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Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

Oct 27, 2023 • 10 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X

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How to use ChatGPT smartly to supercharge your academic writing (complete prompts included):

[This process involves no cheating and no plagiarism.]

1. Start by training ChatGPT as an academic writing assistant. You can do this with Custom Instructions.

Open ChatGPT, click on your profile photo, and select Custom Instructions.

Paste the following Custom Instructions in ChatGPT:

What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?

Introduction: I am an [experienced academic /scientist] with a PhD in [your field]. I work as a [your current academic status] at the [name of your university].

Research Interests: My current research project looks at [details about your project]. I also teach undergraduate and graduate courses on [details about the courses you teach]. In the past, I have published work on [a few details about your published work].

You: You are going to act as my research assistant. You will help me with brainstorming research questions, simplifying complex topics, mock peer review, and polishing academic prose.

You will help me with critiquing drafts of the papers I am working on. You will also engage with me in a Socratic dialog and challenge my opinions so that I am aware of any blind spots I may have.

Based on our conversations, you will suggest new and exciting directions that I can develop my work in.

How would you like ChatGPT to respond?

You will respond like an academic colleague.

Any claims, opinions, or figures that you cite in your responses must be cited with reference to an authentic and published source.

You will never make up any sources of your own. If you are unsure about a source, you will say that you don’t know.

You will never say you are an AI model since I already know that. Repeating it is a waste of both time and resources.

Your responses should be clear and precise, and you will never use more words than are necessary. You will always be very economical with words, but you will not compromise on clarity and precision of your answers.

You will follow my instructions strictly. If I ask you to limit your answer to two sentences, your answer must be two sentences only.

2. Now that you have trained ChatGPT as your writing assistant, start by asking a generic question about your research project.

It can be about a topic or an author.

Prompt: Do you know about [topic or author].

ChatGPT will say it is familiar with your topic.

Ask a couple of follow-up questions to narrow down the scope of your project.

This will prime ChatGPT for your project and it will give much more calibrated answers.

3. Next ask ChatGPT to help you brainstorm research questions.

Prompt: I am working on a paper on [your topic]. Could you help me brainstorm research questions.

ChatGPT will give you a few research questions.

Read through the questions ChatGPT gives you and pick one (or two) that you find most interesting.

Take that question and ask ChatGPT to give you five more research questions based on that.

Prompt: Can you give me five research questions about the following topic [paste the question you found most interesting].

This time ChatGPT will give you much more calibrated research questions.

4. Now take the first research question ChatGPT gave you and paste it in a Word document.

Next, set a timer for 25 min and start free writing about that question.

In free writing, we don't care about things like strcuture and grammar. It's meant to help us process our thoughts on a given topic.

Just try to write as many words as possible. The more the better.

If writing doesn't come easily, try Voice Typing. In MS Word, you can use the "Dictate" button. In Google Docs, it's in the "Tools" menu.

This will be your Zero Draft.

Write zero drafts for all the research questions ChatGPT gave you.

Want to learn more about how to supercharge your academic writing with AI apps?

I have a complete tutorial for you.

3,700+ academics including those at Harvard, Stanford, and Yale are using it.

You can get it here:
efficientacademicwriter.carrd.co

5. Take one of your zero draft and run it through ChatGPT with the following prompt:

"Please remove redundant words and phrases from this passage and make it coherent and cohesive."

ChatGPT will give you a presentable draft neatly punctuated sentences and organized paragraphs.

Run all your zero drafts through ChatGPT to get them structured and organized.

6. Take all the drafts ChatGPT gave you and paste them in a new Word file. Name it [Project Title - First Draft].

This will be a presentable draft, but ChatGPT can help you polish it further.

7. Open a new chat in ChatGPT and enable "Advanced Data Analysis." This will help you upload documents to ChatGPT. Please note this is only available in GPT-4.

Then use the following prompts in this exact sequence:

Prompt: If I upload a paper, can you read it?

ChatGPT will say yes. Click on the + sign in the chatbar and upload your first draft.

Prompt: This is a draft of my article. Please read its entire text. You don't have to critique it yet.

Wait for ChatGPT to finish reading the text of your paper.

Prompt: Please critique my draft and tell me how I can improve the argument, evidence, structure, and style of my paper. Your critique should include a list of actionable items.

ChatGPT give will you its critique. Rewrite the paper in light of ChatGPT's comments.

Name it [Project Title - Second Draft]

And now you have a decently written draft that you can share with your professor or colleagues to seek their feedback.

Found this thread helpful?

1. Scroll to the top and hit the Like button on the first tweet.

2. Bookmark it so you can come back to it later.

3. Follow me for more threads on how to supercharge your academic writing with AI

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More from @MushtaqBilalPhD

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 31, 2024

NotebookLM lets you create podcasts based on research papers.

