Writing Your Thesis with ChatGPT: Research, Scholarship and Academic Writing in the Age of Generative AI

A thesis has always been the pinnacle of any academic degree. It demonstrates the student’s interest and expertise in their field of study. Writing a thesis has also been a learning experience that prepares for academic work as well as professional research roles. But thesis work is always hard work, often joyful and creative but sometimes dull and boring. Generative AI is promising, or threatening, to change all of this.

Generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, will be able to support all parts and aspects of thesis writing. The student will have access to multitudes of virtual and indefatigable experts, research assistants, supervisors, mentors, and editors. Will these tools take the drudgery out of thesis writing and leave the fun and creative parts? Will they enable students to produce theses with higher quality, and learn more in the process, than ever before? Or will they lure the students into soulless and automated writing with predictable and dull results? Will this be the best of times for thesis writing, or the worst of times?
This book takes a very practical approach to these questions. It offers instruments, in the form of guidelines and prompts, that students and their teachers can use to act on these questions. The book guides students through the entire writing process, from crafting research questions and writing literature surveys to choosing and applying research methods, presenting results and drawing conclusions. The prompts encourage students to work with generative AI in an exploratory, iterative, open-ended, creative and critical way, rather than merely streamlining their writing process. Not only does the book assist in writing a thesis, but it also helps reflect on the goals and purposes of research, scholarship, and academic writing.