how to write an essay on iphone

Essay Papers Writing Online

Mastering the art of essay writing – a comprehensive guide.

Essay writing is a fundamental skill that every student needs to master. Whether you’re in high school, college, or beyond, the ability to write a strong, coherent essay is essential for academic success. However, many students find the process of writing an essay daunting and overwhelming.

This comprehensive guide is here to help you navigate the intricate world of essay writing. From understanding the basics of essay structure to mastering the art of crafting a compelling thesis statement, we’ve got you covered. By the end of this guide, you’ll have the tools and knowledge you need to write an outstanding essay that will impress your teachers and classmates alike.

So, grab your pen and paper (or fire up your laptop) and let’s dive into the ultimate guide to writing an essay. Follow our tips and tricks, and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a skilled and confident essay writer!

The Art of Essay Writing: A Comprehensive Guide

Essay writing is a skill that requires practice, patience, and attention to detail. Whether you’re a student working on an assignment or a professional writing for publication, mastering the art of essay writing can help you communicate your ideas effectively and persuasively.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the key elements of a successful essay, including how to choose a topic, structure your essay, and craft a compelling thesis statement. We’ll also discuss the importance of research, editing, and proofreading, and provide tips for improving your writing style and grammar.

By following the advice in this guide, you can become a more confident and skilled essay writer, capable of producing high-quality, engaging essays that will impress your readers and achieve your goals.

Understanding the Essay Structure

When it comes to writing an essay, understanding the structure is key to producing a cohesive and well-organized piece of writing. An essay typically consists of three main parts: an introduction, the body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Introduction: The introduction is where you introduce your topic and provide some background information. It should also include your thesis statement, which is the main idea or argument that you will be discussing in the essay.

Body paragraphs: The body of the essay is where you present your supporting evidence and arguments. Each paragraph should focus on a separate point and include evidence to back up your claims. Remember to use transition words to link your ideas together cohesively.

Conclusion: The conclusion is where you wrap up your essay by summarizing your main points and restating your thesis. It is also a good place to make any final thoughts or reflections on the topic.

Understanding the structure of an essay will help you write more effectively and communicate your ideas clearly to your readers.

Choosing the Right Topic for Your Essay

One of the most crucial steps in writing a successful essay is selecting the right topic. The topic you choose will determine the direction and focus of your writing, so it’s important to choose wisely. Here are some tips to help you select the perfect topic for your essay:

By following these tips and considering your interests, audience, and research, you can choose a topic that will inspire you to write an engaging and compelling essay.

Research and Gathering Information

When writing an essay, conducting thorough research and gathering relevant information is crucial. Here are some tips to help you with your research:

Crafting a Compelling Thesis Statement

When writing an essay, one of the most crucial elements is the thesis statement. This statement serves as the main point of your essay, summarizing the argument or position you will be taking. Crafting a compelling thesis statement is essential for a strong and cohesive essay. Here are some tips to help you create an effective thesis statement:

• Be specific: Your thesis statement should clearly state the main idea of your essay. Avoid vague or general statements.
• Make it arguable: A strong thesis statement is debatable and presents a clear position that can be supported with evidence.
• Avoid clichés: Stay away from overused phrases or clichés in your thesis statement. Instead, strive for originality and clarity.
• Keep it concise: Your thesis statement should be concise and to the point. Avoid unnecessary words or phrases.
• Take a stand: Your thesis statement should express a clear stance on the topic. Don’t be afraid to assert your position.

By following these guidelines, you can craft a compelling thesis statement that sets the tone for your essay and guides your reader through your argument.

Writing the Body of Your Essay

Once you have your introduction in place, it’s time to dive into the body of your essay. The body paragraphs are where you will present your main arguments or points to support your thesis statement.

Here are some tips for writing the body of your essay:

• Stick to One Main Idea: Each paragraph should focus on one main idea or argument. This will help keep your essay organized and easy to follow.
• Use Topic Sentences: Start each paragraph with a topic sentence that introduces the main idea of the paragraph.
• Provide Evidence: Support your main points with evidence such as facts, statistics, examples, or quotes from experts.
• Explain Your Points: Don’t just state your points; also explain how they support your thesis and why they are important.
• Use Transition Words: Use transition words and phrases to connect your ideas and create a smooth flow between paragraphs.

Remember to refer back to your thesis statement and make sure that each paragraph contributes to your overall argument. The body of your essay is where you can really showcase your critical thinking and analytical skills, so take the time to craft well-developed and coherent paragraphs.

Perfecting Your Essay with Editing and Proofreading

Editing and proofreading are essential steps in the essay writing process to ensure your work is polished and error-free. Here are some tips to help you perfect your essay:

• Take a Break: After writing your essay, take a break before starting the editing process. This will help you look at your work with fresh eyes.
• Focus on Structure: Check the overall structure of your essay, including the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Make sure your ideas flow logically and cohesively.
• Check for Clarity: Ensure that your arguments are clear and easy to follow. Eliminate any jargon or confusing language that might obscure your message.
• Grammar and Punctuation: Review your essay for grammar and punctuation errors. Pay attention to subject-verb agreement, verb tense consistency, and proper punctuation usage.
• Use a Spell Checker: Run a spell check on your essay to catch any spelling mistakes. However, don’t rely solely on spell checkers as they may miss certain errors.
• Read Aloud: Read your essay aloud to yourself or have someone else read it to you. This can help you identify awkward phrasing or unclear sentences.
• Get Feedback: Consider getting feedback from a peer, teacher, or writing tutor. They can offer valuable insights and suggestions for improving your essay.

By following these editing and proofreading tips, you can ensure that your essay is well-crafted, organized, and free of errors, helping you make a strong impression on your readers.

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Best Writing Apps for iPhone

Showing 64 writing apps that match your search.

Guided Essay Writer

Step-by-step guided essay-writing directions written by a college English professor and includes explanations and examples to help you write a college-level essay including the following: introduction paragraph, supporting paragraphs, and conclusion paragraph.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Outlining, Drafting, and Essay

Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/guided-essay-writer/id11731...

Base price:

Premium price:

★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

Also rated 5.0 ★ on the App Store

The human brain is non-linear: we jump from idea to idea, all the time. Your second brain should work the same. In Obsidian, making and following connections is frictionless. Tend to your notes like a gardener; at the end of the day, sit back and marvel at your own knowledge graph.

Platforms: Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, PC

Best for: Note-taking, Outlining, Journal, Book, Story, Essay, Poetry, Blog, and Free

Website: https://obsidian.md/

★★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Accessibility

Also rated 4.5 ★ on TechRadar

WPS Office is a lightweight, feature-rich comprehensive office suite with high compatibility. As a handy and professional office software, WPS Office allows you to edit files in Writer, Presentation, Spreadsheet, and PDF to improve your work efficiency.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, Android, iPad, iPhone, PC

Best for: Drafting, Book, Essay, Journal, Poetry, Story, Blog, and Free

Website: https://www.wps.com/

★★★★ Performance

★★★★★ Accessibility

Also rated 4.0 ★ on TechRadar

Learn more about Reedsy Studio .

Mellel is a word processor designed from the ground up to be the ultimate writing tool for academics, technical writers, scholars and students. Mellel is strong, stable and reliable, and is the ideal companion for working on documents that are long and complex, short and simple, or anything in between.

Website: https://mellel.com/

★★★ Features

★★ Accessibility

Also rated 3.2 ★ on the App Store

You have a story to tell, article to publish, or class notes to take. Scrivo Pro can help you organize your writing, research, generate ideas, and remove distractions so you can focus on the most important thing: writing.

Best for: Outlining, Drafting, Journal, Book, Story, Essay, Poetry, and Blog

Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/scrivo-pro-for-scriveners-a...

Also rated 4.4 ★ on the App Store

Super-clean writing space with a lot of configurability that stays out of sight when you don’t need it.

Best for: Note-taking, Drafting, Book, Story, Essay, Blog, and Free

Website: https://papereditor.app/

★★ Features

Also rated 4.2 ★ on the App Store

Apple Pages

Pages is a powerful word processor that lets you create stunning documents, and comes included with most Apple devices. And with real-time collaboration, your team can work together from anywhere, whether they’re on Mac, iPad, iPhone, or a PC.

