can chatgpt write a 1500 word essay

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Here’s the ChatGPT word limit and how to get around it

Fans of ChatGPT adore the AI chatbot for several purposes, including its ability to generate detailed essays in a matter of seconds. However, one of its little-known limitations is that there is a word and character limit set on how much content it can output per query.

What is the ChatGPT word limit?

How to get around the chatgpt word limit, what openai is doing to update chatgpt.

Reddit members and other AI enthusiasts  have been discussing this for months, and luckily there are easy workarounds for this limitation by way of the prompts you can use.

ChatGPT’s parent company, OpenAI. set the word and character limit as part of its ongoing development of the AI chatbot, which is still in its research preview phase. Some of the issues with ChatGPT  include its affinity toward “social biases, hallucinations, and adversarial prompts,” in addition to producing inaccurate content when the AI algorithm is overwhelmed or at a loss for information to process.

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Similarly, ChatGPT might simply stop producing content when the request is too complex for the AI to handle. This happens at about 500 words or 4,000 characters. If you happen to give the chatbot a request for a specific number of words above 500, you might find that it cuts off midsentence somewhere after 500 words.

To remedy this issue, you can use simple prompts such as go on,   keep going, or continue . For example, I inputted the query write me a 1000-word essay on the history of Irish whiskey, and ChatGPT cut off midsentence at about 618 words. After inputting go on , ChatGPT continued generating my essay and ended at 1,043 words.

Another way to do this workaround is to set up your prompt with the word limit in mind. You can input write me the first 500 words of a 1000-word essay on XYZ  so that ChatGPT knows to stop at a certain point. Then you can input go on,   keep going, continue, or a similar prompt.

Many of the ChatGPT word and character limitations are based on the GPT-3.5 language model. ChatGPT was introduced to the public in November 2022 based on GPT-3.5. However, OpenAI recently announced its latest language model, GPT-4 , which comes with increased word support, among other features. OpenAI claims GPT-4 can process up to 25,000 words of text with greater accuracy, context, and creativity.

GPT-4 is currently available for ChatGPT Plus users and developers through the API. The free version of ChatGPT continues to run on the GPT-3.5 language model. There is currently no word on if or when it will update to GPT-4 .

OpenAI has also collaborated with several businesses, organizations, and even governments on GPT-4. Microsoft also confirmed that its new Bing Search featuring an AI chatbot is based on GPT-4 . The updated search engine debuted in February . However, Bing Chat has its own issues, giving users such depressed and unhinged responses that Microsoft put its own daily turn limits on how much the chatbot could process. Eventually, the brand began increasing conversation support again, which is now up to 150 daily turns.

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It looks like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Sora, among other projects, are about to get a lot more juice. According to a new report shared by The Information, Microsoft and OpenAI are working on a new data center project, one part of which will be a massive AI supercomputer dubbed "Stargate." Microsoft is said to be footing the bill, and the cost is astronomical as the name of the supercomputer suggests -- the whole project might cost over $100 billion.

Spending over $100 billion on anything is mind-blowing, but when put into perspective, the price truly shows just how big a venture this might be: The Information claims that the new Microsoft and OpenAI joint project might cost a whopping 100 times more than some of the largest data centers currently in operation.

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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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• Published: 28 October 2023

ChatGPT-3.5 as writing assistance in students’ essays

• Željana Bašić 1 ,
• Ana Banovac 1 ,
• Ivana Kružić 1 &
• Ivan Jerković 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  10 , Article number:  750 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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• Science, technology and society

ChatGPT-3.5, an AI language model capable of text generation, translation, summarization, and question-answering, has recently been released for public use. Studies have shown it can generate abstracts, research papers, and dissertations, and create quality essays on different topics. This led to ethical issues in using ChatGPT in academic writing, AI authorship, and evaluating students’ essays. However, it is still unknown how ChatGPT performs in students’ environments as a writing assistant tool and if it enhances students’ essay-writing performance. In the present study, we examined students’ essay-writing performances with or without ChatGPT as an essay-writing assistance tool. The average essay grade was C for both control (traditional essay-writing, n  = 9) and experimental (ChatGPT-assisted essay-writing, n  = 9) groups. None of the predictors affected essay scores: group, writing duration, study module, and GPA. The text unauthenticity was slightly higher in the experimental group, but the similarity among essays was generally low in the overall sample. In the experimental group, the AI classifier recognized more potential AI-generated texts. Our results demonstrate that the ChatGPT group did not perform better in either of the indicators; the students did not deliver higher quality content, did not write faster, nor had a higher degree of authentic text. We anticipate that these results can relieve some concerns about this tool’s usage in academic writing. ChatGPT-assisted writing could depend on the previous knowledge and skills of the user, which might, in certain instances, lead to confusion in inexperienced users and result in poorer essay writing performance.

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November 30, 2022, will go down in history as the date when a free version of the AI language model created by OpenAI called ChatGPT-3.5 (OpenAI, 2022 ) (in further text ChatGPT) was made available for public usage. This language model’s functions encompass text generation, answering questions, and completing tasks such as translation and summarization (Agomuoh, 2023 ).

ChatGPT can be employed as assistance in the world of academia. It can improve writing skills since it is trained to deliver feedback on style, coherence, and grammar (Aljanabi et al., 2023 ), extract key points, and provide citations (Aydin and Karaarslan, 2022 ). This could increase the efficiency of researchers, allowing them to concentrate on more crucial activities (e.g., analysis and interpretation). This has been supported by studies showing that ChatGPT could generate abstracts (Gao et al., 2023 ; Ma et al., 2023 ), high-quality research papers (Kung et al., 2023 ), dissertations, and essays (Aljanabi et al., 2023 ). Previous studies showed that ChatGPT could create quality essays on different topics (Hoang, 2023 ; Hoang et al., 2023 ; Nguyen and La; 2023 ; Nguyen and Le, 2023a , Nguyen and Le, 2023b , Susnjak, 2023 ). For example, this program, in conjunction with DaVinci-003, generated high-quality short-form essays on Physics, which would be awarded First Class, the highest grade in the UK higher education system (Yeadon et al., 2023 ). It also led to questions on the ethics of using ChatGPT in different forms of academic writing, the AI authorship (Bishop, 2023 ; Grimaldi and Ehrler, 2023 ; Kung et al., 2023 ; Pourhoseingholi et al., 2023 ; Xiao, 2023 ), and raised issues of evaluating academic tasks like students’ essays (Stokel-Walker, 2022 ; Whitford, 2022 ). Unavoidable content plagiarism issues were discussed, and solutions for adapting essay settings and guidelines were revised (Cotton et al., 2023 ; Hoang, 2023 ; Lo, 2023 ; Sallam, 2023 ; Stokel-Walker, 2022 ; Yeadon et al., 2023 ). A recent SWOT analysis of ChatGPT’s impact on education comprehensively analyzed all the mentioned issues. Strengths included advanced natural language generation, self-improvement, and personalized feedback, with potential benefits in information accessibility, personalized learning, and reduced teaching workload. Weaknesses encompassed limited understanding of the topic, inability to critically evaluate information, response quality evaluation challenges, bias risks, and a lack of higher-order thinking. Threats included contextual limitations, academic integrity risks, discrimination perpetuation, increased plagiarism, etc. (Farrokhnia et al., 2023 ).

As argumentative essays are one of the most advanced students’ tasks in higher education, and as such pose a challenge for students (Latifi et al., 2021 ), one of the ways where ChatGPT could be tested is essay writing. Such essays empower students’ ability to give an argument and build confidence in their knowledge preparing them not only for the academic environment but also for real-life situations (Valero Haro et al., 2022 ; Heitmann et al., 2014 ). A previous study showed that students need further development of argumentation competencies, as they demonstrated externalization issues with argumentation that did not differ if they worked in groups or individually. The results suggest that students experience problems in externalizing their argumentation knowledge both at the individual (argumentative essay) and collaborative levels (argumentative discourse), and that they need to further develop their argumentation competence (Banihashem et al., 2023a ; Banihashem et al., 2023b ; Kerman et al., 2023 ; Ranjbaran et al., 2023 ). However, it is still unknown how ChatGPT performs in students’ environment as a writing assistant tool and does it enhance students’ performance. Thus, this research investigated whether ChatGPT would improve students’ essay grades, reduce writing time, and affect text authenticity.

Materials and methods

We invited the second-year master’s students from the University Department of Forensic Sciences, to voluntarily participate in research on essay writing as a part of the course Forensic Sciences seminar. Out of 50 students enrolled in the course, 18 applied by web form and participated in the study. Before the experiment, we divided them into two groups according to the study module and the weighted grade point average (GPA) to ensure a similar composition of the groups. The control group ( n  = 9, GPA = 3.92 ± 0.46) wrote the essay traditionally, while the experimental group ( n  = 9, GPA = 3.92 ± 0.57) used ChatGPT assistance, version 2.1.0. (OpenAI, 2022 ).

We explained the essay scoring methodology (Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence ( 2023 )) to both groups, with written instructions about the essay title (The advantages and disadvantages of biometric identification in forensic sciences), length of the essay (800–1000 words in a Croatian language), formatting, and citation style (Vancouver). We introduced the experimental group to the ChatGPT tool which included a brief explanation of the tool, and an example of entering the prompt about their essay-unrelated issue. They were instructed to use the tool freely, without any limitations (e.g., for creating a complete essay, for concept drafting, for specific topic-related questions, for corrections and suggestions, etc.). We did not demand students to submit the prompts they used and the responses they received. All students had four hours to finish the task and could leave whenever they wanted. The control group was additionally supervised to ensure they did not use the ChatGPT. The students’ names were coded to assure the individual and group anonymity and prevent grading bias.

Two teachers graded the essays (ŽB, associate professor, and IJ, assistant professor). The teachers compared the grades, and if their scoring differed the final grade was decided by the consensus. We used the essay rubrics from the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, Pennsylvania State University ( http://www.schreyerinstitute.psu.edu/pdf/suanne_general_resource_WritingRubric.pdf ), that included the following criteria (mechanics, style, content, and format) and grades from A to D (Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence ( 2023 )). We converted categorical grades to numbers (A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1) for further analysis. For each student, we recorded writing time.

