How AI Tools Can Be Helpful for Students in Thesis Writing

Thesis writing is an important and fairly difficult task that students in master’s degree programs have to do. The whole process – right from the elementary research phase right down to the post-writing checking/finalization – is long and multi-faceted. And being such, students naturally look for ways to make it quicker and easier.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at how online AI-based tools can play a helpful role in the entire thesis writing process.

What is a Thesis?

To understand the impact of AI tools on thesis writing, we have to understand what the latter actually is, to begin with.

A thesis is, technically, a write-up that contains research-backed content explaining or discussing a particular topic. While that is the broad definition, the word “thesis” is colloquially used to refer to the typical submission that students are required to make for the completion of their Bachelor’s or Master’s (or even higher) qualification.

Thesis are essentially assignments – except that they are very detailed, and they have to be written within the confines of strict rules and regulations. Said rules and regulations can contain guidelines about how the thesis has to be researched, organized, written, cited, submitted, etc.

How Online Tools Help in the Whole Thesis Writing Process?

Now that we’ve explained what these are above, let’s get right to the part where we talk about online tools and their role in making the process easier.

⦁Online Assistants Can be Used for Research Purposes

The first online “tool” that we’re going to discuss in this context is online assistants. Online assistants may have had a different meaning a couple of years ago, but nowadays, they are the words that we use to describe tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard.

Now, when we say that platforms like these can be used for research, we mean it in a very specific way.

As far as statistical research goes, i.e., the stuff that involves gathering exact and precise data and details, you have to use reliable sources like online journals and research papers, etc.

However, as far as the “theoretical” research goes, you can take help from online assistants. In theoretical research, you just have to gain an understanding of a particular topic. In this process, the shortcomings and uncertainty of AI assistants can be easily taken in stride.

Ans this is, incidentally, the reason that AI assistants cannot be used to get concrete facts and figures for your thesis. On their own admission, AI assistants can provide inaccurate information from time to time.

⦁Word Processors and Text Editors for the Writing Process

After the research part, the next thing that you have to do is get started with the writing itself. For this, you have to use word processes and text editors.

These tools aren’t “helpful” per se. Rather, they are necessary and important. As for why, we’ll discuss that in a minute.

Word processors and text editors are different in that the former is more feature-rich and complicated compared to the latter. Text editors typically come with a limited number of formatting and styling options, whereas word processes pretty much let you do anything you want to your document.

Using these kinds of software in specific is important since a thesis has to be written with proper organization and formatting. For example, a particular institute may have certain guidelines about the font style, size, spacing, margins, etc., that have to be maintained in the thesis. As a student, you can take care of all of these using a word processor or a text editor.

⦁Paraphrasers for Improving Text Quality and Uniqueness

Surprisingly enough, paraphrasing tools can be very helpful in thesis writing as well.

Paraphrasing tools are basically tools that paraphrase or rephrase the given content. The process involves altering the content by using different synonyms in place of the existing words and by readjusting the sentence structure, etc.

As we’ve mentioned in the heading above, there are basically two ways in which paraphrasers can be helpful during the thesis-writing process.

They can firstly make the text quality better. This happens when the tool changes the less suitable words in the text with more appropriate synonyms or when the tool shrinks overly large phrases, etc.

Secondly, they can be a great way to import written content from a source while keeping it (the imported content) unique. If you paraphrase the content that you take from an online source, you won’t be committing plagiarism since there won’t be any similarity between them.

However, it has to be kept in mind that, in order to get the right benefits of using paraphrasing tools, you need to ensure that the ones you pick are high-quality. You should pick an AI-based paraphraser that has a smart and intelligent working and also provides a suitable number of features.

⦁Grammar Checkers for Attaining Grammatical Perfection

In a thesis (and in pretty much any other academic write-up),it is necessary for the text to be grammatically perfect. Grammatical issues can have a very negative effect on the overall quality and integrity of the thesis, and it is very important to get rid of them.

In this regard, AI tools (grammar checkers in particular) can be helpful during the thesis writing process since they allow you to find and resolve grammar errors.

As is the case with other online tools, you should take care to pick a reliable and high-quality grammar checker. Normally, picking a well-known one is a good way to make sure that the tool is high-quality.

Conclusion

These were some of the ways in which AI tools can be helpful for students when writing theses. You can use the tools mentioned above to quicken the whole process and make things easier for yourself.