Platforms: iPad, Mac, iPhone

Website: https://www.apple.com/pages/

Also rated 3.6 ★ on the App Store

Brainsparker

Ignite your creativity. Coach your brain to think creatively & spark brilliant ideas at work and in life.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

Best for: Outlining, Journal, and Free

Website: https://brainsparker.com/

★★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.7 ★ on the App Store

Ideas, stories, and life’s events. Capture them in a journal that’s easy to carry and offers more than bound sheets. Chronicle for iPad is about you and your words. Write comfortably and benefit from being able to find anything you wrote with built-in search.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac

Best for: Note-taking and Journal

Website: http://slidetorock.com/apps/Chronicle-for-iPad-journal.html

Also rated 4.5 ★ on the App Store

Freedom blocks distractions across all your Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, and Chrome devices so you don’t have to fight off the temptation of distracting pings, notifications, headlines, and emails.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, Android, iPhone, iPad, Chrome, Online, PC

Best for: Productivity, Journal, Book, Story, Essay, Poetry, Blog, and Free

Website: https://freedom.to/

Also rated 4.4 ★ on Google Play

The best outlining app for your best work. Where brilliant ideas are captured, fleshed out, and realized.

Platforms: Online, Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows, PC

Best for: Outlining, Book, Story, Blog, Essay, and Free

Website: https://dynalist.io/

Also rated 4.2 ★ on Google Play

Rhymer's Block

A real-time rhyme suggestion engine offering color-coded rhyme highlighting, the ability to save your work to the cloud, the power to embed SoundCloud jams into your notes, customizable visual layouts, and more.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android

Best for: Drafting, Poetry, and Free

Website: https://www.rhymersblock.com/welcome

Also rated 4.8 ★ on the App Store

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How to Write an Essay

Use the links below to jump directly to any section of this guide:

Essay Writing Fundamentals

How to prepare to write an essay, how to edit an essay, how to share and publish your essays, how to get essay writing help, how to find essay writing inspiration, resources for teaching essay writing.

Essays, short prose compositions on a particular theme or topic, are the bread and butter of academic life. You write them in class, for homework, and on standardized tests to show what you know. Unlike other kinds of academic writing (like the research paper) and creative writing (like short stories and poems), essays allow you to develop your original thoughts on a prompt or question. Essays come in many varieties: they can be expository (fleshing out an idea or claim), descriptive, (explaining a person, place, or thing), narrative (relating a personal experience), or persuasive (attempting to win over a reader). This guide is a collection of dozens of links about academic essay writing that we have researched, categorized, and annotated in order to help you improve your essay writing. 

Essays are different from other forms of writing; in turn, there are different kinds of essays. This section contains general resources for getting to know the essay and its variants. These resources introduce and define the essay as a genre, and will teach you what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab

One of the most trusted academic writing sites, Purdue OWL provides a concise introduction to the four most common types of academic essays.

"The Essay: History and Definition" (ThoughtCo)

This snappy article from ThoughtCo talks about the origins of the essay and different kinds of essays you might be asked to write. 

"What Is An Essay?" Video Lecture (Coursera)

The University of California at Irvine's free video lecture, available on Coursera, tells  you everything you need to know about the essay.

Wikipedia Article on the "Essay"

Wikipedia's article on the essay is comprehensive, providing both English-language and global perspectives on the essay form. Learn about the essay's history, forms, and styles.

"Understanding College and Academic Writing" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This list of common academic writing assignments (including types of essay prompts) will help you know what to expect from essay-based assessments.

Before you start writing your essay, you need to figure out who you're writing for (audience), what you're writing about (topic/theme), and what you're going to say (argument and thesis). This section contains links to handouts, chapters, videos and more to help you prepare to write an essay.

How to Identify Your Audience

"Audience" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This handout provides questions you can ask yourself to determine the audience for an academic writing assignment. It also suggests strategies for fitting your paper to your intended audience.

"Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

This extensive book chapter from Writing for Success , available online through Minnesota Libraries Publishing, is followed by exercises to try out your new pre-writing skills.

"Determining Audience" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This guide from a community college's writing center shows you how to know your audience, and how to incorporate that knowledge in your thesis statement.

"Know Your Audience" ( Paper Rater Blog)

This short blog post uses examples to show how implied audiences for essays differ. It reminds you to think of your instructor as an observer, who will know only the information you pass along.

How to Choose a Theme or Topic

"Research Tutorial: Developing Your Topic" (YouTube)

Take a look at this short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to understand the basics of developing a writing topic.

"How to Choose a Paper Topic" (WikiHow)

This simple, step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through choosing a paper topic. It starts with a detailed description of brainstorming and ends with strategies to refine your broad topic.

"How to Read an Assignment: Moving From Assignment to Topic" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Did your teacher give you a prompt or other instructions? This guide helps you understand the relationship between an essay assignment and your essay's topic.

"Guidelines for Choosing a Topic" (CliffsNotes)

This study guide from CliffsNotes both discusses how to choose a topic and makes a useful distinction between "topic" and "thesis."

How to Come Up with an Argument

"Argument" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

Not sure what "argument" means in the context of academic writing? This page from the University of North Carolina is a good place to start.

"The Essay Guide: Finding an Argument" (Study Hub)

This handout explains why it's important to have an argument when beginning your essay, and provides tools to help you choose a viable argument.

"Writing a Thesis and Making an Argument" (University of Iowa)

This page from the University of Iowa's Writing Center contains exercises through which you can develop and refine your argument and thesis statement.

"Developing a Thesis" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page from Harvard's Writing Center collates some helpful dos and don'ts of argumentative writing, from steps in constructing a thesis to avoiding vague and confrontational thesis statements.

"Suggestions for Developing Argumentative Essays" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

This page offers concrete suggestions for each stage of the essay writing process, from topic selection to drafting and editing. 

How to Outline your Essay

"Outlines" (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill via YouTube)

This short video tutorial from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows how to group your ideas into paragraphs or sections to begin the outlining process.

"Essay Outline" (Univ. of Washington Tacoma)

This two-page handout by a university professor simply defines the parts of an essay and then organizes them into an example outline.

"Types of Outlines and Samples" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL gives examples of diverse outline strategies on this page, including the alphanumeric, full sentence, and decimal styles. 

"Outlining" (Harvard College Writing Center)

Once you have an argument, according to this handout, there are only three steps in the outline process: generalizing, ordering, and putting it all together. Then you're ready to write!

"Writing Essays" (Plymouth Univ.)

This packet, part of Plymouth University's Learning Development series, contains descriptions and diagrams relating to the outlining process.

"How to Write A Good Argumentative Essay: Logical Structure" (Criticalthinkingtutorials.com via YouTube)

This longer video tutorial gives an overview of how to structure your essay in order to support your argument or thesis. It is part of a longer course on academic writing hosted on Udemy.

Now that you've chosen and refined your topic and created an outline, use these resources to complete the writing process. Most essays contain introductions (which articulate your thesis statement), body paragraphs, and conclusions. Transitions facilitate the flow from one paragraph to the next so that support for your thesis builds throughout the essay. Sources and citations show where you got the evidence to support your thesis, which ensures that you avoid plagiarism. 

How to Write an Introduction

"Introductions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page identifies the role of the introduction in any successful paper, suggests strategies for writing introductions, and warns against less effective introductions.

"How to Write A Good Introduction" (Michigan State Writing Center)

Beginning with the most common missteps in writing introductions, this guide condenses the essentials of introduction composition into seven points.

"The Introductory Paragraph" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming focuses on ways to grab your reader's attention at the beginning of your essay.

"Introductions and Conclusions" (Univ. of Toronto)

This guide from the University of Toronto gives advice that applies to writing both introductions and conclusions, including dos and don'ts.

"How to Write Better Essays: No One Does Introductions Properly" ( The Guardian )

This news article interviews UK professors on student essay writing; they point to introductions as the area that needs the most improvement.

How to Write a Thesis Statement

"Writing an Effective Thesis Statement" (YouTube)

This short, simple video tutorial from a college composition instructor at Tulsa Community College explains what a thesis statement is and what it does. 

"Thesis Statement: Four Steps to a Great Essay" (YouTube)

This fantastic tutorial walks you through drafting a thesis, using an essay prompt on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter as an example.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) walks you through coming up with, writing, and editing a thesis statement. It invites you think of your statement as a "working thesis" that can change.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement" (Univ. of Indiana Bloomington)

Ask yourself the questions on this page, part of Indiana Bloomington's Writing Tutorial Services, when you're writing and refining your thesis statement.

"Writing Tips: Thesis Statements" (Univ. of Illinois Center for Writing Studies)

This page gives plentiful examples of good to great thesis statements, and offers questions to ask yourself when formulating a thesis statement.

How to Write Body Paragraphs

"Body Paragraph" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course introduces you to the components of a body paragraph. These include the topic sentence, information, evidence, and analysis.

"Strong Body Paragraphs" (Washington Univ.)

This handout from Washington's Writing and Research Center offers in-depth descriptions of the parts of a successful body paragraph.

"Guide to Paragraph Structure" (Deakin Univ.)

This handout is notable for color-coding example body paragraphs to help you identify the functions various sentences perform.

"Writing Body Paragraphs" (Univ. of Minnesota Libraries)

The exercises in this section of Writing for Success  will help you practice writing good body paragraphs. It includes guidance on selecting primary support for your thesis.