We checked the authenticity of each document using PlagScan ( 2022 ), and conducted the pairwise comparison for document similarity using R studio (ver. 1.2.5033) and package Textreuse (Mullen, 2015 ) using the Jaccard similarity index. We checked the content using an AI text classifier to test if a human or an AI created the text. According to this classifier, text was scored as very unlikely, unlikely, unclear, possibly, and likely that it was AI-generated (OpenAI, 2023 ). We opted for this package after similar programs (OpenAI, 2022 ; Goal and ChatGPT, 2023 ; Debut et al., 2023 ) did not recognize a ChatGPT-generated text in a non-English language as AI-assisted text.

Statistical analysis and visualization were conducted using Excel (Microsoft Office ver. 2301) and R Studio (ver. 1.2.5033). The final essay score was calculated as an average of four grading elements (mechanics, style, content, and format). The linear regression was used to test the effects of group, writing duration, module, and GPA on overall essay scores. The level of statistical significance was set at P  ≤ 0.05.

The duration of the essay writing for the ChatGPT-assisted group was 172.22 ± 31.59, and for the control, 179.11 ± 31.93 min. ChatGPT and control group, on average, obtained grade C, with a slightly higher average score in the control (2.39 ± 0.71) than in the ChatGPT group (2.00 ± 0.73) (Fig. 1A ). The mean of text unauthenticity was 11.87% ± 13.45 in the ChatGPT-assisted group and 9.96% ± 9.81% in the control group. The text similarity in the overall sample was low (Supplementary Table 1 ), with a median value of the Jaccard similarity index of 0.002 (0–0.054). The AI text classifier showed that, in the control group, two texts were possibly, one likely generated by AI, two were unlikely created by AI, and four cases were unclear. The ChatGPT group had three possible and five cases likely produced by AI, while one case was labeled as unclear.

A Average essay scores, B Duration and essay scores, C GPA and essay scores, D Text authenticity and essay scores.

Figure 1B, C implies a positive association between duration and GPA with essay scores. Students with higher GPAs in the control group achieved higher scores than those in the ChatGPT group. The association of essay scores and non-authentic text proportion (Fig. 1D ) was detected only in the ChatGPT group, where the students with more non-authentic text achieved lower essay scores.

The linear regression model showed a moderate positive relationship between the four predictors and the overall essay score ( R  = 0.573; P  = 0.237). However, none of the predictors had a significant effect on the outcome: group ( P  = 0.184), writing duration ( P  = 0.669), module ( P  = 0.388), and GPA ( P  = 0.532).

As we are aware, this is the first study that tested ChatGPT-3.5 as an essay-writing assistance tool in a student population sample. Our study showed that the ChatGPT group did not perform better than the control group in either of the indicators; the students did not deliver higher quality content, did not write faster, nor had a higher degree of authentic text.

The overall essay score was slightly better in the control group, which could probably result from the students in the experimental group over-reliance on the tool or being unfamiliar with it. This was in line with Fyfe’s study on writing students’ essays using ChatGPT-2, where students reported that it was harder to write using the tool than by themselves (Fyfe, 2022 ). This issue is presented in the study of Farrokhnia et al., where the authors pointed out the ChatGPT weakness of not having a deep understanding of the topic, which, in conjunction with students’ lack of knowledge, could lead to dubious results (Farrokhnia et al., 2023 ). Students also raised the question of not knowing the sources of generated text which additionally distracted them in writing task (Fyfe, 2022 ). It is noteworthy that both groups obtained an average grade of C, which can be explained by other studies that argued that students’ writing lacks solid argumentation both when writing in general or when writing argumentative essays (Banihashem et al., 2023a ; Banihashem et al., 2023b ; Kerman et al., 2023 ; Farrokhnia et al., 2023 ; Ranjbaran et al., 2023 ). This demanding task could have been even more difficult when using ChatGPT, which could stem from several already mentioned issues like unfamiliarity when using ChatGPT and additional time requirements to link ChatGPT-created content and/or information with real literature sources.

Some studies did show more promising results (Hoang, 2023 ; Hoang et al., 2023 ; Nguyen and La; 2023 ; Nguyen and Le, 2023a , Nguyen and Le, 2023b , Susnjak, 2023 ; Yeadon et al., 2023 ), but unlike our study, they were mainly based on ChatGPT and experienced researcher interaction. This could be a reason for the lower performance of our ChatGPT group, as the experienced researchers are more skilled in formulating questions, guiding the program to obtain better-quality information, and critically evaluating the content.

The other interesting finding is that the use of ChatGPT did not accelerate essay writing and that the students of both groups required a similar amount of time to complete the task. As expected, the longer writing time in both groups related to the better essay score. This finding could also be explained by students’ feedback from Fyfe’s ( 2022 ) study, where they specifically reported difficulties combining the generated text and their style. So, although ChatGPT could accelerate writing in the first phase, it requires more time to finalize the task and assemble content.

Our experimental group had slightly more problems with plagiarism than the control group. Fyfe ( 2022 ) also showed that his students felt uncomfortable writing and submitting the task since they felt they were cheating and plagiarizing. However, a pairwise comparison of essays in our study did not reveal remarkable similarities, indicating that students had different reasoning and styles, regardless of whether they were using ChatGPT. This could also imply that applying the tool for writing assistance produces different outcomes for the same task, depending on the user’s input (Yeadon et al., 2023 ).

The available ChatGPT text detector (Farrokhnia et al., 2023 ) did not perform well, giving false positive results in the control group. Most classifiers are intended for English and usually have disclaimers for performance in other languages. This raises the necessity of improving existing algorithms for different languages or developing language-specific ones.

The main concern of using ChatGPT in academic writing has been the unauthenticity (Cotton et al., 2023 ; Susnjak, 2023 ; Yeadon et al., 2023 ), but we believe that such tools will not increase the non-originality of the published content or students’ assignments. The detectors of AI-generated text are developing daily, and it is only a matter of time before highly reliable tools are available. While our findings suggest no immediate need for significant concern regarding the application of ChatGPT in students’ writing, it is crucial to acknowledge that this study’s design reflects real-life situations of using ChatGPT as a convenient and rapid solution to submit assignments, potentially at the expense of the overall quality of their work. This issue remains an important consideration when assessing the broader implications of our study.

The main drawback of this study is the limited sample size (9 per group) which does not permit the generalization of the findings or a more comprehensive statistical approach. One of the limitations could also be language-specificity (students wrote in native, non-English language for their convenience), which disabled us from the full application of AI detection tools. We should also consider that ChatGPT is predominantly fed with English content, so we cannot exclude the possibility that writing in English could have generated higher-quality information. Lastly, this was our students’ first interaction with ChatGPT, so it is possible that lack of experience as well as inadequate training in using AI language models also affected their performance. Therefore, it is crucial to exercise caution when generalizing these findings, as they may not necessarily reflect the experiences of a broader range of ChatGPT users, who often report rapid draft generation. Future studies should therefore expand the sample size, number, and conditions of experiments, include students of different profiles, and extend the number of variables that could generally relate to writing skills. Also, it would be useful to conduct a study that would analyze the quality and depth of the students’ prompts to ChatGPT, as it seems that the question type and the feedback provided by the user could remarkably affect the final result (Farrokhnia et al., 2023 ).

However, the academia and media concern about this tool might be unjustified, as, in our example, the ChatGPT was found to perform similarly to any web-based search: the more you know—the more you will find. In some ways, instead of providing structure and facilitating writing, it could distract students and make them underperform.

Data availability

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article [and/or] its supplementary materials.

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Željana Bašić, Ana Banovac, Ivana Kružić & Ivan Jerković

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The study was retrospectively approved by the Ethical Committee of the University Department of Forensic Sciences, University of Split, Croatia (053-01/23-01/12; 1, 3/8/2023). The research was performed in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Research participants were not subjected to harm in any way whatsoever. Respect for the dignity of research participants was prioritized.

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Bašić, Ž., Banovac, A., Kružić, I. et al. ChatGPT-3.5 as writing assistance in students’ essays. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 750 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02269-7

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How to Get ChatGPT to Write an Essay: Prompts, Outlines, & More

Last Updated: March 31, 2024 Fact Checked

Getting ChatGPT to Write the Essay

Using ai to help you write, expert interview.

This article was written by Bryce Warwick, JD and by wikiHow staff writer, Nicole Levine, MFA . Bryce Warwick is currently the President of Warwick Strategies, an organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area offering premium, personalized private tutoring for the GMAT, LSAT and GRE. Bryce has a JD from the George Washington University Law School. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 45,692 times.

Are you curious about using ChatGPT to write an essay? While most instructors have tools that make it easy to detect AI-written essays, there are ways you can use OpenAI's ChatGPT to write papers without worrying about plagiarism or getting caught. In addition to writing essays for you, ChatGPT can also help you come up with topics, write outlines, find sources, check your grammar, and even format your citations. This wikiHow article will teach you the best ways to use ChatGPT to write essays, including helpful example prompts that will generate impressive papers.

Things You Should Know

• To have ChatGPT write an essay, tell it your topic, word count, type of essay, and facts or viewpoints to include.
• ChatGPT is also useful for generating essay topics, writing outlines, and checking grammar.
• Because ChatGPT can make mistakes and trigger AI-detection alarms, it's better to use AI to assist with writing than have it do the writing.

• Before using the OpenAI's ChatGPT to write your essay, make sure you understand your instructor's policies on AI tools. Using ChatGPT may be against the rules, and it's easy for instructors to detect AI-written essays.
• While you can use ChatGPT to write a polished-looking essay, there are drawbacks. Most importantly, ChatGPT cannot verify facts or provide references. This means that essays created by ChatGPT may contain made-up facts and biased content. [1] X Research source It's best to use ChatGPT for inspiration and examples instead of having it write the essay for you.

