How not to use AI in thesis writing — plus 3 AI tools for linguistics students
However, texts generated with AI must be rephrased by you; that is the only way to make it human. Also, AI should be an assistant and not the lead writer, editor and proofreader of the entire thesis.
No matter the number of exams and assignments a student writes during his/her undergraduate program, writing a thesis is often a difficult task. Long essay, as it is called, is uniquely different from tests and exams, and requires a set of skills that are not necessarily required to pass an exam.
Project writing is such a difficult task for many students that a popular meme amongst students goes something like: if you know a final year student writing his or her undergraduate thesis, kind-heartedly give him or her a hug and some money.
But a hug and money (alone) cannot ease the process of writing one’s thesis; that is for students who plan to do their work themselves.
While the processes of selecting a topic, sourcing and reviewing literature, gathering information and collecting and analysing data are evidently a lot of work, they shouldn’t be so difficult. With the right tools and strategy, project writing should be less stressful and time-consuming.
Thankfully, Artificial Intelligence has enhanced existing tools that are useful in project writing. And in this essay, we shall highlight some of these tools, especially useful for linguistics students.
Caveats
Almost every student knows that Artificial Intelligence can generate text – in other words, AI can write up a thesis. But it’s not advisable to completely rely on AI to write your project. To prevent a scenario whereby a student generates a text with a machine and claims it as own original work must have prompted the development of AI detectors.
For any student finding the easy-way, there are AI writers. But the problem is that AI-generated texts will be flagged by AI detectors. ‘There are AI humaniser tools’, you argue. But in reality, AI humaniser tools cannot bypass AI detectors.
Aside from the AI ping-pong game challenge you will face if you give up your project writing to a machine, plagiarism is still a great crime in academics. Since AI picks ideas here and there to compose your thesis, your project may be flagged for plagiarism if not properly cited. In many universities, this can land you in a big problem.
But these issues can be avoided when AI tools are leveraged for the right tasks and judiciously. AI tools have the ability to perform tasks that will ordinarily take days or even months to complete. With the right AI tools, the process of gathering data from diverse sources such as books, websites, social media, etc. becomes easier and more efficient.
AI tools for you
Linguistic research can be empirical, descriptive, theoretical, interdisciplinary and qualitative/quantitative in nature. And since linguistics student research often requires gathering and analysing language data, AI tools can significantly reduce the workload and hours dedicated to reading literature, taking notes and actually writing your thesis.
Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of tools for academic writing; more tools are being developed. These tools will be of great help when utilised effectively as they help solve the hardest tasks in project writing.
Generative AI tools
You can have Gemini or Claude or Copilot or ChatGPT suggest a research topic for you. But that will be leveraging AI the wrong way. Instead, have a topic and review and refine it using AI.
These generative AI tools, which are designed to generate texts, etc., can assist in getting keywords or terms related to your topic, which will help you narrow your focus when sourcing for relevant literature.
You can use GenAI tools to also write up an outline for your thesis. That gives you a direction to follow in writing your thesis.
Also, these AI tools can help you in summarising journal articles you want to review in your writing. With the main ideas/arguments of the papers extracted with AI tools, your literature review will be made easier.
Generative AI tools are super useful in arranging your references in alphabetical order.
If you’re using Excel for data analysis, the software now has Copilot, an Ai assistant, to make your task easy. You can leverage the AI feature to some analyse data and even make visualisations.
Consensus AI
This is a resourceful academic search engine powered by AI. You can use it to generate relevant papers by just searching relevant keywords.
With Consensus AI, you can find not just relevant papers, but also a summary of whatever section of your thesis or keywords you’re searching for.
Zotero AI
Proper documentation of sources is just as important as writing an AI-free thesis. The first flaw of your thesis can be pointed out if sources are not properly cited and referenced.
But Zotero AI makes it easy to document sources. It helps with organising and managing sources for later use.
Closing remarks
To reiterate, texts generated with AI must be rephrased by you; that is the only way to make it human. Also, AI should be an assistant and not the lead writer, editor and proofreader of the entire thesis.
Credits:
Abdulganiyu Amina/Writer
Quadri Yahya/Proofreader
Hassana Samuel/Content Planner