"The Writing Process—Body Paragraphs" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

The information and exercises on this page will familiarize you with outlining and writing body paragraphs, and includes links to more information on topic sentences and transitions.

"The Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post discusses body paragraphs in the context of one of the most common academic essay types in secondary schools.

How to Use Transitions

"Transitions" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explains what a transition is, and how to know if you need to improve your transitions.

"Using Transitions Effectively" (Washington Univ.)

This handout defines transitions, offers tips for using them, and contains a useful list of common transitional words and phrases grouped by function.

"Transitions" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

This page compares paragraphs without transitions to paragraphs with transitions, and in doing so shows how important these connective words and phrases are.

"Transitions in Academic Essays" (Scribbr)

This page lists four techniques that will help you make sure your reader follows your train of thought, including grouping similar information and using transition words.

"Transitions" (El Paso Community College)

This handout shows example transitions within paragraphs for context, and explains how transitions improve your essay's flow and voice.

"Make Your Paragraphs Flow to Improve Writing" (ThoughtCo)

This blog post, another from academic advisor and college enrollment counselor Grace Fleming, talks about transitions and other strategies to improve your essay's overall flow.

"Transition Words" (smartwords.org)

This handy word bank will help you find transition words when you're feeling stuck. It's grouped by the transition's function, whether that is to show agreement, opposition, condition, or consequence.

How to Write a Conclusion

"Parts of An Essay: Conclusions" (Brightstorm)

This module of a free online course explains how to conclude an academic essay. It suggests thinking about the "3Rs": return to hook, restate your thesis, and relate to the reader.

"Essay Conclusions" (Univ. of Maryland University College)

This overview of the academic essay conclusion contains helpful examples and links to further resources for writing good conclusions.

"How to End An Essay" (WikiHow)

This step-by-step guide (with pictures!) by an English Ph.D. walks you through writing a conclusion, from brainstorming to ending with a flourish.

"Ending the Essay: Conclusions" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This page collates useful strategies for writing an effective conclusion, and reminds you to "close the discussion without closing it off" to further conversation.

How to Include Sources and Citations

"Research and Citation Resources" (Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab)

Purdue OWL streamlines information about the three most common referencing styles (MLA, Chicago, and APA) and provides examples of how to cite different resources in each system.

EasyBib: Free Bibliography Generator

This online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. Be sure to select your resource type before clicking the "cite it" button.

CitationMachine

Like EasyBib, this online tool allows you to input information about your source and automatically generate citations in any style. 

Modern Language Association Handbook (MLA)

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of MLA referencing rules. Order through the link above, or check to see if your library has a copy.

Chicago Manual of Style

Here, you'll find the definitive and up-to-date record of Chicago referencing rules. You can take a look at the table of contents, then choose to subscribe or start a free trial.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

"What is Plagiarism?" (plagiarism.org)

This nonprofit website contains numerous resources for identifying and avoiding plagiarism, and reminds you that even common activities like copying images from another website to your own site may constitute plagiarism.

"Plagiarism" (University of Oxford)

This interactive page from the University of Oxford helps you check for plagiarism in your work, making it clear how to avoid citing another person's work without full acknowledgement.

"Avoiding Plagiarism" (MIT Comparative Media Studies)

This quick guide explains what plagiarism is, what its consequences are, and how to avoid it. It starts by defining three words—quotation, paraphrase, and summary—that all constitute citation.

"Harvard Guide to Using Sources" (Harvard Extension School)

This comprehensive website from Harvard brings together articles, videos, and handouts about referencing, citation, and plagiarism. 

Grammarly contains tons of helpful grammar and writing resources, including a free tool to automatically scan your essay to check for close affinities to published work. 

Noplag is another popular online tool that automatically scans your essay to check for signs of plagiarism. Simply copy and paste your essay into the box and click "start checking."

Once you've written your essay, you'll want to edit (improve content), proofread (check for spelling and grammar mistakes), and finalize your work until you're ready to hand it in. This section brings together tips and resources for navigating the editing process. 

"Writing a First Draft" (Academic Help)

This is an introduction to the drafting process from the site Academic Help, with tips for getting your ideas on paper before editing begins.

"Editing and Proofreading" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page provides general strategies for revising your writing. They've intentionally left seven errors in the handout, to give you practice in spotting them.

"How to Proofread Effectively" (ThoughtCo)

This article from ThoughtCo, along with those linked at the bottom, help describe common mistakes to check for when proofreading.

"7 Simple Edits That Make Your Writing 100% More Powerful" (SmartBlogger)

This blog post emphasizes the importance of powerful, concise language, and reminds you that even your personal writing heroes create clunky first drafts.

"Editing Tips for Effective Writing" (Univ. of Pennsylvania)

On this page from Penn's International Relations department, you'll find tips for effective prose, errors to watch out for, and reminders about formatting.

"Editing the Essay" (Harvard College Writing Center)

This article, the first of two parts, gives you applicable strategies for the editing process. It suggests reading your essay aloud, removing any jargon, and being unafraid to remove even "dazzling" sentences that don't belong.

"Guide to Editing and Proofreading" (Oxford Learning Institute)

This handout from Oxford covers the basics of editing and proofreading, and reminds you that neither task should be rushed. 

In addition to plagiarism-checkers, Grammarly has a plug-in for your web browser that checks your writing for common mistakes.

After you've prepared, written, and edited your essay, you might want to share it outside the classroom. This section alerts you to print and web opportunities to share your essays with the wider world, from online writing communities and blogs to published journals geared toward young writers.

Sharing Your Essays Online

Go Teen Writers

Go Teen Writers is an online community for writers aged 13 - 19. It was founded by Stephanie Morrill, an author of contemporary young adult novels. 

Tumblr is a blogging website where you can share your writing and interact with other writers online. It's easy to add photos, links, audio, and video components.

Writersky provides an online platform for publishing and reading other youth writers' work. Its current content is mostly devoted to fiction.

Publishing Your Essays Online

This teen literary journal publishes in print, on the web, and (more frequently), on a blog. It is committed to ensuring that "teens see their authentic experience reflected on its pages."

The Matador Review

This youth writing platform celebrates "alternative," unconventional writing. The link above will take you directly to the site's "submissions" page.

Teen Ink has a website, monthly newsprint magazine, and quarterly poetry magazine promoting the work of young writers.

The largest online reading platform, Wattpad enables you to publish your work and read others' work. Its inline commenting feature allows you to share thoughts as you read along.

Publishing Your Essays in Print

Canvas Teen Literary Journal

This quarterly literary magazine is published for young writers by young writers. They accept many kinds of writing, including essays.

The Claremont Review

This biannual international magazine, first published in 1992, publishes poetry, essays, and short stories from writers aged 13 - 19.

Skipping Stones

This young writers magazine, founded in 1988, celebrates themes relating to ecological and cultural diversity. It publishes poems, photos, articles, and stories.

The Telling Room

This nonprofit writing center based in Maine publishes children's work on their website and in book form. The link above directs you to the site's submissions page.

Essay Contests

Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards

This prestigious international writing contest for students in grades 7 - 12 has been committed to "supporting the future of creativity since 1923."

Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest

An annual essay contest on the theme of journalism and media, the Society of Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest awards scholarships up to $1,000.

National YoungArts Foundation

Here, you'll find information on a government-sponsored writing competition for writers aged 15 - 18. The foundation welcomes submissions of creative nonfiction, novels, scripts, poetry, short story and spoken word.

Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest

With prompts on a different literary work each year, this competition from Signet Classics awards college scholarships up to $1,000.

"The Ultimate Guide to High School Essay Contests" (CollegeVine)

See this handy guide from CollegeVine for a list of more competitions you can enter with your academic essay, from the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards to the National High School Essay Contest by the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Whether you're struggling to write academic essays or you think you're a pro, there are workshops and online tools that can help you become an even better writer. Even the most seasoned writers encounter writer's block, so be proactive and look through our curated list of resources to combat this common frustration.

Online Essay-writing Classes and Workshops

"Getting Started with Essay Writing" (Coursera)

Coursera offers lots of free, high-quality online classes taught by college professors. Here's one example, taught by instructors from the University of California Irvine.

"Writing and English" (Brightstorm)

Brightstorm's free video lectures are easy to navigate by topic. This unit on the parts of an essay features content on the essay hook, thesis, supporting evidence, and more.

"How to Write an Essay" (EdX)

EdX is another open online university course website with several two- to five-week courses on the essay. This one is geared toward English language learners.

Writer's Digest University

This renowned writers' website offers online workshops and interactive tutorials. The courses offered cover everything from how to get started through how to get published.

Writing.com

Signing up for this online writer's community gives you access to helpful resources as well as an international community of writers.