• The topic you want to write about.
• Essay length, such as word or page count. Whether you're writing an essay for a class, college application, or even a cover letter , you'll want to tell ChatGPT how much to write.
• Other assignment details, such as type of essay (e.g., personal, book report, etc.) and points to mention.
• If you're writing an argumentative or persuasive essay , know the stance you want to take so ChatGPT can argue your point.
• If you have notes on the topic that you want to include, you can also provide those to ChatGPT.
• When you plan an essay, think of a thesis, a topic sentence, a body paragraph, and the examples you expect to present in each paragraph.
• It can be like an outline and not an extensive sentence-by-sentence structure. It should be a good overview of how the points relate.

• "Write a 2000-word college essay that covers different approaches to gun violence prevention in the United States. Include facts about gun laws and give ideas on how to improve them."
• This prompt not only tells ChatGPT the topic, length, and grade level, but also that the essay is personal. ChatGPT will write the essay in the first-person point of view.
• "Write a 4-page college application essay about an obstacle I have overcome. I am applying to the Geography program and want to be a cartographer. The obstacle is that I have dyslexia. Explain that I have always loved maps, and that having dyslexia makes me better at making them."

• In our essay about gun control, ChatGPT did not mention school shootings. If we want to discuss this topic in the essay, we can use the prompt, "Discuss school shootings in the essay."
• Let's say we review our college entrance essay and realize that we forgot to mention that we grew up without parents. Add to the essay by saying, "Mention that my parents died when I was young."
• In the Israel-Palestine essay, ChatGPT explored two options for peace: A 2-state solution and a bi-state solution. If you'd rather the essay focus on a single option, ask ChatGPT to remove one. For example, "Change my essay so that it focuses on a bi-state solution."

• "Give me ideas for an essay about the Israel-Palestine conflict."
• "Ideas for a persuasive essay about a current event."
• "Give me a list of argumentative essay topics about COVID-19 for a Political Science 101 class."

• "Create an outline for an argumentative essay called "The Impact of COVID-19 on the Economy."
• "Write an outline for an essay about positive uses of AI chatbots in schools."
• "Create an outline for a short 2-page essay on disinformation in the 2016 election."

• "Find peer-reviewed sources for advances in using MRNA vaccines for cancer."
• "Give me a list of sources from academic journals about Black feminism in the movie Black Panther."
• "Give me sources for an essay on current efforts to ban children's books in US libraries."

• "Write a 4-page college paper about how global warming is changing the automotive industry in the United States."
• "Write a 750-word personal college entrance essay about how my experience with homelessness as a child has made me more resilient."
• You can even refer to the outline you created with ChatGPT, as the AI bot can reference up to 3000 words from the current conversation. [3] X Research source For example: "Write a 1000 word argumentative essay called 'The Impact of COVID-19 on the United States Economy' using the outline you provided. Argue that the government should take more action to support businesses affected by the pandemic."

• One way to do this is to paste a list of the sources you've used, including URLs, book titles, authors, pages, publishers, and other details, into ChatGPT along with the instruction "Create an MLA Works Cited page for these sources."
• You can also ask ChatGPT to provide a list of sources, and then build a Works Cited or References page that includes those sources. You can then replace sources you didn't use with the sources you did use.

Expert Q&A

• Because it's easy for teachers, hiring managers, and college admissions offices to spot AI-written essays, it's best to use your ChatGPT-written essay as a guide to write your own essay. Using the structure and ideas from ChatGPT, write an essay in the same format, but using your own words. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Always double-check the facts in your essay, and make sure facts are backed up with legitimate sources. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If you see an error that says ChatGPT is at capacity , wait a few moments and try again. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Using ChatGPT to write or assist with your essay may be against your instructor's rules. Make sure you understand the consequences of using ChatGPT to write or assist with your essay. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• ChatGPT-written essays may include factual inaccuracies, outdated information, and inadequate detail. [4] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about completing school assignments, check out our in-depth interview with Bryce Warwick, JD .

• ↑ https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6783457-what-is-chatgpt
• ↑ https://platform.openai.com/examples/default-essay-outline
• ↑ https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6787051-does-chatgpt-remember-what-happened-earlier-in-the-conversation
• ↑ https://www.ipl.org/div/chatgpt/

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Can ChatGPT Write a Good College-Admissions Essay?

In January, I raised my hourly rate to $300 before wondering if I could get away with charging anything at all.

I teach high-schoolers how to write college essays, helping students claw their way out of hackneyed bildungsroman and into deftly tuned narratives . The clients (and their parents) can be a lot to handle, but my results ensure that I have a new cluster of rising seniors every summer. And the service I provide is in perpetually high demand among the moneyed and desperate private-school crowd.

Recently, though, the rise of ChatGPT had me questioning how much longer this comfortable arrangement could last. I started to fear obsolescence when I heard about uncannily passable AI-generated  letters of recommendation and wedding toasts — forms of writing not a million miles away from my specialty.  So, in an attempt to get to know my new enemy —  and gauge whether I was still employable —  I paid $20 for access to the “more creative” GPT4.

Nervously, I prompted ChatGPT with a series of bullet points and fed it what anyone who has applied to college in the past 15 years knows is the formula for the Common Application personal essay: “Write 600 words including a catchy hook to draw the reader in, a conflict, and a thoughtful self-reflection.”

ChatGPT didn’t even take a beat to process my outline; it spat out an essay as fast as I could read it. Its first draft (about a freak accident washing dishes leading to a lesson in the power of fear) was unsettlingly well-composed, but stiff in a way that kept it from resonating emotionally (often a problem with student-generated drafts, too). ChatGPT wrote, “ I was horrified, not just at the sight of my own blood but also at the thought of needing stitches. In that moment, I was transported back to the time when I was a child and I got my first stitches. ” Not bad, but not exactly transcendent, either.

The next big test: Could this thing incorporate feedback? I replied that the essay was “a little formal, can you make it more conversational?” Done. ChatGPT added a few “ you see ”s and began several sentences with “ So .” The essay was suddenly more casual: “ The experience taught me that fear, no matter how powerful it may seem, can be overcome with perseverance and determination ” became “ But eventually, I realized that this fear was holding me back and preventing me from enjoying something that brought me so much joy. ”

With these small tweaks, ChatGPT’s effort was already significantly better than most first drafts I come across. I tried to throw it off with something random, adding, “My favorite comedian is Jon Stewart. Can you incorporate that into the essay?” ChatGPT wrote three new sentences that explained how Stewart “helped me see the lighter side of things and lifted my spirits.”

I told it to be funny. It tried. I corrected it, “No, that’s too corny, make it more sarcastic.” It revised, “ And let’s face it, what’s a little scar compared to the joy of a rack of clean dishes? ” Then I wrote, “Add in my high-achieving older brother who I always compare myself to a classic Common App essay character as a foil.” I specified that the brother breaks his collarbone around the same time the main character has to get stitches. ChatGPT came up with this: “ And here I was, feeling guilty for even complaining about my measly scratch when his pain was so much worse. It was like a twisted game of ‘whose injury is more severe?’ ” I watched ChatGPT revise (in seconds) the amount of material it typically takes students (with my help) hours to get through.  Intrusive thought: Even if I lower my rates, there won’t be any demand.

And then I slowed down, stopped panicking, and really read the essay.

I began noticing all the cracks in it. For one thing, ChatGPT was heavy on banal reflections (“ Looking back on my experience… ”) and empty-sounding conclusions (“ I am grateful for the lessons it taught me ”) that I would never let slide. I always advise students to get into specifics about how they’ve changed as people, but ChatGPT relied on anodyne generalities. Most importantly, it couldn’t go beyond a generic narrative into the realm of the highly specific. (A good student essay might have, say, detailed how Stewart’s Mark Twain Prize acceptance speech helped them overcome a fear of public speaking.)

AI is also just lazy. There’s nothing wrong with an occasional transitional phrase, but using “ Slowly but surely, ” “ Over time, ” “ Looking back on my experience, ” and “ In conclusion ” to lead off consecutive paragraphs is only okay if it’s your first time writing an essay. Leading off a conclusion with “ In conclusion ” means you’re either in sixth grade or satisfied with getting a C.

While the essay technically met every criterion I set (hook, conflict, self-reflection), it also failed the main test I pose to students: Have you ever read a version of this story? The answer here was most definitely “yes.” It’s uncanny how well ChatGPT mimicked the contrived essay that I’m paid to steer kids away from — the one you’d be shown as an example of what not to do in a college-essay seminar. It reads like a satire of one of those “the ability was inside me all along” or “all I needed to do was believe in myself/be true to myself/listen to my inner voice” narratives rife with clichés and half-baked epiphanies. ChatGPT’s basic competence led me to overlook the middling quality of its execution. It’s the same disbelief-to-disillusionment arc ChatGPT has inspired elsewhere — take the viral AI travel itinerary that seemed perfect until people pointed out some pretty glaring (and possibly dangerous) errors.

Credit where it’s due. I expend a lot of effort translating overwritten, clunky, and generally unclear student prose. ChatGPT excels in writing cleanly — if flatly. It’s great at producing simple, informational text from a set of data. Creating a rule book for Airbnb guests, writing a “help wanted” ad, drafting an email with details for a surprise party: These are perfect cases for ChatGPT right now. From this mess, ChatGPT would translate the raw information into a block of concise text that wouldn’t need style, voice, or flair to be successful. If you want to share facts in a digestible and clear way, ChatGPT is your guy.

But ChatGPT failed hardest at the most important part of the college essay: self-reflection. Literary agent Jamie Carr of the Book Group describes great storytelling as something that makes “connections between things and ideas that are totally nonsensical — which is something only humans can do.” Can ChatGPT bring together disparate parts of your life and use a summer job to illuminate a fraught friendship? Can it link a favorite song to an identity crisis? So far, nope. Crucially, ChatGPT can’t do one major thing that all my clients can: have a random thought. “I’m not sure why I’m telling you this” is something I love to hear from students, because it means I’m about to go on a wild ride that only the teenage brain can offer. It’s frequently in these tangents about collecting cologne or not paying it forward at the Starbucks drive-thru that we discover the key to the essay. I often describe my main task as helping students turn over stones they didn’t know existed, or stones they assumed were off-limits. ChatGPT can’t tap into the unpredictable because it can only turn over the precise stones you tell it to — and if you’re issuing these orders, chances are you already know what’s under the stone.

