'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
How to use ChatGPT to do research for papers, presentations, studies, and more
ChatGPT is often thought of as a tool that will replace human work on tasks such as writing papers for students or professionals. But ChatGPT can also be used to support human work, and research is an excellent example.
Whether you're working on a research paper for school or doing market research for your job, initiating the research process and finding the correct sources can be challenging and time-consuming.
Also: 5 handy AI tools for school that students, teachers, and parents can use, too
ChatGPT and other AI chatbots can help by curtailing the amount of time spent finding sources, allowing you to jump more quickly to the actual reading and research portion of your work.
Picking the right chatbot
Before we get started, it's important to understand the limitations of using ChatGPT. Because ChatGPT is not connected to the internet, it will not be able to give you access to information or resources after 2021, and it will also not be able to provide you with a direct link to the source of the information.
Also: The best AI chatbots: ChatGPT and other noteworthy alternatives
Being able to ask a chatbot to provide you with links for the topic you are interested in is very valuable. If you'd like to do that, I recommend using a chatbot connected to the internet, such as Bing Chat, Claude, ChatGPT Plus, or Perplexity.
This how-to guide will use ChatGPT as an example of how prompts can be used, but the principles are the same for whichever chatbot you choose.
1. Brainstorm
When you're assigned research papers, the general topic area is generally assigned, but you'll be required to identify the exact topic you want to pick for your paper or research. ChatGPT can help with the brainstorming process by suggesting ideas or even tweaking your own.
Also: How ChatGPT (and other AI chatbots) can help you write an essay
For this sample research paper, I will use the general topic of "Monumental technological inventions that caused pivotal changes in history." If I didn't have a specific idea to write about, I would tell ChatGPT the general theme of the assignment with as much detail as possible and ask it for some proposals.
My prompt: I have to write a research paper on "Monumental technological inventions that caused pivotal changes in history." It needs to be ten pages long and source five different primary sources. Can you help me think of a specific topic?
As seen by the screenshot (below), ChatGPT produced 10 viable topics, including "The Printing Press and the Spread of Knowledge", "The Internet and the Digital Age", "The Telegraph and the Communication Revolution", and more.
Also: How to use the new Bing (and how it's different from ChatGPT)
You can then follow up with ChatGPT to ask for further information. You can even tweak these topics with an angle you like more, and continue the feedback loop until you have a topic you are settled on.
2. Generate an outline
Once you have selected a topic, you can ask ChatGPT to generate an outline, including as much detail for your assignment as possible. For this example, I used the first topic that ChatGPT suggested in the previous step.
My prompt: Can you give me an outline for a research paper that is ten pages long and needs to use five primary sources on this topic, "The Printing Press and the Spread of Knowledge"?
ChatGPT generated a 13-point outline that carefully described the areas I should touch on in my paper, as seen in the photo (above). You can then use this outline to structure your paper and use the points to find sources, using ChatGPT as delineated below.
3. Tell ChatGPT your topic and ask for sources
Now that you have a topic and outline established, you can ask ChatGPT about the topic of your project and ask it to deliver sources for you.
My prompt: Can you give me sources for a ten-page long paper on this topic, "The Printing Press and the Spread of Knowledge"?
ChatGPT outputs a list of five primary and five secondary sources that you can include in your paper. Remember, because ChatGPT can't give you internet links, you will need to seek out the specific resources on your own, whether that's Googling or visiting your school library.
Also: How to use Stable Diffusion AI to create amazing images
When I asked Bing Chat the same question, it provided sources with clickable links that you can use to access the material you need quicker. For that reason, I would use Bing Chat for this step.
4. Describe a specific idea and ask for sources
Instead of describing the whole topic, you can also use a chatbot to find sources for a specific aspect of your paper.
Also: How (and why) to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus
For example, I asked ChatGPT for sources for a specific bullet in the paper outline that it generated above.
My prompt: Can you give me sources for the social and intellectual climate of when the printing press was generated?
As in the prior example, ChatGPT generated five primary and five secondary resources for the topic.
Using this feature for smaller chunks of your essay is a good alternative because it gives you more options on sources and provides tailored insight that you can use to carefully craft your piece.
5. Ask for examples of a specific incident
I use this prompt a lot in my workflow because I can sometimes remember that something specific happened, but can't pinpoint what it was or when it happened.
This tool can also be used when you need to find a specific example to support your topic.
Also: How to use ChatGPT to write an essay
In both cases, you can ask ChatGPT to help you identify a specific event or time period, and incorporate those details in your article.
In our essay example, if I wanted to include a rebuttal and delineate a time when implementing technology had negative impacts, but couldn't think of an incident on my own, I could ask ChatGPT to help me identify one.
My prompt: What was a time in history when implementing technology backfired on society and had negative impacts?
Within seconds, ChatGPT generated 10 examples of incidents that I could weave into the research as a rebuttal.
6. Generate citations
Creating a page of the works you cited, although valuable and necessary for integrity, is a pain. Now, you can ask ChatGPT to generate citations for you by simply dropping the link or the title of the work, and asking it to create a citation in the style of your paper.
Also: How to make ChatGPT provide sources and citations
I asked ChatGPT to generate a citation for this article for ZDNET. As seen by the photo (above), the tool asked me to include the access date and the style for the citation, and then quickly generated a complete citation for the piece.
ChatGPT generated:
Great, here's the MLA citation for the web link "How to Use ChatGPT to Write an Essay" from ZDNET, accessed on September 15:
"How to Use ChatGPT to Write an Essay." ZDNET, https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-use-chatgpt-to-write-an-essay/. Accessed 15 Sept. 2023.
If you used something other than a website as a source, such as a book or textbook, you can still ask ChatGPT to provide a citation. The only difference is that you might have to input some information manually.