How to Overcome Writer's Block

"Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block" (Purdue OWL)

Purdue OWL offers a list of signs you might have writer's block, along with ways to overcome it. Consider trying out some "invention strategies" or ways to curb writing anxiety.

"Overcoming Writer's Block: Three Tips" ( The Guardian )

These tips, geared toward academic writing specifically, are practical and effective. The authors advocate setting realistic goals, creating dedicated writing time, and participating in social writing.

"Writing Tips: Strategies for Overcoming Writer's Block" (Univ. of Illinois)

This page from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Center for Writing Studies acquaints you with strategies that do and do not work to overcome writer's block.

"Writer's Block" (Univ. of Toronto)

Ask yourself the questions on this page; if the answer is "yes," try out some of the article's strategies. Each question is accompanied by at least two possible solutions.

If you have essays to write but are short on ideas, this section's links to prompts, example student essays, and celebrated essays by professional writers might help. You'll find writing prompts from a variety of sources, student essays to inspire you, and a number of essay writing collections.

Essay Writing Prompts

"50 Argumentative Essay Topics" (ThoughtCo)

Take a look at this list and the others ThoughtCo has curated for different kinds of essays. As the author notes, "a number of these topics are controversial and that's the point."

"401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing" ( New York Times )

This list (and the linked lists to persuasive and narrative writing prompts), besides being impressive in length, is put together by actual high school English teachers.

"SAT Sample Essay Prompts" (College Board)

If you're a student in the U.S., your classroom essay prompts are likely modeled on the prompts in U.S. college entrance exams. Take a look at these official examples from the SAT.

"Popular College Application Essay Topics" (Princeton Review)

This page from the Princeton Review dissects recent Common Application essay topics and discusses strategies for answering them.

Example Student Essays

"501 Writing Prompts" (DePaul Univ.)

This nearly 200-page packet, compiled by the LearningExpress Skill Builder in Focus Writing Team, is stuffed with writing prompts, example essays, and commentary.

"Topics in English" (Kibin)

Kibin is a for-pay essay help website, but its example essays (organized by topic) are available for free. You'll find essays on everything from  A Christmas Carol  to perseverance.

"Student Writing Models" (Thoughtful Learning)

Thoughtful Learning, a website that offers a variety of teaching materials, provides sample student essays on various topics and organizes them by grade level.

"Five-Paragraph Essay" (ThoughtCo)

In this blog post by a former professor of English and rhetoric, ThoughtCo brings together examples of five-paragraph essays and commentary on the form.

The Best Essay Writing Collections

The Best American Essays of the Century by Joyce Carol Oates (Amazon)

This collection of American essays spanning the twentieth century was compiled by award winning author and Princeton professor Joyce Carol Oates.

The Best American Essays 2017 by Leslie Jamison (Amazon)

Leslie Jamison, the celebrated author of essay collection  The Empathy Exams , collects recent, high-profile essays into a single volume.

The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate (Amazon)

Documentary writer Phillip Lopate curates this historical overview of the personal essay's development, from the classical era to the present.

The White Album by Joan Didion (Amazon)

This seminal essay collection was authored by one of the most acclaimed personal essayists of all time, American journalist Joan Didion.

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (Amazon)

Read this famous essay collection by David Foster Wallace, who is known for his experimentation with the essay form. He pushed the boundaries of personal essay, reportage, and political polemic.

"50 Successful Harvard Application Essays" (Staff of the The Harvard Crimson )

If you're looking for examples of exceptional college application essays, this volume from Harvard's daily student newspaper is one of the best collections on the market.

Are you an instructor looking for the best resources for teaching essay writing? This section contains resources for developing in-class activities and student homework assignments. You'll find content from both well-known university writing centers and online writing labs.

Essay Writing Classroom Activities for Students

"In-class Writing Exercises" (Univ. of North Carolina Writing Center)

This page lists exercises related to brainstorming, organizing, drafting, and revising. It also contains suggestions for how to implement the suggested exercises.

"Teaching with Writing" (Univ. of Minnesota Center for Writing)

Instructions and encouragement for using "freewriting," one-minute papers, logbooks, and other write-to-learn activities in the classroom can be found here.

"Writing Worksheets" (Berkeley Student Learning Center)

Berkeley offers this bank of writing worksheets to use in class. They are nested under headings for "Prewriting," "Revision," "Research Papers" and more.

"Using Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism" (DePaul University)

Use these activities and worksheets from DePaul's Teaching Commons when instructing students on proper academic citation practices.

Essay Writing Homework Activities for Students

"Grammar and Punctuation Exercises" (Aims Online Writing Lab)

These five interactive online activities allow students to practice editing and proofreading. They'll hone their skills in correcting comma splices and run-ons, identifying fragments, using correct pronoun agreement, and comma usage.

"Student Interactives" (Read Write Think)

Read Write Think hosts interactive tools, games, and videos for developing writing skills. They can practice organizing and summarizing, writing poetry, and developing lines of inquiry and analysis.

This free website offers writing and grammar activities for all grade levels. The lessons are designed to be used both for large classes and smaller groups.

"Writing Activities and Lessons for Every Grade" (Education World)

Education World's page on writing activities and lessons links you to more free, online resources for learning how to "W.R.I.T.E.": write, revise, inform, think, and edit.

• PDFs for all 136 Lit Terms we cover
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Best essay writing apps for iPhone & Mac

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Composing with a pen and paper is rapidly becoming outdated, which is reasonable. Why put yourself through such stress when using your device to compose better quicker? 

Tons of writing apps make writing a more stress-free experience. Ideally, excellent essay writing apps should help you with grammar, proofreading, and more. For example, you can write a profile essay about   any topic expertly using good writing apps which can help you understand the definition and outline of an essay. A good writing app will help you execute your task effectively and give you a great writing experience. If you use an iPhone or Mac, or use both, here are the top apps to choose from. 

This brilliant writing application has been named the best essay writing app for Apple devices such as Mac, iPad, and iPhone. It doesn’t work with some other OS like Android or Windows. What makes Ulysses unique is that it can back up your documents to the iCloud so that regardless of whether you lose the first record, your work is still securely put away in the cloud.

Ulysses uses markdown language to help you apply styles to your writing without worrying about using a formatting menu. This app also features a “focus mode” that helps streamline your writing to a single line and minimize on-screen distractions. Ulysses lets you export your files in various formats to make it easier to finalize your work. 

Focus Writer

Focus Writer is a simple-to-use free word processor, and it is accessible across all major working operating systems, including your iOS and Mac gadgets. With Focus Writer, you can make text and save it in RTF design. It features live document statistics to assist you and eliminates the need to run word counts and character counts. It features:

• Hide-away interface
• Live statistics
• Spells checking
• Document tabs

Evernote is another spectacular writing application that helps with essay writing. The program is a cross-platform note-taking application.  It would work with iOS gadgets and other working frameworks like Android and Windows. Evernote is great for handling written by hand notes. It additionally assists with making the outline of an exposition or article, which can be helpful for an essay write-up. Evernote can store anything you want to remember for your papers, be it a straightforward composing note or an article you viewed on the net. Like that, you can have all your paper thoughts organized and compact.

Grammarly is one of the most well-known article writing tools available on the market today. Grammarly is notable for aiding the adjustment of spelling issues, grammatical errors, and styling mistakes.

Grammarly is open in both a free and a paid version. It has a web-based editor that really looks at your sentence structure, spelling, grammar, word choice, readability, and style mistakes. Grammarly can detect plagiarism by contrasting your paper with billions of other web pages on the net. It’s an awesome program for composing impeccable papers, theses, research papers, and different sorts of compositions.

Pro Writing Aid

ProWritingAid is a cloud-based editing tool for article writing, copywriting, and blogs. This program is planned to help you recognize editing issues, eliminate mistakes, and correct grammatical problems in your essays.

It has a brilliant and valuable free version, while its premium version contains amazing features like upgrading word choice, wiping out cliches, and amending sentence length issues. ProWritingAid further develops your readability and style while additionally recognizing grammatical mistakes.

Hemingway is best known as a tool that can help you improve the readability of your writing,  but it is also an effective, comprehensive proofreading tool.

Hemingway detects sentences that are too complex for readers, helping you simplify your thoughts.  Its top-notch proofreading features can help make your sentences clear, concise, and bold.

As you keep writing your essay, the editor will mark too complex sentences. Hemingway helps you hold the reader’s attention by keeping your sentences short, simple, and sound.

Manuscripts

The Manuscripts is a terrific program for creating short stories, essays, and novels that are pleasant and powerful. This software discovers items like digits in the middle of phrases, layout, compound words, and abbreviations that exist in many formats and detects faults in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Overall, it is free to download and use, with no restrictions on what you may do with it. 

It makes no difference how difficult or frustrating writing may appear. However, using the Manuscripts, you can effortlessly kick-start your career in the writing domain. Use it as a starting point for self-editing before submitting to clients. 