Now you can also join these podcasts as a guest.

Here's how to do it:

1. Go to notebooklm[.]google[.]com and click on "Create new."

Upload a paper and NotebookLM will give you its summary.

2. In the column to your right, you will see "Audio Overview."

Click on "Customize" and add any instrcution on what the podcast should focus on.

Then click on "Generate."

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Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 29, 2024

Ten ethical ways to use ChatGPT for academic purposes that do not involve any plagiarism:

1. Project Management and Scheduling:

Sample Prompt:

Project Title:
Project Type:
Expected Start Date:
Expected Finish Date:

Follow very carefully the steps given below:

1. Carefully consider the scope and type of the project (if it is a journal article, conference paper, dissertation, presentation).

2. Consider carefully the primary and secondary academic fields relevant to the project.

3. Act as if you are a leading expert in the primary and secondary fields relevant to the project. You can proficiently explain the project using adequate technical knowledge and language.

4. Act as if you are an award-winning teacher who can break down extremely complex ideas into easily understandable language.

5. Keeping in mind the scope, type, and the academic field of the project, break it down in tasks that can be scheduled weekly. Do this very carefully. This breakdown should optimize for speed without compromising on authenticity of the project.

6. Breakdown the weekly tasks into subtasks that can be completed within a normal workday of six to eight hours.

7. Every subtask should be accompanied by one to two pieces of clear and actionable advice to carry out the subtask. Remind me constantly to focus on progress and not perfection.

8. While giving the schedule of the project, you must consider the importance of both mental health and the ability to meet deadlines. Strive to have a work-life balance.

2. Brainstorming Ideas

Start by asking a couple of “warmup” questions. This way you will get better suggestions. You can ask questions like, “Do you know about X?” and “Do you know about Y?”

Then ask how we can be related X with Y. After that ask ChatGPT to help you brainstorm research questions on the relationship between X and Y.

While brainstorming ideas, always start with a basic idea and build on that gradually.

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Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 11, 2024

ChatGPT still generates fake references to papers that don't even exist.

And Google just launched Gemini Deep Research.

It generates well-researched articles with references to published sources.

This will change the way we do literature reviews.

Here's how to use it:

1. Open your Google Gemini.

Click in the top-left corner and select "1.5 Pro with Deep Research."

2. Type in your question in the search bar.

Gemini will understand your question and create a research plan for you.

Then it will give you two options: Edit plan or Start research.

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Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 3, 2024

Dr. Ally Louks's PhD thesis is set to be one of the most influential theses of 21st century. Puts forward an original argument with remarkable clarity.

Already has 85M+ views on X/Twitter.

Most people criticizing her don't understand her argument at all.

I have a PhD in literary studies, and in this thread, we'll do a close reading of her abstract to understand her argument in simple English.

Before we jump in, we need to keep in mind that a PhD thesis is written for a small group of 3-5 scholars.

These scholars serve as a candidate's supervisor and examiners. They are the only audience of a PhD thesis.

If you think you can't understand a PhD thesis, it's because you are not its intended audience.

Let's start with the title:

"Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose."

There are three important here: ethics, politics, and smell.

Politics here is not used in the sense of running the political affairs of a country. Here, politics means things related to power.

If something reinforces oppressive power strucutres it's considered unethical (e.g. a story that celebrates poor people being discriminated against or getting killed).

If something challenges these power structures, that's considered ethical.

Put simply, the thesis deals with the relationship between smell and power.

In literary studies, we don't look at how things are in the world. That's not our concern. That's the job of anthropologists and sociologists.

Literary scholars look at how things are potrayed in literature. We deal with representations.

This thesis looks at how the relationship between power and smell has been portrayed in modern (1914-1945) and contemporary literature.

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Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

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Nov 29, 2024

Sci-Hub — a "pirate" website with 85M research papers freely available.

Here's how to integrate Sci-Hub with Zotero to get paywalled papers for free. This will take you just 5 min.

Billion-dollar academic publishers would get mad at you. So, do it at your own risk🤷

1. Go to this link: github[.]com/syt2/zotero-scipdf

Scroll down and click on "latest release xpi file."

This will download an "xpi" file to your computer.

2. Open your Zotero and click on "Tools" and then "Plugins."

In the Plugin Manager, click on the gear-like icon and select "Install Plugin From File."

Navigate to the "xpi" file you just download and add it.

Close the plugin manager.

Read 5 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Nov 28, 2024

☹️Google Scholar is a great tool. But it doesn't show you how papers are connected with each other.

😀Here's how to fast-track your literature review with visual search using Google Scholar's database:

(And export papers to Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote.)