AI & Academia: How to Use AI for Essay Writing (Pt. 2)

Introduction

So at this stage, I’m sure you have some familiarity with how to use AI in essay writing. If you’re reading this thinking - that is absolutely not the case - then you can read my previous articles on AI to figure out where to start (they'll be be linked below).

In any case, what we learnt so far about AI use in the context of things like academic research and essay writing is that much of the value is contingent on how we choose to use it.

The main point In the previous article, I mentioned the value of using Generative AI models to provide some objections to your thesis. In short, when you’ve decided on your essay thesis, (your argumentative claim) you can ask an AI model to generate relevant objections to the thesis – objections that you can then counter, and build on in your essay. This is a way of building AI into your cognitive reasoning without leaning too heavily on it and collapsing the whole thing into another AI-generated essay.

That said, let's not kid not ourselves. We still are building AI into our cognitive reasoning when we do this.

For example, if a Generative AI model became your regular source of thesis objections for essays, it's likely that you’d eventually find that your ability to identify objections yourself might start to get worse.

This is the nature of outsourcing cognitive tasks to a computer, and more generally, of outsourcing anything to anyone. The whole point is that you don’t do it, and they do.

So, even if we use Generative AI in a sophisticated way, by using it to support with small tasks within the essay writing process, let's remember that it's possible that we will still become reliant on Generative AI to fulfil those tasks. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but worth bearing in mind.

That said, let's take a look at some of the parts involved in writing an essay:

Aspects of essay writing

-        Research

-        Essay ideation

-        Essay claim

-        Objections

-        Counter-objections

-        Essay structure

-        Theory exposition

-        Analysis

-        Evaluation

-        Introduction

-        Main Body

-        Conclusion

-        References

In all of these areas, it is possible to use Generative AI to help you clarify and refine your approach, thinking and product.

How to use it We know we can use it to generate some objections or counter-objections to your argument. But you can also use it to draft an example essay structure, to identify alternative directions of research, to advise on the form of your conclusion, or the style of your introduction.

You can also ask it to check your references, to help you understand a theory, to comment on your analysis, or to offer best-practices on how to write academically.

All of this is useful, and will provide you with enlightening information, a new perspective on your essay, the bits that are good, and the things you can do to improve it.

That said, once you start using AI to actually create any of these sections for you, it becomes a different matter, and if created to paste into an essay, will almost inevitably end up with a plagiarism flag and a wasted evening.

So, approach the technology as a digital tutor, and as a way of enhancing your learning, and you'll enjoy it.

After all - it’s your essay, not the robots.