Scrivener is a full-featured writing tool. Are you writing a novel? A script? An essay? A research paper about fashion * ? *Brazilian Portuguese website linked

Scrivener can handle them all! The “binder” view in Scrivener allows you to divide your book into chapters and parts and reorder it using a drag-and-drop interface to understand how your work fits together.

Scrivener provides too many customization options to count, and each feature of the program may be changed to your preference to help you create the ideal writing environment. 

With the Binder, you may keep your work divided for easy organizing and editing while maintaining its structure. Scrivener is one of the best book writing apps for writers; writers created it for writers. 

After writing down your ideas, Scrivener lets you combine your project into a single document and export it in formats including DOC, rich text, PDF, ePub, and Kindle. Scrivener works on popular operating systems.  So whether you’re on your computer, laptop, tablet, or phone, you can write awesome essays anytime and anywhere with Scrivener.

Byword is straightforward and powerful writing software. A Byword is an uncomplicated software with a user-friendly interface and only a few settings to fiddle with; it just wants you to get to writing.

You’ll get a blank document in this Markdown-focused writing tool and write. Byword lets the iCloud Drive sync your papers between your Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and you can also save them to Dropbox.

Byword supports Markdown, which is a distraction-free writing language. Markdown is a means to format text without using menus or options, which keeps the user experience simple and clutter and distraction-free. 

Pages, Apple’s very own writing program, allows you to create many different documents. Pages have over 60 templates that include almost every type of writing, from short essays to research papers, novels, and theses. Pages app also includes templates for business cards and flyers to give you more variety. 

You can insert photos, text boxes, and shapes, and you can change the layout of your documents and do much more. If your computer is one of Apple’s 2016 MacBook Pros with Touch Bar, you can also use Touch ID to keep your documents safe. 

You can easily collaborate with other writers that are using Pages. Multiple individuals can work on a document simultaneously, whether they’re using macOS, iOS, or even Windows, thanks to iCloud.com. You can also share collaborative documents with the entire community or with select individuals, and you can see who is in the group.

You can share collaborative papers with particular users publicly, see who is working on the document at any one time, and track their cursors as they update the page. It’s fascinating writing software that gives you the variety you seek.

Google Docs

Google Docs is one exciting piece of writing software. It’s free, straightforward to use, and requires no backups since everything is in the cloud.  Best of all is its collaboration features, which allow you to invite your editor to the document and then watch as they make changes, which you can view in the comment mode. 

Freedom lets you temporarily disable applications, websites, and social media on all of your devices so you can concentrate on writing. This is great for those seeking an immersive writing experience with no distractions. Not to worry, in case of emergencies, you can still be contacted. You can even set the program to function automatically when you need it the most. 

The freedom from online diversions is beneficial; sometimes, “just a few seconds” may stretch into hours of wasted time. Freedom might assist you in concentrating and increasing your productivity. It works on any device. 

Our takeaway

Whether you are in high school, college, or working on your Ph.D., there are essay writing apps that can help you along the way. If you sift through the benefits of each tool and consider their peculiarities, you can find the proper application to help you with your essays and research papers. Any of these apps will transform your writing experience from frustrating hard work to a pleasant experience.

News content on AppleMagazine.com is produced by our editorial team and complements more in-depth editorials which you’ll find as part of our weekly publication. AppleMagazine.com provides a comprehensive daily reading experience, offering a wide view of the consumer technology landscape to ensure you're always in the know. Check back every weekday for more.

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iPhone User Guide

• iPhone models compatible with iOS 17
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• Use the Podcasts widget
• Organize your podcast library
• Download, save, or share podcasts
• Subscribe to podcasts
• Listen to subscriber-only content
• Change download settings
• Make a grocery list
• Add items to a list
• Edit and manage a list
• Search and organize lists
• Work with templates
• Use Smart Lists
• Print reminders
• Use the Reminders widget
• Change Reminders settings
• Browse the web
• Search for websites
• Customize your Safari settings
• Change the layout
• Use Safari profiles
• Open and close tabs
• Organize your tabs
• View your Safari tabs from another Apple device
• Share Tab Groups
• Use Siri to listen to a webpage
• Bookmark favorite webpages
• Save pages to a Reading List
• Find links shared with you
• Annotate and save a webpage as a PDF
• Automatically fill in forms
• Get extensions
• Hide ads and distractions
• Clear your cache and cookies
• Browse the web privately
• Use passkeys in Safari
• Check stocks
• Manage multiple watchlists
• Read business news
• Add earnings reports to your calendar
• Use a Stocks widget
• Translate text, voice, and conversations
• Translate text in apps
• Translate with the camera view
• Subscribe to Apple TV+, MLS Season Pass, or an Apple TV channel
• Add your TV provider
• Get shows, movies, and more
• Watch sports
• Watch Major League Soccer with MLS Season Pass
• Control playback
• Manage your library
• Change the settings
• Make a recording
• Play it back
• Edit or delete a recording
• Keep recordings up to date
• Organize recordings
• Search for or rename a recording
• Share a recording
• Duplicate a recording
• Keep cards and passes in Wallet
• Set up Apple Pay
• Use Apple Pay for contactless payments
• Use Apple Pay in apps and on the web
• Track your orders
• Use Apple Cash
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• Pay for transit
• Access your home, hotel room, and vehicle
• Add identity cards
• Use COVID-19 vaccination cards
• Check your Apple Account balance
• Use Express Mode
• Organize your Wallet
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• Check the weather
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• View weather maps
• Manage weather notifications
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• Find out what Siri can do
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• Use Check In
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• Set up Family Sharing
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• Share subscriptions
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• Set up Apple Cash Family and Apple Card Family
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• Get started with Screen Time
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• Charging cable
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• Pair Magic Keyboard
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• External storage devices
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• Stream video or mirror the screen of your iPhone
• Start SharePlay instantly
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• Transfer files or sync content with the Finder or iTunes
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• Intro to CarPlay
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• Play podcasts
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• Get started with accessibility features
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• Change color and brightness
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• Use VoiceOver with a pointer device
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• Control several devices with one switch
• Use hearing devices
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• Use sound recognition
• Set up and use RTT and TTY
• Flash the indicator light for notifications
• Adjust audio settings
• Play background sounds
• Display subtitles and captions
• Show transcriptions for Intercom messages
• Get live captions of spoken audio
• Type to speak
• Record a Personal Voice
• Lock iPhone to one app with Guided Access
• Use built-in privacy and security protections
• Set a passcode
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• Keep your Apple ID secure
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• Sign in with Apple
• Share passwords
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• Change weak or compromised passwords
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• Control app tracking permissions
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• Control how Apple delivers advertising to you
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• Create and manage Hide My Email addresses
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• FCC compliance statement
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Write in your journal on iPhone

Create a journal entry

Tap New Entry, or choose a journaling suggestion or reflection prompt. (If you turned off Journaling Suggestions , you can just start writing.)

Tip: To save a suggestion for later, touch and hold the suggestion, then tap Save Without Writing.

Use journaling suggestions

Journaling suggestions intelligently group outings, photos, workouts, and more to help you remember and reflect on your experiences.

Browse the attachments: Swipe through the attachments.

Choose the attachments you want: Tap an attachment to select or deselect it.

Tap Start Writing or Save Without Writing.

Tip: To delete a suggestion, touch and hold the suggestion, then tap Remove.

Add details to an entry

While writing an entry, you can do any of the following:

View an attachment in full screen: Tap the thumbnail.

Reorder attachments: Touch and hold a thumbnail, then drag it to a different position.

Start a journal entry from another app

Enter your thoughts, then tap Save.

You can review your entry and add more details later in the Journal app. See Edit a journal entry .

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How to Get ChatGPT to Write an Essay: Prompts, Outlines, & More

Last Updated: April 28, 2024 Fact Checked

Getting ChatGPT to Write the Essay

Using ai to help you write, expert interview.

This article was written by Bryce Warwick, JD and by wikiHow staff writer, Nicole Levine, MFA . Bryce Warwick is currently the President of Warwick Strategies, an organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area offering premium, personalized private tutoring for the GMAT, LSAT and GRE. Bryce has a JD from the George Washington University Law School. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 47,460 times.

Are you curious about using ChatGPT to write an essay? While most instructors have tools that make it easy to detect AI-written essays, there are ways you can use OpenAI's ChatGPT to write papers without worrying about plagiarism or getting caught. In addition to writing essays for you, ChatGPT can also help you come up with topics, write outlines, find sources, check your grammar, and even format your citations. This wikiHow article will teach you the best ways to use ChatGPT to write essays, including helpful example prompts that will generate impressive papers.