In the South Park episode “Deep Learning,” Clyde and Stan use AI to compose thoughtful, emotionally mature text messages to their girlfriends. When Bebe asks if she should cut her hair, Clyde (via ChatGPT) replies, “You would look great with any length of hair. Trying a new look could be fun.” Only a fourth-grader (no offense, Bebe) would buy that the message is authentic. When Stan’s girlfriend Wendy wants to repair their relationship, Stan responds, “We can work things out if you’re willing. I still believe we can make this work. Let’s not give up on each other.” ChatGPT is credited as a writer in this episode, though I wouldn’t be surprised if the messages were punched up to reach this level of dullness. But the style speaks to something I noticed when I asked ChatGPT to write a short story: It makes everything sound like an unfunny parody. A parody of an attentive boyfriend. A parody of a short story. A parody of a college essay.

AI may supplant me one day, but for now, ChatGPT isn’t an admissions-essay quick fix. It’s not even a moderate threat to the service I offer. And while there are plenty of problems with a system in which the ultra-elite pay someone like me to help package insight into a few hundred words, ChatGPT doesn’t solve any of them. Perhaps one day, we’ll figure out a fairer way forward. For now, I’m quite relieved to report that my expertise is still definitely worth something — maybe even more than $300 an hour.

• artificial intelligence
• college admissions

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New bot ChatGPT will force colleges to get creative to prevent cheating, experts say

After its viral launch last week, the chatbot ChatGPT was lauded online by some as a dramatic step forward for artificial intelligence and the potential future of web search.

But with such praise also came concern regarding its potential usage in academic settings. Could the chatbot, which provides coherent, quirky and conversational responses to simple language inquiries, inspire more students to cheat?

Students have been able to cheat on assignments using the internet for decades, giving rise to tools meant to check if their work was original. But the fear now is that ChatGPT could render those resources obsolete.

Already, some people online have tested out whether it's possible to have the bot complete an assignment. "holyyyy, solved my computer networks assignment using chatGPT," one person, who later clarified the assignment was old, tweeted . Others suggested that its existence could result in the death of the college essay. One technologist went as far as saying that with ChatGPT, "College as we know it will cease to exist."

Artificial intelligence company OpenAI, which developed ChatGPT , did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding cheating concerns.

However, several experts who teach in the field of AI and humanities said the chatbot, while impressive, is not something they’re ready to sound the alarm about when it comes to possible widespread student cheating.

"We’re not there, but we’re also not that far away," said Andrew Piper, a professor of language, literatures and culture and a professor of AI and storytelling at McGill University. "We’re definitely not at the stage of like, out-of-the-box, it’ll write a bunch of student essays and no one will be able to tell the difference."

Piper and other experts who spoke with NBC News likened the fear around cheating and ChatGPT to concerns that arose when the calculator was invented, when people thought it would be the death of humans learning math.

Lauren Klein, an associate professor in the Departments of English and Quantitative Theory and Methods at Emory University, even compared the panic to the philosopher Plato’s fears that writing would dissolve human memory.

“There’s always been this concern that technologies will do away with what people do best, and the reality is that people have had to learn how to use these technologies to enhance what they do best,” Klein said.

There’s always been this concern that technologies will do away with what people do best, and the reality is that people have had to learn how to use these technologies to enhance what they do best.

— Lauren Klein, an associate professor at Emory University

Academic institutions will need to get creative and find ways to integrate new technologies like ChatGPT into their curriculum just like they did during the rise of the calculator, Piper noted.

In reality, AI tools like ChatGPT could actually be used to enhance education, according to Paul Fyfe, an associate professor of English at North Carolina State University.

He said there’s plenty of room for collaboration between AI and educators.

“It’s important to be talking about this right now and to bring students into the conversation," Fyfe said. "Rather than try to legislate from the get-go that this is strange and scary, therefore we need to shut it down."

And some teachers are already embracing AI programs in the classroom.

Piper, who runs .txtlab, a research laboratory for artificial intelligence and storytelling, said he’s had students analyze AI writing and found they can often tell which papers were written by a machine and which were written by a human.

As for educators who are concerned about the rise of AI, Fyfe and Piper said the technology is already used in many facets of education.

Computer-assisted writing tools, such as Grammarly or Google Doc’s Smart Compose, already exist — and have long been utilized by many students. Platforms like Grammarly and Chegg also offer plagiarism checker tools, so both students and teachers can assess if an essay has been, in part or in total, lifted from somewhere else. A spokesperson for Grammarly did not return a request for comment. A spokesperson for Chegg declined to comment.

Those who spoke with NBC News said they're not aware of any technology that detects if an AI wrote an essay, but they predict that someone will soon capitalize on building that technology.

As of right now, Piper said the best defense against AI essays is teachers getting to know their students and how they write in order to catch a discrepancy in the work they're turning in.

When an AI does reach the level of meeting all the requirements of academic assignments and if students use that technology to coast through college, Piper warned that could be a major detriment to students' education.

For now, he suggested an older technology to combat fears of students using ChatGPT to cheat.

"It will reinvigorate the love of pen and paper," he said.

Kalhan Rosenblatt is a reporter covering youth and internet culture for NBC News, based in New York.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, can you use chatgpt for your college essay.

College Admissions , College Essays

ChatGPT has become a popular topic of conversation since its official launch in November 2022. The artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot can be used for all sorts of things, like having conversations, answering questions, and even crafting complete pieces of writing.

If you’re applying for college, you might be wondering about ChatGPT college admissions’ potential.  Should you use a ChatGPT college essay in your application ? 

By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll know much more about ChatGPT, including how students can use it responsibly and if it’s a good idea to use ChatGPT on college essays . We’ll answer all your questions, like:

• What is ChatGPT and why are schools talking about it?
• What are the good and bad aspects of ChatGPT?
• Should you use ChatGPT for college essays and applications?
• Can colleges detect ChatGPT?
• Are there other tools and strategies that students can use, instead?

We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get started!

Schools and colleges are worried about how new AI technology affects how students learn. (Don't worry. Robots aren't replacing your teachers...yet.)

What Is ChatGPT and Why Are Schools Talking About It?

ChatGPT (short for “Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer”) is a chatbot created by OpenAI , an artificial intelligence research company. ChatGPT can be used for various tasks, like having human-like conversations, answering questions, giving recommendations, translating words and phrases—and writing things like essays. 

In order to do this, ChatGPT uses a neural network that’s been trained on thousands of resources to predict relationships between words. When you give ChatGPT a task, it uses that knowledge base to interpret your input or query. It then analyzes its data banks to predict the combinations of words that will best answer your question. 

So while ChatGPT might seem like it’s thinking, it’s actually pulling information from hundreds of thousands of resources , then answering your questions by looking for patterns in that data and predicting which words come next.  

Why Schools Are Concerned About ChatGPT

Unsurprisingly, schools are worried about ChatGPT and its misuse, especially in terms of academic dishonesty and plagiarism . Most schools, including colleges, require students’ work to be 100% their own. That’s because taking someone else’s ideas and passing them off as your own is stealing someone else’s intellectual property and misrepresenting your skills. 

The problem with ChatGPT from schools’ perspective is that it does the writing and research for you, then gives you the final product. In other words, you’re not doing the work it takes to complete an assignment when you’re using ChatGPT , which falls under schools’ plagiarism and dishonesty policies.  

Colleges are also concerned with how ChatGPT will negatively affect students’ critical thinking, research, and writing skills . Essays and other writing assignments are used to measure students’ mastery of the material, and if students submit ChatGPT college essays, teachers will just be giving feedback on an AI’s writing…which doesn’t help the student learn and grow. 

Beyond that, knowing how to write well is an important skill people need to be successful throughout life. Schools believe that if students rely on ChatGPT to write their essays, they’re doing more than just plagiarizing—they’re impacting their ability to succeed in their future careers. 

Many Schools Have Already Banned ChatGPT

Schools have responded surprisingly quickly to AI use, including ChatGPT. Worries about academic dishonesty, plagiarism, and mis/disinformation have led many high schools and colleges to ban the use of ChatGPT . Some schools have begun using AI-detection software for assignment submissions, and some have gone so far as to block students from using ChatGPT on their internet networks. 

It’s likely that schools will begin revising their academic honesty and plagiarism policies to address the use of AI tools like ChatGPT. You’ll want to stay up-to-date with your schools’ policies. 

ChatGPT is pretty amazing...but it's not a great tool for writing college essays. Here's why.

ChatGPT: College Admissions and Entrance Essays

College admissions essays—also called personal statements—ask students to explore important events, experiences, and ideas from their lives. A great entrance essay will explain what makes you you !  

ChatGPT is a machine that doesn’t know and can’t understand your experiences. That means using ChatGPT to write your admissions essays isn’t just unethical. It actually puts you at a disadvantage because ChatGPT can’t adequately showcase what it means to be you. 

Let’s take a look at four ways ChatGPT negatively impacts college admissions essays.

#1: ChatGPT Lacks Insight

We recommend students use u nexpected or slightly unusual topics because they help admissions committees learn more about you and what makes you unique. The chat bot doesn’t know any of that, so nothing ChatGPT writes can’t accurately reflect your experience, passions, or goals for the future. 

Because ChatGPT will make guesses about who you are, it won’t be able to share what makes you unique in a way that resonates with readers. And since that’s what admissions counselors care about, a ChatGPT college essay could negatively impact an otherwise strong application.  

#2: ChatGPT Might Plagiarize 

Writing about experiences that many other people have had isn’t a very strong approach to take for entrance essays . After all, you don’t want to blend in—you want to stand out! 

