Narrow down your request: start with a general prompt, use the ideas to zero in on the preferred subject, and ask for topics on this subject.
  • Generate several lists: the first options may be overused or a tad banal.
  • Paraphrase the topic you choose: that’s how you avoid unknowingly plagiarizing it.

It’s also a good idea to reflect on your interests first and describe them in the prompt. For example, let’s say you’re intrigued by stoicism and wouldn’t mind exploring it in your philosophy assignment. Don’t hesitate to mention it in the ChatGPT essay writing prompt!

2. Outlining Your Essay

You have your topic but need help figuring out where to start? Every guide on essay writing will tell you to kick things off with an outline. But creating one means spending tons of time researching the topic and coming up with the thesis statement – the time you may not have.

Fortunately, this AI tool can help you out with that, too – and you’ll get your outline in a matter of seconds. Just describe your topic and specify that you need an outline.

By default, OpenAI’s creation will generate a comprehensive, seven-part outline with a thesis statement and key points to mention in each paragraph.

For example, Chat GPT essay outline on the benefits of stoicism that we asked it to generate fit that bill. The outline contained specific benefits to describe, along with a one-sentence thesis statement and what to include in both the introduction and conclusion. And it took no more than 30 seconds to get it – without doing any research!

Alright, this tool can supply you with an outline for your paper. But can ChatGPT write essays? The answer is “yes,” but you’ll still need to double-check and edit it.

3. Finding the Sources to Start With 

Sourcing is another time-consuming part of essay writing. But with ChatGPT, it doesn’t have to be – not anymore! Just ask essaywriters.ai/tools to list sources on a given topic – and go ahead and search for them online!

There are a couple of important sidenotes on using this tool for sourcing, though:

  1. As OpenAI warns you the moment you open its creation, it has no information about the world after 2021. The training data sets didn’t include any text more recent than that. So, you won’t get any recent sources out of it.
  2. It’s likely to hallucinate sources. When we were testing out this feature, the app randomly mixed titles and authors from time to time. This doesn’t mean you can’t use the tool for sourcing at all; just make sure to google the titles and verify the authors.

Could Chat GPT write essay with those sources in mind? Yes! We asked it to generate a paper on the benefits of stoicism using Lawrence C. Becker’s “A New Stoicism” as a source, and it did the job. However, you’ll need to pepper citations in the text yourself.

4. Generating First Drafts

Of course, the answer to “Could Chat GPT write essay?” is a resounding “yes!” However, the output quality, as always, depends on how detailed your prompt is. To get exactly what you’re looking for, include the following in your prompt:

  • Your topic;
  • The desired word count;
  • The number of paragraphs;
  • Your outline (if you have one) with key points to cover;
  • The thesis statement (if you already have one);
  • Sources to include (if applicable).

Most likely, the first draft you get won’t be perfect. But that’s alright! You can point out to the AI tool what requirements it failed to meet (if that’s the case). You can also edit the draft and make it truly yours – or just use it as a starting point in your own writing.

Keep in mind, though: your educational institution may have already banned papers created by Chat GPT ai essay writer. Or, your instructor may have explicitly prohibited submitting AI-generated content for this assignment. So, make sure to check the rules – and avoid breaking them. Anyone can check a text for AI-generated content online using OpenAI’s own tool.

5. Getting Editing Help

Yes, that’s right – after you make Chat GPT write essay for you, you can ask it to help you edit your draft to perfection! All you need to do is paste the draft if you crafted it yourself and describe your request in detail.

Here are the types of editing help you can get from Chat GPT essay writer:

  • Grammar and punctuation;
  • Conciseness and clarity;
  • Paper’s structure, logic, and transitions.

You can also turn the AI helper’s attention to a specific sentence or paragraph that you struggle with and ask it to paraphrase that part.

Keep in mind, however: OpenAI’s tool tends to use an academic tone of voice that may come across as unnecessarily complex. So, when you request editing help from it, make sure you specify you want the final text to be concise and simple. You can also mention the reading level it should correspond to.

In Conclusion

When used right, Chat GPT essay writer can help you overcome writer’s block, get creative, brainstorm, perfect your draft, or kickstart your writing with an AI-generated text. And we’re just grazing the surface here!

However, keep in mind: you can’t fully outsource your papers to AI just yet. You still need to triple-check the text generated by AI, all because it may contain mistakes. OpenAI’s tool also can’t generate texts using your unique tone of voice, which may raise some red flags.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I use ChatGPT for?

As we break it down in this blog post, ChatGPT essay writing is one way to use this tool. But that’s not all! It can also:

  • Answer your questions;
  • Generate exam prep material;
  • Write code snippets;
  • Generate poems, fictional stories, screenplays, and more;
  • Write academic papers;
  • Help you brainstorm ideas;
  • Break down complex terms;
  • Draft letters and emails.

What is ChatGPT, exactly?

ChatGPT is OpenAI’s AI-powered tool that can respond to questions, complete writing tasks, sum up texts, and more. It’s popular with students needing a helping hand. That’s because it can generate drafts and explain complex concepts in simple terms.

Its ubiquitous use cases are the reason why this tool became the fastest-growing app in the world. It gained 100 million users in just a couple of months!

About author
Phil Collins
For a parent, sometimes it's difficult to remember the lessons you learned in institutions and help your children. There's no need to stress or get upset though, our experts are the solution to your worries.
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