Things You Should Know

• To have ChatGPT write an essay, tell it your topic, word count, type of essay, and facts or viewpoints to include.
• ChatGPT is also useful for generating essay topics, writing outlines, and checking grammar.
• Because ChatGPT can make mistakes and trigger AI-detection alarms, it's better to use AI to assist with writing than have it do the writing.

• Before using the OpenAI's ChatGPT to write your essay, make sure you understand your instructor's policies on AI tools. Using ChatGPT may be against the rules, and it's easy for instructors to detect AI-written essays.
• While you can use ChatGPT to write a polished-looking essay, there are drawbacks. Most importantly, ChatGPT cannot verify facts or provide references. This means that essays created by ChatGPT may contain made-up facts and biased content. [1] X Research source It's best to use ChatGPT for inspiration and examples instead of having it write the essay for you.

• The topic you want to write about.
• Essay length, such as word or page count. Whether you're writing an essay for a class, college application, or even a cover letter , you'll want to tell ChatGPT how much to write.
• Other assignment details, such as type of essay (e.g., personal, book report, etc.) and points to mention.
• If you're writing an argumentative or persuasive essay , know the stance you want to take so ChatGPT can argue your point.
• If you have notes on the topic that you want to include, you can also provide those to ChatGPT.
• When you plan an essay, think of a thesis, a topic sentence, a body paragraph, and the examples you expect to present in each paragraph.
• It can be like an outline and not an extensive sentence-by-sentence structure. It should be a good overview of how the points relate.

• "Write a 2000-word college essay that covers different approaches to gun violence prevention in the United States. Include facts about gun laws and give ideas on how to improve them."
• This prompt not only tells ChatGPT the topic, length, and grade level, but also that the essay is personal. ChatGPT will write the essay in the first-person point of view.
• "Write a 4-page college application essay about an obstacle I have overcome. I am applying to the Geography program and want to be a cartographer. The obstacle is that I have dyslexia. Explain that I have always loved maps, and that having dyslexia makes me better at making them."

Tyrone Showers

Be specific when using ChatGPT. Clear and concise prompts outlining your exact needs help ChatGPT tailor its response. Specify the desired outcome (e.g., creative writing, informative summary, functional resume), any length constraints (word or character count), and the preferred emotional tone (formal, humorous, etc.)

• In our essay about gun control, ChatGPT did not mention school shootings. If we want to discuss this topic in the essay, we can use the prompt, "Discuss school shootings in the essay."
• Let's say we review our college entrance essay and realize that we forgot to mention that we grew up without parents. Add to the essay by saying, "Mention that my parents died when I was young."
• In the Israel-Palestine essay, ChatGPT explored two options for peace: A 2-state solution and a bi-state solution. If you'd rather the essay focus on a single option, ask ChatGPT to remove one. For example, "Change my essay so that it focuses on a bi-state solution."

Pay close attention to the content ChatGPT generates. If you use ChatGPT often, you'll start noticing its patterns, like its tendency to begin articles with phrases like "in today's digital world." Once you spot patterns, you can refine your prompts to steer ChatGPT in a better direction and avoid repetitive content.

• "Give me ideas for an essay about the Israel-Palestine conflict."
• "Ideas for a persuasive essay about a current event."
• "Give me a list of argumentative essay topics about COVID-19 for a Political Science 101 class."

• "Create an outline for an argumentative essay called "The Impact of COVID-19 on the Economy."
• "Write an outline for an essay about positive uses of AI chatbots in schools."
• "Create an outline for a short 2-page essay on disinformation in the 2016 election."

• "Find peer-reviewed sources for advances in using MRNA vaccines for cancer."
• "Give me a list of sources from academic journals about Black feminism in the movie Black Panther."
• "Give me sources for an essay on current efforts to ban children's books in US libraries."

• "Write a 4-page college paper about how global warming is changing the automotive industry in the United States."
• "Write a 750-word personal college entrance essay about how my experience with homelessness as a child has made me more resilient."
• You can even refer to the outline you created with ChatGPT, as the AI bot can reference up to 3000 words from the current conversation. [3] X Research source For example: "Write a 1000 word argumentative essay called 'The Impact of COVID-19 on the United States Economy' using the outline you provided. Argue that the government should take more action to support businesses affected by the pandemic."

• One way to do this is to paste a list of the sources you've used, including URLs, book titles, authors, pages, publishers, and other details, into ChatGPT along with the instruction "Create an MLA Works Cited page for these sources."
• You can also ask ChatGPT to provide a list of sources, and then build a Works Cited or References page that includes those sources. You can then replace sources you didn't use with the sources you did use.

Expert Q&A

• Because it's easy for teachers, hiring managers, and college admissions offices to spot AI-written essays, it's best to use your ChatGPT-written essay as a guide to write your own essay. Using the structure and ideas from ChatGPT, write an essay in the same format, but using your own words. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Always double-check the facts in your essay, and make sure facts are backed up with legitimate sources. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If you see an error that says ChatGPT is at capacity , wait a few moments and try again. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Using ChatGPT to write or assist with your essay may be against your instructor's rules. Make sure you understand the consequences of using ChatGPT to write or assist with your essay. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• ChatGPT-written essays may include factual inaccuracies, outdated information, and inadequate detail. [4] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about completing school assignments, check out our in-depth interview with Bryce Warwick, JD .

• ↑ https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6783457-what-is-chatgpt
• ↑ https://platform.openai.com/examples/default-essay-outline
• ↑ https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6787051-does-chatgpt-remember-what-happened-earlier-in-the-conversation
• ↑ https://www.ipl.org/div/chatgpt/

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The 10 Best Writing Apps for iPhone (2021)

Writing applications are one of the most useful apps on your iPhone or iPad, but they are not often the first apps that come to your mind. Perhaps, most individuals don’t often write on their iOS devices and probably because they are happy with built-in apps. No matter how many unique possibilities are accessible today, there is no real excuse not to explore the rich world of iOS writing applications.

There is a writing app for every writing phase; various writing applications accomplish different things, which is why many writers work with many simultaneously. Here is a list of the best writing apps for iPhone 2021.

ProWritingAid

Many people consider Scrivener to be the ultimate writing tool for iPad and iPhone in several particular areas. Multiple features distinguish Scrivener from other writing apps, but adaptability is the main feature.

Scrivener helps you write from scripts to book reports. No matter what you write, you will have access to its remarkable capabilities, which allow you to modify, analyze and dictate anything from the notepad application that may never be useful.

Scrivener helps you save your research and project notes while you are still writing, and at the end of your work, you can gather all the data that make up your project and add them to a Word or PDF.

Compatibility:  Mac, iOS, and Window and it has a free trial of 30days, a $45 license fee

Ulysses is similar to Scriveners at first sight, but deeper investigation shows that diverse experiences and interests make them dissimilar. In Ulysses, for example, you might write # to establish a header or > to set up a block quotation, which means that it’s not manual formatting but rather a ‘Markdown.’

Ulysses is a very standard writing application. It is not as outline-friendly as Scrivener, but you will not have difficulty staying organized with keyword labels, progress monitoring, split view capacity, and all project lined up neatly in the sidebar. This is just one of iPhone and iPad’s best writing apps.

Compatibility: Mac and iOS, and it is $4.99 per month.

iA Writer is just what you need when you want to write without distractions. Yes, this app may only look simple, but it offers a great deal. Its plain text style provides a blank slate for any writing you need, and it is also packed with plenty of excellent text-editing functions that allow you to manage your work effectively. Reviews typically connect iA to Ulysses because Markdown is also used to format.

The iA is nevertheless more precise and incorporated into your screen more naturally. This basic style fits well with the task of the iA “to keep you focused while writing.”

Compatibility:  Mac, iOS, Windows, and it has a Free 14-day trial; on Mac, it is $29.99, and Windows is$19.99.

Storyist gives an excellent basis for novel creation; the app glitters in screenplay and stage game projects. When starting a new project, you work from a very intuitive script template to select action, character, dialog, etc. It ensures that you format correctly and that you are aware of the things you use, not to overdo it or neglect to switch between scenes.

The sidebar tabs also allow you to organize your characters, settings, and photos, useful for screenwriters who want strong graphics to complete their job. However, the Storyist is a modest app for one reason: it is essential and economical for novices with just enough formatting skill to make you feel like a new Hollywood sweetheart.

Compatibility: it runs on Mac and iOS, and it has15 days free trial with a license fee of $59.99

ProWritingAid is often compared with Grammarly; however, the editing technique of this tool is a bit more integral. While it still highlights significant errors, ProWritingAid’s app tends to increase the flow of your writing. For example, it reduces passive voice and filler words rather than nitpicking grammatical technicalities.

You will also find more exciting features in ProWritingAid analysis, including self-generated vocabulary statistics, phrase structure, and more. ProWritingAid lets you discover which terms you overuse, which regions are inconsistent and how you might more easily link your ideas. Overall, this is a tremendous tool that will certainly help you refine your writing (albeit you have to pay for accessing the full range of capabilities).