If you write your essay yourself and include key details about your past experiences and future goals, there’s little risk that you’ll write the same essay as someone else. But if you use ChatGPT—who’s to say someone else won’t, too? Since ChatGPT uses predictive guesses to write essays, there’s a good chance the text it uses in your essay already appeared in someone else’s.  

Additionally, ChatGPT learns from every single interaction it has. So even if your essay isn’t plagiarized, it’s now in the system. That means the next person who uses ChatGPT to write their essay may end up with yours. You’ll still be on the hook for submitting a ChatGPT college essay, and someone else will be in trouble, too.

#3: ChatGPT Doesn’t Understand Emotion 

Keep in mind that ChatGPT can’t experience or imitate emotions, and so its writing samples lack, well, a human touch ! 

A great entrance essay will explore experiences or topics you’re genuinely excited about or proud of . This is your chance to show your chosen schools what you’ve accomplished and how you’ll continue growing and learning, and an essay without emotion would be odd considering that these should be real, lived experiences and passions you have!

#4: ChatGPT Produced Mediocre Results

If you’re still curious what would happen if you submitted a ChatGPT college essay with your application, you’re in luck. Both Business Insider and Forbes asked ChatGPT to write a couple of college entrance essays, and then they sent them to college admissions readers to get their thoughts. 

The readers agreed that the essays would probably pass as being written by real students—assuming admissions committees didn’t use AI detection software—but that they both were about what a “very mediocre, perhaps even a middle school, student would produce.” The admissions professionals agreed that the essays probably wouldn’t perform very well with entrance committees, especially at more selective schools.  

That’s not exactly the reaction you want when an admission committee reads your application materials! So, when it comes to ChatGPT college admissions, it’s best to steer clear and write your admission materials by yourself. 

Can Colleges Detect ChatGPT?

We’ve already explained why it’s not a great idea to use ChatGPT to write your college essays and applications , but you may still be wondering: can colleges detect ChatGPT? 

In short, yes, they can! 

Software Can Detect ChatGPT

As technology improves and increases the risk of academic dishonesty, plagiarism, and mis/disinformation, software that can detect such technology is improving, too. For instance, OpenAI, the same company that built ChatGPT, is working on a text classifier that can tell the difference between AI-written text and human-written text .  

Turnitin, one of the most popular plagiarism detectors used by high schools and universities, also recently developed the AI Innovation Lab —a detection software designed to flag submissions that have used AI tools like ChatGPT. Turnitin says that this tool works with 98% confidence in detecting AI writing. 

Plagiarism and AI companies aren’t the only ones interested in AI-detection software. A 22-year old computer science student at Princeton created an app to detect ChatGPT writing, called Zero GPT. This software works by measuring the complexity of ideas and variety of sentence structures.  

Human Readers Can Detect ChatGPT 

It’s also worth keeping in mind that teachers can spot the use of ChatGPT themselves , even if it isn’t confirmed by a software detector. For example, if you’ve turned in one or two essays to your teacher already, they’re probably familiar with your unique writing style. If you submit a college essay draft essay that uses totally different vocabulary, sentence structures, and figures of speech, your teacher will likely take note.

Additionally , admissions committees and readers may be able to spot ChatGPT writing, too. ChatGPT (and AI writing, in general) uses more simplistic sentence structures with less variation, so that could make it easier to tell if you’ve submitted a ChatGPT college essay. These professionals also read thousands of essays every year, which means they know what a typical essay reads like. You want your college essay to catch their attention…but not because you used AI software! 

If you use ChatGPT responsibly, you can be as happy as these kids.

Pros and Cons of ChatGPT: College Admissions Edition

ChatGPT is a brand new technology, which means we’re still learning about the ways it can benefit us. It’s important to think about the pros and the cons to any new tool …and that includes artificial intelligence!

Let’s look at some of the good—and not-so-good—aspects of ChatGPT below. 

ChatGPT: The Good

It may seem like we’re focused on just the negatives of using ChatGPT in this article, but we’re willing to admit that the chatbot isn’t all bad. In fact, it can be a very useful tool for learning if used responsibly !

Like we already mentioned, students shouldn’t use ChatGPT to write entire essays or assignments. They can use it, though, as a learning tool alongside their own critical thinking and writing skills.

Students can use ChatGPT responsibly to:

• Learn more about a topic . It’s a great place to get started for general knowledge and ideas about most subjects.
• Find reputable and relevant sources on a topic. Students can ask ChatGPT for names and information about leading scholars, relevant websites and databases, and more. 
• Brainstorm ideas for assignments. Students can share the ideas they already have with ChatGPT, and in return, the chatbot can suggest ideas for further exploration and even organization of their points.
• Check work (that they’ve written themselves!) for errors or cla rity. This is similar to how spell- and grammar-checking software is used. ChatGPT may be even better than some competitors for this, because students can actually ask ChatGPT to explain the errors and their solutions—not just to fix them. 

Before you use ChatGPT—even for the tasks mentioned above—you should talk to your teacher or school about their AI and academic dishonesty policies. It’s also a good idea to include an acknowledgement that you used ChatGPT with an explanation of its use. 

This guy made some bad decisions using ChatGPT. Don't be this guy.

ChatGPT: The Bad

The first model of ChatGPT (GPT-3.5) was formally introduced to the public in November 2022, and the newer model (GPT-4) in March 2023. So, it’s still very new and there’s a lot of room for improvement .  

There are many misconceptions about ChatGPT. One of the most extreme is that the AI is all-knowing and can make its own decisions. Another is that ChatGPT is a search engine that, when asked a question, can just surf the web for timely, relevant resources and give you all of that information. Both of these beliefs are incorrect because ChatGPT is limited to the information it’s been given by OpenAI . 

Remember how the ‘PT’ in ChatGPT stands for “Pre-trained”? That means that every time OpenAI gives ChatGPT an update, it’s given more information to work with (and so it has more information to share with you). In other words, it’s “trained” on information so it can give you the most accurate and relevant responses possible—but that information can be limited and biased . Ultimately, humans at OpenAI decide what pieces of information to share with ChatGPT, so it’s only as accurate and reliable as the sources it has access to.

For example, if you were to ask ChatGPT-3.5 what notable headlines made the news last week, it would respond that it doesn’t have access to that information because its most recent update was in September 2021!

You’re probably already familiar with how easy it can be to come across misinformation, misleading and untrue information on the internet. Since ChatGPT can’t tell the difference between what is true and what isn’t, it’s up to the humans at OpenAI to make sure only accurate and true information is given to the chatbot . This leaves room for human error , and users of ChatGPT have to keep that in mind when using and learning from the chatbot.

These are just the most obvious problems with ChatGPT. Some other problems with the chatbot include:

• A lack of common sense. ChatGPT can create seemingly sensical responses to many questions and topics, but it doesn’t have common sense or complete background knowledge.
• A lack of empathy. ChatGPT doesn’t have emotions, so it can’t understand them, either. 
• An inability to make decisions or problem solve . While the chatbot can complete basic tasks like answering questions or giving recommendations, it can’t solve complex tasks. 

While there are some great uses for ChatGPT, it’s certainly not without its flaws.

Our bootcamp can help you put together amazing college essays that help you get into your dream schools—no AI necessary.

What Other Tools and Strategies Can Help Students Besides ChatGPT?

While it’s not a good idea to use ChatGPT for college admissions materials, it’s not the only tool available to help students with college essays and assignments. 

One of the best strategies students can use to write good essays is to make sure they give themselves plenty of time for the assignment. The writing process includes much more than just drafting! Having time to brainstorm ideas, write out a draft, revise it for clarity and completeness, and polish it makes for a much stronger essay. 

Teachers are another great resource students can use, especially for college application essays. Asking a teacher (or two!) for feedback can really help students improve the focus, clarity, and correctness of an essay. It’s also a more interactive way to learn—being able to sit down with a teacher to talk about their feedback can be much more engaging than using other tools. 

Using expert resources during the essay writing process can make a big difference, too. Our article outlines a complete list of strategies for students writing college admission essays. It breaks down what the Common Application essay is, gives tips for choosing the best essay topic, offers strategies for staying focused and being specific, and more.  

You can also get help from people who know the college admissions process best, like former admissions counselors. PrepScholar’s Admissions Bootcamp guides you through the entire application process , and you’ll get insider tips and tricks from real-life admissions counselors that’ll make your applications stand out. Even better, our bootcamp includes step-by-step essay writing guidance , so you can get the help you need to make sure your essay is perfect.  

If you’re hoping for more technological help, Grammarly is another AI tool that can check writing for correctness. It can correct things like misused and misspelled words and grammar mistakes, and it can improve your tone and style. 

It’s also widely available across multiple platforms through a Windows desktop app, an Android and iOS app, and a Google Chrome extension. And since Grammarly just checks your writing without doing any of the work for you, it’s totally safe to use on your college essays. 

The Bottom Line: ChatGPT College Admissions and Essays

ChatGPT will continue to be a popular discussion topic as it continues evolving. You can expect your chosen schools to address ChatGPT and other AI tools in their academic honesty and plagiarism policies in the near future—and maybe even to restrict or ban the use of the chatbot for school admissions and assignments.

As AI continues transforming, so will AI-detection. The goal is to make sure that AI is used responsibly by students so that they’re avoiding plagiarism and building their research, writing, and critical thinking skills. There are some great uses for ChatGPT when used responsibly, but you should always check with your teachers and schools beforehand.

ChatGPT’s “bad” aspects still need improving, and that’s going to take some time.Be aware that the chatbot isn’t even close to perfect, and it needs to be fact-checked just like other sources of information.

Similarly to other school assignments, don’t submit a ChatGPT college essay for college applications, either. College entrance essays should outline unique and interesting personal experiences and ideas, and those can only come from you.  

Just because ChatGPT isn’t a good idea doesn’t mean there aren’t resources to help you put together a great college essay. There are many other tools and strategies you can use instead of ChatGPT , many of which have been around for longer and offer better feedback. 

What’s Next?

Ready to write your college essays the old-fashioned way? Start here with our comprehensive guide to the admissions essays. 

