It is 2 a.m. in the morning and you are hustling with your college essay which is due in the afternoon. You have researched endlessly and are still out of ideas besides a few sketchy notes!
Writing an essay can be a time-consuming and tedious task especially if you are struggling with back-to-back project submissions and drowning in a heap of homework. But what if there is a superpower or a writing tool that can actually write an essay for you in seconds?
Introducing ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can instantly produce a well-written and convincing essay with just a few keystrokes. But what is ChatGPT? Is it really helpful?
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an AI-driven natural language processor that can answer like a human and generate content like essays, and emails, do research and even write songs for you. Developed by an American company called OpenAI, ChatGPT can process huge amounts of data and give prompt responses to your questions.
But can it write an essay?
Yes, ChatGPT is a revolutionary tool that can write scholarly essays on any topic, solve mathematical problems, do translations, and even write codes. Having said that, is it safe or ethical to use ChatGPT to write college-level essays?
ChatGPT can definitely help you to write an essay but there are certain limitations.
The downsides of ChatGPT
Thinking of writing an essay with ChatGPT, here are a few things you should consider:
- Incorrect information – ChatGPT can produce incorrect or irrelevant information. The content may look well written but you may have to refer to other relevant resources to check its accuracy.
- Biased content – An AI model can produce biased arguments and incorrect opinions and you have to rely on other credible resources for information.
- Plagiarism issues – One of the major concerns of using ChatGPT is whether the content is plagiarised or not. Though, OpenAI confirms that they do not copy text from other resources, there are chances that the content may not be authentic, and if you are using ChatGPT, the best practice is to use reliable plagiarism software like Turnitin or Copyscape.
- Ethical concerns – Many essay writing services like https://canadaessaywriting.com/ believe that while ChatGPT may be a quick solution to generate text for your essay but there are high chances of getting caught by your tutor for submitting an essay written by a chatbot.
- Hinder creativity – There is a pressing concern that overuse of ChatGPT can undermine the human ability to think and write and destroy student skills and individuality
But does that mean we should not use ChatGPT at all? Many students misuse the software and use it for cheating. ChatGPT is a writing assistance tool and should not replace your own creativity and hard work. It is a helpful tool to expedite your writing process and can save a lot of time. Here are a few ways to use ChatGPT for writing a perfect essay.
Six tips to write an essay with ChatGPT
- Get essay titles – Professors often give a general idea about the essay and ask students to come up with an appropriate essay title. It is done to evaluate a student’s creativity and self-expression. Getting a perfect essay title can be tricky and can take hours. A good and appealing essay title can captivate readers and lays the foundation for the essay. If you are looking for a solid essay title, ChatGPT can help you. All you need to do is input your ideas and related information and ask ChatGPT to provide you with interesting titles for your essay.
- Construct essay outlines – Once you finalize your topic, the next step is to get an outline or structure for your essay. It is only a matter of time and ChatGPT can generate an entire outline that you can elaborate on in your essay.
- Cite sources – Sources and proper citation are an important part of essay writing. This can be tedious but when you have ChatGPT, there is no need to worry. You can ask ChatGPT to generate any number of sources and it can extract information within a few seconds.
- Write a sample essay – ChatGPT can generate a sample essay that you can be used for reference. You can evaluate the key points and write an authentic essay in your own words.
- Edit an essay – You have already finished writing your essay but are not sure about the tone, grammar, punctuation, and other minor details. ChatGPT like grammarly.com can work as a co-editor and add improvements by working on grammar, and punctuation, and even rewriting certain parts to fix the structure of your essay like Grammarly.
- Find keywords – ChatGPT can find relevant keywords for your essay and make it more SEO-friendly for online platforms.
Wrapping up
Spending hours in front of your computer and brainstorming ideas can be frustrating and ChatGPT can share your burden to some extent. But whether students should use the chatbot for writing their essays is still debatable. Many educators think that ChatGPT is an emerging threat but there are others who believe that it can help in getting rid of writer’s block, come up with ideas, and enhance writing skills. While the AI tool is a great way to kickstart essay writing, students should be diligent to use it wisely and ethically.