Compatibility:  iOS, Windows, and Mac, it has a free trial, $70/year membership with limited features.

Writing begins with an excellent piece of concept. Every item you write starts with one idea: a word, a character, a place, or something. Then, it becomes problematic when you try to figure out how to develop your concept and make it a whole, and for this, iMindMap has a solution.

This app allows you to map your brain and creative processes essentially. You may design sophisticated flowcharts from a simple base to highlight the progression of a concept. iMindMap presents you with the fantastic technique to convert a clutch of ideas into a unified structure for a writer with troubles keeping them all in place.

Compatibility : it runs on all iPhone and iPad Notepad apps.

Hemingway is a handy tool and an intelligent tribute to one of the finest writers of the twentieth century; it is a must-have for every writer who enjoys shorter and pleasant things. The pure prose base app delivers reviews on the length of a phrase, use of the word, passive voice and adverbs, and some basic things that can yet make or break a single part.

The software uses colored highlights to assist you in cutting the space in each area and identify the reading level of the text to guarantee that your target audience is the proper one.

Compatibility:  iOS, Mac, and Web. It is accessible online and also has a $19.99 license fee.

While Scrivener and Ulysses is an all-around writing app, Plottr was established with one core aim, which is helping you to outline and plot your writings.

If you are a story writer, Plottr is the best app for you. This application helps you build your scene, plots quickly, and acts which its in-built interface enables you to arrange, rearrange, color coordination, and filter until your story starts flowing and begins to make sense to you.

Compatibility:  it runs on iOS and Mac; its flat fee is $25.

Squibler is a sleek new app to help you write more rapidly and cleverly. It recognizes that the completion and publication of drafts are much more than just drafting them. The software is designed to assist you with everything. And that’s what it does with delicacy.

Squibler’s objective is to allow you to organize your writing best to make it clear.

Squibler provides this with a range of tools to support you in your organizing, tracking, motivating, and storing all your research and ideas in a safe and accessible location.

Compatibility:  iOS and a free 2-week trial and $9 per month after trial.

Pages may not be as popular as Google Docs, but they do contain more excellent information. The calling card pages are its skill to write exceptional documents.

Pages make it possible to create practically any kind of document that seems distinctive with many templates and custody options.

Compatibility:  iOS

You do not need to bother about your writing skills; all you need is the perfect app running on your iPhone and works perfectly for your writing style. You can choose any writing app from the above and keep your writing experience enjoyable.

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Appreciate the effort, Any chance of re-writing this around what is arguably the most important formatting feature – font size and margin that Corresponds to the small real estate of the iPhone. I’ve used a lot of these apps – they are pinching / re-sizing nightmares. Would love to see a re-do on this one. The demand for a user-friendly iphone writing app is there. We just need more focus on the information side.

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How to Write a Personal Essay for Your College Application

What does it take to land in the “accept” (instead of “reject”) pile?

How can you write an essay that helps advance you in the eyes of the admissions officers and makes a real impression? Here are some tips to get you started.

• Start early.  Do not leave it until the last minute. Give yourself time when you don’t have other homework or extracurriculars hanging over your head to work on the essay.
• Keep the focus narrow.  Your essay does not have to cover a massive, earth-shattering event. Some people in their teens haven’t experienced a major life event. Some people have. Either way, it’s okay.
• Be yourself.  Whether writing about a painful experience or a more simple experience, use the narrative to be vulnerable and honest about who you are. Use words you would normally use. Trust your voice and the fact that your story is interesting enough in that no one else has lived it.
• Be creative.  “Show, don’t tell,” and that applies here — to an extent. The best essays typically do both. You can help your reader see and feel what you are describing by using some figurative language throughout your piece.
• Make a point. As you finish your final body paragraphs ask yourself “So what?” This will help you hone in on how to end your essay in a way that elevates it into a story about an insight or discovery you made about yourself, rather than just being about an experience you had.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

We’ve all heard about the dreaded “college essay,” the bane of every high school senior’s existence. This daunting element of the college application is something that can create angst for even the most accomplished students.

• AA Amy Allen is a writer, educator, and lifelong learner. Her freelance writing business,  All of the Write Words , focuses on providing high school students with one-on-one feedback to guide them through the college application process and with crafting a thoughtful personal essay. A dedicated poet, Amy’s work has also been published in several journals including  Pine Row Press ,  Months to Years,  and  Atlanta Review .

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, getting college essay help: important do's and don’ts.

College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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How to Use an iPhone for Writing your Novel

I’m a commercially published author, so I’ve been through the process of writing a novel several times and know that inspiration can strike at any time. I’ve learnt that I need to write things down immediately before I forget them. Scraps of paper are fine for scribbled reminders, but transcribing the scribbles is painful and these days I have my iPhone with me practically all the time.

I’m working on a new novel, so decided to experiment with using my iPhone for writing, see how practical it is and pass my experiences on to you.

By the way: most of this advice should apply to Android and Windows phones too, but as I only have an iPhone, I can only be certain it works for iPhone. As with my recommendations for  novel writing software,  I use everything in this article for real, and I’m getting no kickbacks for recommending anything.

Using an iPhone for writing: What’s the point?

It’s all about being able to write anywhere.

I travel a lot and sometimes I just don’t want to take my MacBook with me, so it’s great to have an even more portable option.

There are three ways of using an iPhone for writing: an external keyboard, voice dictation (Siri), and the on-screen keyboard. Let’s see what the strengths and weaknesses of each are.

Writing on iPhone using an external keyboard

You need a couple of things to make this work:

• A bluetooth keyboard

The stand I use is a Joby GripTight Micro. This has the advantage of folding down to almost nothing. You can see it folded up in the picture above (in the saucer of the coffee cup).

Once I fold the GripTight Micro out, it holds my iPhone at a good angle for work. Here’s how it looks when deployed:

The GripTight Micro is available on Amazon US here and Amazon UK here .

The keyboard I use is the iRocks foldable Bluetooth keyboard. I found my iPhone recognised it immediately (of course you have to remember to turn Bluetooth on in the iPhone settings first).

When folded, the keyboard is a bit bigger than an iPhone, and it weighs about the same as the phone too. It folds out to about 90% of the size of a laptop keyboard. The keys have a ‘proper keyboard’ feel, though the space bar is quite small.

Here’s how it looks when deployed:

Similar bluetooth keyboards are available on Amazon and eBay. The keyboard I got was it had a UK keyboard layout – remember to check that whichever keyboard you think of buying has a layout that suits you.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The major advantage of an iPhone + keyboard combination is that it’s suitable for proper ‘sit down and get on with it’ writing. You can write thousands of words with this setup.

The combination is also about a quarter of the size and half the weight of a Macbook. An iPhone 6, bluetooth keyboard and stand weighs 1lb/450g. A 12″ Macbook weighs 2lb/900g and a Macbook Air is slightly heavier.

Considering that most people carry a phone anyway, an iPhone + keyboard combination is a lot more portable than even the smallest, lightest MacBook, let alone bigger laptops.

The disadvantage is it requires forethought and setup. Though this combination is smaller and lighter than a MacBook, the keyboard isn’t really small enough to carry around in a pocket just in case, unless you have huge pockets. You also need to sit down at a table of some sort to write.

Another issue is that you still need to use the iPhone’s touchscreen occasionally, which is a little awkward. The iPhone doesn’t support a Bluetooth mouse or trackpad, so they’re not an option.

Overall though, this is a workable combination for first draft writing and worth considering when travelling light.

Writing on iPhone using Siri

The big advantage of using Apple’s Siri voice dictation is it’s something you can do hands free. For example, you can dictate part of your novel while walking somewhere.

Tip You activate voice dictation from the iPhone’s on-screen keyboard by pressing the key with a microphone symbol on it – which is just to the left of the space bar.

You need to remember to say all your punctuation and formatting. This is initially annoying, but it gets easier with practice. Some voice commands to remember are:

• Punctuation: full stop, comma, exclamation mark etc. are all recognised.
• ‘New Paragraph’ and ‘New Line’ are both recognised.
• ‘Single quote’ and ‘Double quote’ – for dialogue.

Apple’s Siri voice recognition works, but it has drawbacks. For me at least, the accuracy is not 100% and I end up having to check anything I dictate. In particular, Siri doesn’t recognise the names of characters. Accuracy is better with a microphone and if I speak a little more precisely than normal.

I’ve also found that the voice dictation has a tendency to cut out, which can be annoying.

Obviously, talking to your phone is not always practical, particularly if you are self-conscious.

Siri voice dictation is probably best used when you are writing dialogue and know exactly what you want to say. If you’re ‘on a roll’ and can almost act out the scene, Siri really comes into its own.