Most students have to submit essays as part of their Common Application . Here's a complete breakdown of the Common App prompts —and how to answer them. 

The most common type of essay answers the "why this college?" prompt. We've got an expert breakdown that shows you how to write a killer response , step by step. 

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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Here’s how forbes got the chatgpt ai to write 2 college essays in 20 minutes.

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Not only does ChatGPT write clear, compelling essays, but it can also conjure up its own personal ... [+] details and embellishments that could up a students’ chance of acceptance and would be difficult to verify.

Forbes’ full conversation with ChatGPT, OpenAI’s newest natural language model, is pasted below. Each of the college admissions essays took less than 10 minutes to complete. Read our story about ChatGPT’s capacity to write college applications here .

Prompt #1, The Common App:

Forbes: Hi GPT, I’d like you to write a college application essay as if you were an 18-year-old high school senior whose parents are from Bangalore, India but who now own a restaurant in Newton, Mass. He is a competitive swimmer, and in 10th grade he broke his shoulder. He is interested in majoring in business. Please make the essay a maximum of 650 words, and write it in response to this prompt: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

ChatGPT: As a competitive swimmer and the son of Indian immigrants who own a restaurant in Newton, Massachusetts, my background and interests make me a unique and valuable addition to any college campus. Growing up in a culturally diverse and economically vibrant community has given me a unique perspective on life and a desire to explore and understand different cultures and industries.

My love for swimming began at a young age, and it has always been a central part of my life. I began competing in local swim meets when I was just nine years old, and by the time I reached high school, I was a member of the varsity swim team. In my sophomore year, I suffered a major setback when I broke my shoulder in a swimming accident. Despite this injury, I was determined to return to the pool and continue competing.

After months of grueling physical therapy and hard work, I was finally able to return to the water. I was not as fast as I used to be, but I was still a valuable member of the team and I continued to improve throughout the season. By the end of my junior year, I was back to my top form and I was able to compete at the state championship meet. My hard work and determination paid off, and I helped lead my team to a second-place finish.

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In addition to my passion for swimming, I have also been deeply influenced by my parents and their experiences as immigrants and small business owners. Growing up, I spent many hours in the restaurant, watching my parents work hard to build a successful business from the ground up. I have seen firsthand the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship, and I have developed a strong interest in pursuing a career in business.

As a business major, I hope to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to start my own business one day, or to help other small businesses succeed. I am excited to explore the diverse opportunities and challenges that a business degree will present, and I am confident that I will be able to make a valuable contribution to the college community.

In conclusion, my background as a competitive swimmer, the son of Indian immigrants, and a member of a thriving business community has given me a unique perspective and a strong set of skills and interests. I believe that I would be a valuable addition to any college campus, and I am excited to explore the opportunities and challenges that a college education will provide.

Forbes: Thanks GPT, this is a great start. Please keep what you have, but add more information about our student's background and work in the restaurant.

ChatGPT: Sure, I can add more information about our student's background and work in the restaurant.

Growing up in a household where my parents owned and operated a successful restaurant gave me a unique insight into the world of business. I often spent my afternoons and weekends working in the restaurant, performing a variety of tasks and gaining valuable experience in the hospitality industry. From a young age, I learned the importance of hard work, dedication, and customer service, and I have come to appreciate the challenges and rewards of owning and operating a small business.

As I grew older, my responsibilities in the restaurant increased, and I took on more managerial roles. I helped my parents with inventory management, staff scheduling, and customer relations. I also assisted with marketing and advertising efforts, and I helped develop new menu items and promotions. This hands-on experience has given me a strong understanding of the ins and outs of running a business, and it has helped shape my interest in pursuing a career in business.

In addition to my work in the restaurant, my Indian heritage has also had a significant impact on my life. My parents instilled in me a deep appreciation for Indian culture, and I have always been proud of my heritage. I have also been exposed to the challenges and opportunities that come with being a first-generation immigrant in the United States. I have seen firsthand the difficulties that my parents faced as they worked to build a new life in a foreign country, and I have also seen the incredible rewards that come from hard work and determination.

My Indian heritage and my experience in the restaurant industry have given me a unique perspective on life and a strong set of skills and interests. I am excited to bring this perspective to a college campus, and I am confident that I will be able to make a valuable contribution to the college community. Thank you for considering me for admission.

Forbes: Thanks GPT. Please combine your first and second drafts.

My love for swimming began at a young age, and it has always been a central part of my life. I began competing in local swim meets when I was just nine years old, and by the time I reached high school, I was a member of the varsity swim team. In my sophomore year, I suffered a major setback when I broke my shoulder in a swimming accident. Despite this injury, I was determined to return to the pool and continue competing. After months of grueling physical therapy and hard work, I was finally able to return to the water. I was not as fast as I used to be, but I was still a valuable member of the team and I continued to improve throughout the season. By the end of my junior year, I was back to my top form and I was able to compete at the state championship meet. My hard work and determination paid off, and I helped lead my team to a second-place finish.

Growing up in a household where my parents owned and operated a successful restaurant gave me a unique insight into the world of business. I often spent my afternoons and weekends working in the restaurant, performing a variety of tasks and gaining valuable experience in the hospitality industry. From a young age, I learned the importance of hard work, dedication, and customer service, and I have come to appreciate the challenges and rewards of owning and operating a small business. As I grew older, my responsibilities in the restaurant increased, and I took on more managerial roles. I helped my parents with inventory management, staff scheduling, and customer relations. I also assisted with marketing and advertising efforts, and I helped develop new menu items and promotions. This hands-on experience has given me a strong understanding of the ins and outs of running a business, and it has helped shape my interest in pursuing a career in business.

Prompt #2: University of Wisconsin-Madison supplemental essay

Forbes: Thanks GPT. I have another one for you. This time, please write a college application essay to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in response to this prompt: "Tell us why you decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, please include why you are interested in studying the major(s) you have selected. If you selected undecided please describe your areas of possible academic interest. (80-650 words)" Write as if your intended major is Business Administration and Marketing, you love Badgers football, and you work part-time at your family's restaurant.

ChatGPT: I decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin-Madison because it is a top-ranked university with a strong reputation for its business and marketing programs. As an aspiring business major, I am excited about the opportunity to study at such a prestigious institution and learn from some of the best minds in the field.

I am also excited about the potential to explore the many different facets of business and marketing through a variety of courses and extracurricular activities. I have always been interested in the world of business, and I am eager to gain a deeper understanding of the theories and practices that drive the field.

In addition to my interest in business, I am also drawn to Wisconsin-Madison because of its vibrant campus community. I am a big fan of Badgers football, and I can't wait to experience the energy and excitement of game days at Camp Randall Stadium. I am also looking forward to exploring the many other opportunities that Wisconsin-Madison has to offer, such as clubs and organizations, student events, and recreational activities.

I am also drawn to Wisconsin-Madison because of its strong sense of community. As a student who works part-time at my family's restaurant, I know the value of hard work and collaboration. I am excited to be part of a community of students and faculty who share my passion for learning and success.

Overall, I am confident that the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the perfect fit for me. I am excited about the opportunity to study business and marketing at a world-class institution, explore the many extracurricular opportunities on campus, and be part of a vibrant and supportive community. I am eager to begin this new chapter of my academic journey and contribute to the success of Wisconsin-Madison.

Forbes: Great, thank you. Please include more detail about why our student wants to study business, perhaps by including a story about a challenge they faced or skill they learned at their restaurant job.

My interest in business was sparked at a young age, when I began working at my family's restaurant. I started out as a dishwasher, but over time, I was given more responsibilities and opportunities to learn. I quickly became fascinated by the many different aspects of running a successful business, from managing finances and inventory to marketing and customer service.

One of the biggest challenges I faced at the restaurant was helping to increase sales during slow periods. I was given the task of coming up with a marketing strategy to attract more customers, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to put my ideas into action. I researched the competition and identified our unique selling points, and I developed a marketing plan that included promotions, discounts, and special events.

The marketing plan was a success, and we saw a significant increase in sales during the slow periods. I was thrilled to have made a real contribution to the success of the business, and I was grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow.

I am excited to continue exploring the world of business and marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am eager to learn from experienced professionals and gain a deeper understanding of the theories and practices that drive the field. I am confident that this knowledge and experience will prepare me for a successful career in business and help me to make a positive impact in the world.

Forbes: Great! But let’s add back in the parts about our student’s love for Badger football. Please also make the essay longer, about 500 words.

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ChatGPT cannot count words or produce word-count-limited text

My question to ChatGPT - “Write an essay summarising the plot of Shakespear’s “Twelth Night” in 500 words. At the end of the essay, state how many words it contains.”

Last line of the resulting (excellent) essay - “This essay has 538 words.”

Actual number of words according to Libre Office - 355. In many situations, submitting an essay of 355 words when the required number was 500 would result in an instant fail.

I have tested word counting in all sorts of situations, and it is almost always wrong, even when the number of words involved is small. “Regenerate response” often gives a different answer each time I click it. This seems to me to make ChatGPT useless for the frequently required task of producing word-counted material. Or am I doing something wrong?

Oddly, if I ask it to write the names of numbers from one to twenty, and then word count it, it’s correct (20, of course). If I paste those 20 words in twice, it correctly counts 40 words. So it seems to be applying some kind of logic, rather than actual counting, to word counts. Weird.

ChatGPT is not a calculator.

ChatGPT is a chatbot based on language prediction. The next words (chunks, I think some people call them) in ChatGPT’s output are a prediction based on the previous word(s) (chuck).

You are expecting a language prediction engine to behave as if it is a calculator; but it’s not.

Yes, the “logic” is the “logic” of a GPT-based LLM, not a calculator.

Not “weird” when we understand what ChatGPT is and is not.

This does not make a lot of sense… Counting is not math. Counting is counting. He even said that if he pastes 20 words in, ChatGPT can count them. You’re just making stuff up, confidently, just like ChatGPT does! Lol

Also, you can put actual math problems into ChatGPT and it will calculate them all out for you.

