How to Write an Essay Using AI

Artificial intelligence has progressed to the point where AI tools can now assist with writing everything from essays and articles to books. AI writing assistants act as an editor, wordsmith or even creator to help students, academics, bloggers and authors produce better quality content with greater efficiency.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll overview everything you need to know to get started writing essays with AI including:

  • How AI essay writing assistants work
  • The top apps and sites providing AI writing help
  • What types of essay writing they can help with
  • Templates and examples for getting started
  • Capabilities and limitations to be aware of
  • Tips to incorporate AI writing effectively in your workflow

Let’s dive in to harnessing this transformative technology for your next essay!

How Does AI Help With Writing Essays?

AI applications approach essay writing assistance in a few key ways:

  • Brainstorming - AI can provide relevant ideas, concepts, perspectives and arguments around a topic to include as evidence.
  • Outlining - The best tools create organized essay outlines ensuring logical flow and structure.
  • Drafting - Apps can generate complete multi-paragraph drafts on a topic which writers can then edit.
  • Editing - Most offer grammar, spelling, style and even depth of analysis checks to improve drafts.
  • Paraphrasing - This helps rewrite existing text or source information in your own words.
  • Citing sources - Some apps automatically cite sources and generate bibliographies properly formatted.

The level of actual writing versus enhancing human writing varies across solutions, so research thoroughly to find your best match.

Top 5 AI Essay Writing Assistants

After evaluating dozens of writing apps, these 5 provide the best results for essay creation specifically:

Just Think AI

An AI chat with A Human Touch. Enhance your productivity with Just Think Chat, a user-friendly AI chatbot. Overcome writers block, generate ideas, revise content, or get answer effortlessly.

Article Forge

Article Forge has a strong academic focus, with an Essay mode specifically for crafting logical arguments and persuasive essays filled with cited facts. Ideal for research paper help.

Rytr

Rytr boasts specialized intelligence for writing clear, compelling arguments in blogs, essays and more. It asks probing questions then incorporates your answers into drafts.

INK Associate

INK Associate enhances your writing productivity by suggesting ways to improve clarity, concision and comprehension. Great for proofreading and editing.

GPT-3 Essay Writer

Tools harnessing OpenAI's GPT-3 like Essay Writer create remarkably human-like essays. Requires more guidance to stay on-topic.

Essay Types AI Can Assist With

Some apps are specialized for specific types of essays required in academia and standardized testing. Here are key genres supported:

Argumentative Essays

Arguing a position with logic and evidence cited. Tools help craft sound premises, counterarguments and impactful conclusions.

Persuasive Essays

Similar to argumentative but specifically aimed at swaying the reader regarding policies, interpretations, theories or actions.

Compare and Contrast

Analyzing the similarities and differences between concepts, works or phenomena. Tools ensure clear links are made.

Research Papers

Long form essays synthesizing research around a thesis. AI helps format like academic papers with citations and bibliographies.

Narrative Essays

Telling an entertaining or impactful personal story. Apps assist with structures that emotionally resonate with readers.

Scholarship Essays

Presenting your background, accomplishments and goals in the best possible light. AI ensures relevance to prompt.

Essay Writing Templates and Examples

When first utilizing an AI writing assistant, it's helpful to have templates and examples to base your prompt off.

Here are prompts for common academic essay types you can customize:

Argumentative Essay

Topic: {Topic to argue}

Length: {Word count}

Words Style: Academic argumentative essay

Arguments for: {2-3 strongest arguments}

Arguments against: {The main counterargument}

Conclusion: {Your position} is the better policy because {reasons}.

For example:

Topic: All students should be required to learn coding
Length: 800 words
Style: Academic argumentative essay
Arguments for: Coding teaches logical thinking, prepares for most careers, provides problem solving skills
Arguments against: Adds additional schoolwork burden, benefits small subset of students  
Conclusion: Mandatory coding classes are the better policy because the skills help nearly all future career paths.

Persuasive Essay

Audience: {Teacher, peer students, university alumni, etc}
Thesis: Convince the audience that {position, interpretation, action} is {superior, correct, moral, just, etc} because {2-3 strongest reasons}

Supporting evidence: {facts, expert opinions, personal anecdotes}
Counterarguments to address: {The main opposition position}

Style: {Formal or casual} persuasive essay

For example:

Audience: School principal
Thesis: Convince the principal that allowing cell phones in class is the better policy because it enables learning tech skills, accessing information, and improved safety.
Supporting evidence: Studies show benefits, students can film dangerous behaviors
Counterarguments: It enables distractions, cheating and unwanted sharing
Style: Semi-formal persuasive essay

Capabilities and Limitations of AI Essay Help

Understanding what essay writing AI can and cannot yet do will lead to the most successful experience:

Capabilities:

  • Analyze prompts and determine optimal content and structure
  • Generate complete drafts with readable flow and style
  • Check spelling, grammar, and catch insensitive phrasing
  • Format citations and bibliographies for academic integrity
  • Develop arguments backed by evidence and reasoning

Limitations:

  • Cannot deeply understand nuanced contexts and sentiments
  • Struggles evaluating logical consistencies and factual accuracy
  • Limited ability checking overall coherence and impact
  • Does not build long-term memory, concepts and wisdom
  • Cannot object in any way or cease participation

Use AI as a production assistant rather than independent author until the technology matures further in key reasoning areas in the coming years.

Tips for Using AI Effectively To Write Essays

To leverage these amazing tools most effectively and ethically, we recommend:

  • Curate source materials - Feed the AI relevant, factual sources representing diverse perspectives.
  • Outline the draft first - Guide arguments and structure before having AI compose full paragraphs and sentences.
  • Check accuracy - Ensure factual truth and logical reasoning in arguments made.
  • Maintain authorship - Edit, rearrange and rewrite elements in your own voice and style.
  • Let the tool inspire new directions and arguments you may not have considered.
  • Enjoy the productivity boost these tools offer our constrained time and minds!

We hope this guide has been helpful in getting started with AI assistants for leveling up your essay writing across school, work and passion projects!


Olivia Rhye
11 Jan 2022
5 min read