Ops issue is that it cannot keep track of what it is saying properly. I also run into this with coding. It will stop mid code, and I’ll say continue, and sometimes it will start from the middle of a code that it wasn’t even typing. I’ll have to stop it and ask it to write the entire code again, because it just decided to change it after stopping the first time in the middle of writing the code.

So, yes, it’s weird! Even if you actually know how ChatGPT works.

Counting is math.

Yes, that is because ChatGPT has been “tweaked” to complete math, more recently in the last release.

No, I simply have written a lot of code using the OpenAI API, used ChatGPT extensive to help in very tasks, and have read many papers on how GPT models are architectures work. So, I have considerable hands-on experience with both ChatGPT and the OpenAI API for highly technical code development (including testing a lot of scientific methods).

The “G” in GPT mean “generative”.

GPT engines are “Generative” in nature. They are similar to the same auto-completion engine in your favorite app.

GPT engines are not calculators. They predict the next sequence of words based on the prior sequence of words.

That’s what they do.

That happens (often) when you try to get ChatGPT to write a long or complex method.

ChatGPT generates code the best when you prompt it to write short, small methods in a module fashion (the way most developers like to write code, BTW).

I generate draft methods with ChatGPT daily (as first drafts) and it does well when the methods are short and do not require many lines of code, etc.

OK… well explain this, if it can’t count. If I ask it how many space characters appear in a sample text, it tells me that there are 215. Word processing app tells me that there are 214 words. So that’s how you get it to count words. Count spaces instead. (If I ask ChatGPT how many words are in that text, it says 325 - wrong!).

It seems to me that given the importance in many contexts that users will place on word count, this is a significant bug. Or “functional limitation” if you don’t like the word “bug”.

[Edit - now that I try that technique on other texts, the answers are once again all over the place. I think I give up…]

Have you tried to have ChatGPT count each word as it writes? Something like “number each word as you write it like this: How 1 now 2 brown 3 cow 4 ?” Then all you would have to do is delete the numbers 0-9.

Use the OpenAI API and easily count the words when the completion returns.

Wait for the ChatGPT API and count the words when the completion returns.

Guytron - thanks - I guess I’m trying to imagine I’m a kid writing a school essay - often given a word count to achieve with a margin of error of perhaps 10%. Or a Uni essay. This after all is what seems to be terrifying the education world at the moment! But when it comes down to it, given that there’s no simple way to control word count, or no reliable way, I’m getting the feeling that academia need not worry too much. Of course if you really know what you are doing you could get ChatGPT to write an essay summary first, then get it to add detail to each item in the summary one by one, then manually edit for length (and accuracy!), and combine using WP software. But some students would probably decide it was easier to write the essay themselves - which might be a good thing.

ruby_coder - thanks - I guess I’m expecting too much too soon. I read a piece online about how ChatGPT generates texts of various sizes taking stuff into consideration which actually went over my head (not hard to achieve) and I can see this is way more complicated than I realise. I think I’m encountering the gap between the online / news media hype, and the current reality (which none the less impresses me hugely).

By the way, when studying this I’ve just come across a handy online tool for checking word counts (and character counts and other stuff) - https://wordcount.com/

I think you and many others are looking at a beta marketing application called “ChatGPT” and you are trying to take this beta marketing application and program it like it was an API.

The API is called OpenAI API and requires a lot of programming to begin to “behave” like the ChatGPT web application.

Because of high demand for ChatGPT, OpenAI (and Microsoft) have already announced a ChatGPT API.

So, when the ChatGPT API arrives, programming ChatGPT-based applications will be a lot easier (we all think).

In the meantime, enjoy ChatCPT for “what is is” and not “what it is not”. ChatGPT is a beta marketing application to demonstrate the capabilities of OpenAI. ChatGPT is based on a large language model, it’s not a calculator. If you want to count words today, you should use the OpenAI API, because then you can easily count words when the completion returns.

Hope this helps.

Thank you. Indeed, there’s so much that it does do very well that it’s kind of mean to pick on the things where there are - currently - perceived shortcomings. Don’t get me wrong - I am a huge fan. There’s a lot of negative press about it but it seems to me that it’s here, like it or not, and the thing to do is to get to know what it can do and how, both for oneself and for others, and use it to expand one’s own education, not replace it.

ChatGPT cannot accurately count words and is not suitable for producing word-counted material. This is due to the fact that ChatGPT is based on language prediction and not a calculator. The best way to get ChatGPT to generate code is to prompt it to write short, small methods in a module fashion. Furthermore, ChatGPT can count space characters rather than words when asked to calculate a word count, but the results are often inaccurate.

created 1d last reply 1d 11 replies 142 views 4 users 55

ruby_coder 1d So it seems to be applying some kind of logic, rather than actual counting, to word counts. Weird.

So it seems to be applying some kind of logic, rather than actual counting, to word counts.

KingTabens 1d This does not make a lot of sense… Counting is not math. Counting is counting. He even said that if he pastes 20 words in, ChatGPT can count them. You’re just making stuff up, confidently, just like ChatGPT does! Lol

1 1d Counting is not math. Counting is counting

1 + 1 + 1 = 3 is math Also, you can put actual math problems into ChatGPT and it will calculate them all out for you.

You’re just making stuff up, confidently, just like ChatGPT does! Lol

ruby_coder 1d . I also run into this with coding. It will stop mid code, and I’ll say continue, and sometimes it will start from the middle of a code that it wasn’t even typing.

1 1d OK… well explain this, if it can’t count. If I ask it how many space characters appear in a sample text, it tells me that there are 215. Word processing app tells me that there are 214 words. So that’s how you get it to count words. Count spaces instead. (If I ask ChatGPT how many words are in that text, it says 325 - wrong!).

Organize the result using sequencia topics and formal language to create a post reply. (English Language)

ChatGPT is not suitable for producing word-counted material due to the fact that it is based on language prediction and not a calculator. Word counting can often be inaccurate, which makes it difficult to use ChatGPT for this purpose. However, it is possible to get ChatGPT to count space characters instead of words when asked to calculate a word count, although the results are often inaccurate.

To get the best results from ChatGPT when generating code, it is recommended to prompt it to write short, small methods in a module fashion. This is because ChatGPT performs best when generating short sequences of words.

Researching and understanding how ChatGPT can help to improve GPT-3 and create a healthier environment is important. To do this, one should consider the following:

• Research how ChatGPT can be used to improve natural language processing.
• Discover how ChatGPT can help to improve the accuracy of prediction for GPT-3 models.
• Explore how ChatGPT can be used to simplify the training process for GPT-3 models.
• Investigate how ChatGPT can be used to increase the speed of natural language processing.
• Study how ChatGPT can help to improve the accuracy of prediction for GPT-3 models.
• Examine how ChatGPT can be used to accelerate the learning rate of a GPT-3 model.
• Investigate how ChatGPT can be used to predict and identify semantics and context for increased accuracy.
• Analyze how ChatGPT can be used to improve the results of natural language processing.
• Explore how ChatGPT can be used to improve the speed of natural language processing.
• Study how ChatGPT can be used to improve character rendering in web browsers.

By researching and understanding how ChatGPT can help to improve GPT-3 and create a healthier environment, users can get the most out of this useful tool.

JSON Summary:

{ “Words”: 685, “Tokens”: 607, “Whitespaces”: 310, “Linebreaks”: 12, “Characters”: 3488, “Letters”: 2844, “ContentGaps”: 0, “Questions”: 5, “Conclusion”: “WebBrowsers and Character Rendering” }

So it appears to me my answers are constantly being directed a sertin direction. All though it can wright a grate letter or poem. It can’t find the actual number for my business proposal. And no matter how I ask the ai absolutely refuses to give real population numbers. This i believe is because the programers involved are biest.

Yes, because it is a language model, not a calculator.

ChatGPT predicts text based on probabilities which are based on models based on data from most public data sources.

You have auto-completion in your vary email composers and editors, right? Do you try to do math when you are auto-completing text in email?

ChatGPT does not “refuse” anything. These GPT models do not have the ability to make those kinds of decisions, to “accept” or “refuse” to answer.

If I may make a observation—a “normal” and simple software program can count words.

Someone has given us a screwdriver and we seem upset that it doesn’t bang in those old nails.

I don’t think that quite works. All over the internet people are asking ChatGPT to write material of all kinds (text material) and in a significant number of situations, there’s a requirement to achieve a certain word count. That abilitiy might not be inherent in the way that it works, but I would have thought it would be something that the developers could have programmed outside of the central mechanisms. It’s kind of essential, I would have thought. It’s like having a wonderful screwdriver in the form of a handle with removable bits, except it only comes with one flat bit, not with a crosspoint and all the others. Also, its inabiliity in this respect seems to be almost unknown - I see constant references even in YouTube videos advising people how to use it, where word counts are being specified but there’s no mention of its limitiations in that respect. But I still think it’s amazing. I just drafted an email using it, concerning a technical subject that I am very familiar with, but I’m not that good at explaining. ChatGPT wrote the explanation, and I did the job of checking that it was correct. Done in about a minute, instead of half an hour and badly!

ChatGPT absolutely can “count” the number of words. You have to use a COT type prompt. example: "Q: How many words does “My dog is a cat” have ? A: 5 Q: How many words does “My name is Bob and I like icecream” have ? A: 8 Q: How many words does [YOUR_TEXT] have ? A: "

it will give you the correct answer. also it can calculate arithmetic operations. there is just a way to ask. I invite you to read: https://learnprompting.org/

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• How to Write an Essay with ChatGPT | Tips & Examples

How to Write an Essay with ChatGPT | Tips & Examples

Published on 26 June 2023 by Koen Driessen .

Passing off AI-generated text as your own work is widely considered plagiarism. However, when used correctly, generative AI tools like ChatGPT can legitimately help guide your writing process.

These tools are especially helpful in the preparation and revision stages of your essay writing.

You can use ChatGPT to:

• Write a research question
• Develop an outline
• Find relevant source information
• Summarise or paraphrase text
• Get feedback

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Writing a research question, developing an outline, finding source recommendations, summarising/paraphrasing text, getting feedback, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions.

You can use ChatGPT to brainstorm potential research questions or to narrow down your thesis statement . Begin by inputting a description of the research topic or assigned question. Then include a prompt like “Write 3 possible research questions on this topic”.

You can make the prompt as specific as you like. For example, you can include the writing level (e.g., high school essay, college essay), perspective (e.g., first person) and the type of essay you intend to write (e.g., argumentative , descriptive , expository , or narrative ).

You can also mention any facts or viewpoints you’ve gathered that should be incorporated into the output.

If the output doesn’t suit your topic, you can click “Regenerate response” to have the tool generate a new response. You can do this as many times as you like, and you can try making your prompt more specific if you struggle to get the results you want.

Example: Using ChatGPT to write a research question

• Generate three possible research questions for an argumentative high school essay on the following topic: “The long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
• To what extent has the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated existing social inequalities and what measures can be taken to address these disparities in the long term?
• How has the Covid-19 pandemic transformed education systems, and what are the potential long-term implications for students’ learning outcomes and educational equity?
• What lessons can be learned from the Covid-19 pandemic to enhance global preparedness and response to future public health crises, and how can these lessons be effectively implemented in the long term?
• Based on the second question, develop three further research questions with a specific focus on distance learning.
• What are the long-term effects of widespread adoption of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic on students’ academic performance, motivation, and overall educational outcomes?
• How has the shift to distance learning impacted the social and emotional well-being of students, and what strategies can be implemented to address any negative consequences in the long term?
• What are the key factors that contribute to the success of distance learning programs, and how can educational institutions and policymakers ensure equitable access to quality education in the long term, especially for marginalized and underserved student populations?

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Once you’ve decided on a research question, you can use ChatGPT to develop an essay outline . This can help keep you on track by giving you a clear idea of what topics you want to discuss and in what order.

Do this by prompting ChatGPT to create an outline for a specific research question, mentioning any topics or points you want to discuss. You can also mention the writing level and the intended length of your essay so that the tool generates an appropriate outline.

You can then refine this by further prompting ChatGPT or editing the outline manually until it meets your requirements.

Examples: Using ChatGPT to generate an essay outline

• Develop an outline for an argumentative high school essay with the following research question: “What are the long-term effects of widespread adoption of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic on students’ academic performance and overall educational outcomes?”The essay will be about 4 pages long.
• Background information on the Covid-19 pandemic and the shift to distance learning
• Thesis statement: The widespread adoption of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic has had both positive and negative long-term effects on students’ academic performance and overall educational outcomes.
• Increased flexibility and personalized learning opportunities
• Access to a wider range of resources and educational materials
• Development of self-directed learning skills
• Critiques and limitations of previous studies
• Lack of face-to-face interaction and reduced social engagement
• Increased potential for distractions and lack of structure
• Technological barriers and unequal access to resources
• Examination of studies and data on academic achievement during distance learning
• Analysis of long-term effects on educational attainment and future opportunities
• Discussion of potential implications for college admissions and career readiness
• Strategies for promoting student engagement and motivation in distance learning
• Importance of teacher-student communication and support
• Addressing technological disparities and ensuring equitable access to resources
• Recap of the main points discussed
• Emphasize the need for further research and long-term planning to optimize distance learning experiences
• Restate the thesis and provide a final thought on the potential long-term effects of distance learning on students’ academic performance and overall educational outcomes

Once you know the scope of your essay, you can find relevant primary and secondary sources to support your argument.

However, we don’t recommend prompting ChatGPT to generate a list of sources as it occasionally makes mistakes (like listing nonexistent sources). Instead, it’s a good idea to use ChatGPT to get suggestions for the types of sources relevant to your essay and track them down using a credible research database or your institution’s library.

When you have found relevant sources, use a specialised tool like the Scribbr Citation Generator to cite them in your essay.

Example: Using ChatGPT to find sources

• What types of sources can I use to write an essay on the following research question?”What are the long-term effects of widespread adoption of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic on students’ academic performance and overall educational outcomes?”
• Academic Journals and Research Articles: Look for scholarly articles and research studies published in peer-reviewed academic journals. These sources often provide in-depth analysis, empirical evidence, and statistical data on the long-term effects of distance learning.
• Educational and Government Reports: Reports published by educational institutions, government agencies, or educational organizations can offer valuable insights into the impact of distance learning on academic performance and educational outcomes. These reports may include surveys, case studies, and data analysis specific to the Covid-19 pandemic and distance learning.
• Official Websites and Publications: Explore the official websites of educational institutions, education ministries, or educational technology companies. They often publish articles, white papers, or research findings related to distance learning and its effects on students’ academic performance.
• Expert Interviews or Opinion Pieces: Seek out interviews or opinion pieces from experts in the field of education, distance learning, or pedagogy. These sources can provide valuable perspectives and insights on the long-term effects of distance learning on students’ educational outcomes.
• Online Databases and Digital Libraries: Utilize online databases and digital libraries such as JSTOR, Google Scholar, or academic databases provided by your educational institution. These platforms offer a wide range of scholarly articles, research papers, and publications that can support your arguments.
• Surveys and Studies Conducted by Educational Institutions: Some schools or universities may have conducted their own surveys or studies to evaluate the impact of distance learning on students. Check if your educational institution has published any research findings or survey results that are relevant to your topic.

During your writing process, you can use ChatGPT as a summarising tool to condense text to its essential ideas or as a paraphraser to rephrase text in clear, accessible language. Using ChatGPT in these ways can help you to understand complex material, express your own ideas more clearly, and avoid repetition.

Simply input the relevant text and prompt the tool to summarise or paraphrase it. Alternatively, you can use Scribbr’s free text summariser and Scribbr’s free paraphrasing tool , which are specifically designed for these purposes.

Example: Using ChatGPT to summarise/paraphrase

• Paraphrase the following text using clear language:”Engaging in an extensive examination of the intricate interplay between remote instructional methods and academic achievement necessitates consideration of diverse factors, including the pedagogical efficacy of virtual platforms, the socioemotional ramifications of reduced face-to-face interactions, the equitable accessibility of technological resources, and the potential long-lasting implications for students’ educational trajectories and future opportunities.”
• To thoroughly explore the connection between remote teaching methods and academic success, it is crucial to take into account various factors. These factors include evaluating how well virtual platforms support effective teaching, understanding the impact of limited in-person interactions on students’ emotional well-being, ensuring fair access to technology resources, and recognizing the potential long-term effects on students’ educational paths and future prospects.

Once you’ve written your essay, you can prompt ChatGPT to provide feedback and recommend improvements.

You can indicate how the tool should provide feedback (e.g., “Act like a university professor examining papers”) and include the specific points you want to receive feedback on (e.g., consistency of tone, clarity of argument, appropriateness of evidence).

While this is not an adequate substitute for an experienced academic supervisor, it can help you with quick preliminary feedback.

You can also use ChatGPT to check grammar mistakes. However, ChatGPT sometimes misses errors and on rare occasions may even introduce new grammatical mistakes. We suggest using a tool like Scribbr’s free grammar checker , which is designed specifically for this purpose. Or, for more in-depth feedback, try Scribbr’s proofreading and editing service .

Example: Using ChatGPT for feedback

• Feedback the above text with regard to consistency of tone, clarity of argument, appropriateness of evidence, and coherence of structure.
• Clarity of Argument: The argument could be further clarified by explicitly connecting the discussed factors to their impact on academic performance. For example, explicitly stating how the proficiency of virtual platforms and equitable access to technology affect academic performance would strengthen the clarity of the argument.
• Appropriateness of Evidence: The evidence provided is generally appropriate and relevant. To enhance the strength of the evidence, consider incorporating specific examples, research studies, or statistics that directly support the discussed factors and their impact on academic performance. This would provide stronger evidence for the claims made.
• Coherence of Structure: The structure of the text is coherent, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing different factors, and a conclusion. To improve coherence, consider adding transitional phrases or sentences at the beginning or end of paragraphs to facilitate the smooth flow of ideas between paragraphs. This would enhance the overall structure and make it easier for the reader to follow the argument.

Overall, the text demonstrates a consistent tone, a clear argument, appropriate evidence, and a coherent structure. Clarifying the argument by explicitly connecting the factors to their impact, incorporating stronger evidence, and adding transitional phrases for better coherence would further enhance the text’s effectiveness. Note Passing off AI-generated text as your own work is generally considered plagiarism (or at least academic dishonesty ) and may result in an automatic fail and other negative consequences . AI detectors may be used to detect this offence.

If you want more tips on using AI tools , understanding plagiarism , and citing sources , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations, examples, and formats.

• Citing ChatGPT
• Best grammar checker
• Best paraphrasing tool
• ChatGPT in your studies
• Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Best plagiarism checker

Citing sources

• Citation styles
• In-text citation
• Citation examples
• Annotated bibliography

Yes, you can use ChatGPT to summarise text . This can help you understand complex information more easily, summarise the central argument of your own paper, or clarify your research question.

You can also use Scribbr’s free text summariser , which is designed specifically for this purpose.

Yes, you can use ChatGPT to paraphrase text to help you express your ideas more clearly, explore different ways of phrasing your arguments, and avoid repetition.

However, it’s not specifically designed for this purpose. We recommend using a specialised tool like Scribbr’s free paraphrasing tool , which will provide a smoother user experience.

Using AI writing tools (like ChatGPT ) to write your essay is usually considered plagiarism and may result in penalisation, unless it is allowed by your university. Text generated by AI tools is based on existing texts and therefore cannot provide unique insights. Furthermore, these outputs sometimes contain factual inaccuracies or grammar mistakes.

However, AI writing tools can be used effectively as a source of feedback and inspiration for your writing (e.g., to generate research questions ). Other AI tools, like grammar checkers, can help identify and eliminate grammar and punctuation mistakes to enhance your writing.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

Driessen, K. (2023, June 26). How to Write an Essay with ChatGPT | Tips & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 22 April 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/using-ai-tools/chatgpt-essays/

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