Writing on iPhone using the on-screen keyboard

The primary advantage of the on-screen keyboard is that it’s the ultimate ‘write anywhere’ solution.

It’s not really possible to use either an external keyboard or Siri dictation when you are standing in a crowded train, for example, but you can always use the on-screen keyboard.

The drawback is the small size of the on-screen keyboard, which makes text entry relatively slow. And there’s the dreaded auto-correct, which can get pretty annoying and is better turned off for creative writing.

I found the on-screen keyboard most useful for basic editing. After dictating a passage using Siri, checking it over, adding missed punctuation and fixing spelling mistakes is where the on-screen keyboard is the best solution.

Writing on iPhone: Software

To use the iPhone for writing you need a word processing app. I use Microsoft Word for iOS and iA Writer.

Microsoft Word

One important thing when writing on iPhone is storage and sharing work with your other devices. Word for iOS can save work to Microsoft’s OneDrive or to Dropbox.

I found Microsoft Word worked well on the iPhone, particularly in ‘re-flow’ mode where it ignores print formatting and displays better for the screen. The ‘pinch to zoom’ functionality made it easy to get the text to the right size, which is particularly useful when using the iPhone + external keyboard combination.

If you use Microsoft Word elsewhere, then using on the iPhone too is the simplest option. I recommend it particularly for use with the iPhone + external keyboard combination.

Microsoft Word for iOS is available here.  You’ll need a subscription to Office365 for full functionality.

I use iA Writer on my MacBook for first draft writing. Because iA Writer assumes you are holding the phone, it has a fixed font size that’s too small to work with the external keyboard setup. Ia Writer is good with Siri and the on-screen keyboard though. It has the advantage of simplicity with no options to fiddle with.

iA Writer uses Apple’s iDisk for storage. It’s available here.

Other Useful iPhone Writing Apps

Other creative writing apps I use on my iPhone for writing are:

• Dropbox, for saving and synchronising documents,  here
• Dictionary, which includes a thesaurus,  here
• Wikipedia, useful for checking facts,  here
• Apple’s Books, for reading (you should have this if you are on the latest version of iOS)
• Kindle, for reading books,  here
• To help me focus (see my article on the Pomodoro Technique ) I’ve found the  Pomodoro Keeper  app is good.

Overall, I think the iPhone has a place in the writer’s life. To sum up my advice:

• The iPhone + stand + external keyboard + Microsoft Word combination is ideal for first draft writing on trains, planes and in cafes.
• iPhone voice dictation is good for writing dialogue-heavy scenes hands free.
• The on-screen keyboard is usable for editing when the other options aren’t possible.

Agree? Disagree?

If you’d like to discuss any issues related to writing on iPhone, please  email me.  Otherwise, feel free to share the article using the buttons below.

Related posts:

81 iPhone Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Want to write an essay or research paper on iPhone? This line of smartphones is considered iconic by many. It is definitely worth writing about!

🏆 A+ iPhone Essay Examples

📌 best topics about iphone, 📱 controversial iphone topics for essays, 💡 top iphone research paper topics.

Introduced in 2007, the line of smartphones by Apple has become one the world’s most popular. iPhones use iOS, one of the two largest smartphone platforms in the world. They form a large part of the luxury tech market.

Looking for an iPhone research paper topic? Here you’ll find essay examples, title ideas, & topics about iPhone. Write your A+ paper with us!

• Apple Marketing Objectives and Strategies: Iphone | Report These forces include the following; the nature and intensity of the competition in the industry, the bargaining power of suppliers, the buying power of consumers, the threat posed by substitute products and finally the threat […]
• Apple Distribution Channels Research Paper: Direct & Indirect Distribution of iPhone Apple experts operating in the field of distribution management understood that the channels of promotion of iPhone products should be strikingly different from those used for the promotion of existing products such as Mac or […]
• iPhone Operating Systems Analysis The user interface of the iPhone Operating System is characterized by direct manipulation of the interface items and a multi-touch approach which involves the use of screen synaptic to control the components of the iPhone.
• Iphone Demand and Supply Theories Since the launch, of the Iphone, it is evident that the demand of the product has been increasing, and there is fear that the latter may be overlapping the supply of the product.
• IPhone Production and Its Impact on Community The production of the iPhone product is a complex multi-stage process which impacts local communities and creates global phenomena that have long-lasting consequences for society and the environment.
• iPhone: Consumer Behavior Its marketing concept is oriented through several alternative approaches towards doing business, and they are referred to as the production concept, the product concept, and the selling concept.
• Apple iPhone At the very beginning this company specialized in the production and marketing of computer kits and different components such as mother boards. At the end of this period, the company found itself virtually on the […]
• The Augmented Product Concept: iPhone 6 First, it is a gadget that has most of the features that customers are likely to look for when making a decision to buy an iPhone.
• Apple iPhone 4 Marketing Strategy Apple is the only iPhone merchandises-manufacturing company that enjoyed a lot of profit after the development and launch of the Apple iPhone 4 in June 2007.
• Analysis of Apple’s “Privacy on iPhone” Commercial The promise to keep users’ activities on the web or on iPhone a secret constitutes the Pathos strategy of Apple’s recent ad.
• Apple’s iPhone 5s Marketing Plan This feature will improve the likelihood of the iPhone 5s penetrating a wide market and to cope with the competition, the firm will undertake continuous improvement on the iPhone 5s in order to take into […]
• Purchasing Behavior: iPhone 5 The ultra-slim design of the iPhone 5 makes it powerful and admirable. The iPhone 5 is a competent and sophisticated product.
• The iPhone’s Main Features and Productivity The sophistication of the iPhone is reiterated by Jacko who is of the opinion that the exquisite look of the gadget coupled with the touch screen effectiveness has made many other firms come groping for […]
• Apple’s iPhone Marketing and Pricing Strategy In addition to the pricing issues that saw the beginning of conflict between Apple and its consumers the company is also restricting access to the product both in the US and Europe by selecting only […]
• The Apple iPhone: Commodity Chain Analysis Some of the products include the the Apple brand of electronics such computer, the apple laptop, the iPod, the iPad, iMac,soft wares such as the Mac OS X operating system, the Macintosh computer and the […]
• IPhone as a Product That Isn’t Worth Its Cost As a result, iPhones are not worth the cost and people only buy them because of the brand’s image.iPhones are the most expensive smartphones that exist in the market at the moment.
• Apple’s iPhone Supply Chain For this reason, this paper is devoted to a comprehensive investigation of the supply chain for Apple’s iPhone as a factor, as mentioned above, that contributes to the company’s outstanding results.
• Analyzing the iPhone as an Artifact At the time of the release of the first iPhone, it was a challenge for thinking and action for the whole world.
• Apple’s iPhone in the Technology Market From this, it can be concluded that the iPhone has high strength in the industry sector of the market, and the current business strategies of the conglomerate allow the company to strengthen its position stronger.
• Bendable iPhone. Target Audience for a New Product For this reason, the mission for the following project can be formulated in the following way: The brand’s mission is to ensure that its clients will enjoy advantages provided by high-quality bendable iPhones and benefit […]
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IvyPanda. (2023, September 26). 81 iPhone Essay Topic Ideas & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/iphone-essay-topics/

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How to edit a PDF on iPhone

PDFs might seem like a blast from the past, but they are still in heavy use when filling in official forms, online submissions, and various other documentation. Interacting with them can seem like a pain, with some people resorting to printing them off to fill them in, then scanning the finished document to email it to the recipient. 

But, you don’t have to go through that convoluted process. You can open and edit PDFs on your iPhone with ease using the markup tools that are built into iOS. Just open the PDF on your iPhone and access the markup tools via either the pen icon or the icon that looks like a pen and a box with three dots. Here you will find drawing tools as well as the ability to select a block to add text to.

We’ll run through these free tools provided by Apple below and also recommend a few third-party apps for a bit more flexibility. Read on to find out how to use Apple’s tools to edit a PDF on iPhone.

Create or open the PDF on your iPhone

Before you’re able to edit a PDF, you need to locate and open it. The PDF might have been emailed to you, in which case, you can click on the PDF in the email to open it on your iPhone.

Alternatively, the PDF might be on a webpage. Click on the PDF to open it and edit. When you are finished the PDF can saved and then found in the Files app on your iPhone – just search in Recents to find the PDF.

Or you might even need to save the page as a PDF yourself, in which case follow these steps:

• Open the webpage or document you wish to turn into a PDF.
• Choose the Share option (the box with an arrow at the bottom of the screen).
• From the share sheet that appears, swipe across the app icons and select the Books icon.
• The PDF will be created and it will be saved as a PDF in Apple Books.

There are alternative ways to create a PDF on an iPhone here: How to make a PDF on iPhone .

Once you have the PDF file on your iPhone, select it you are ready to read or edit the contents. 

Want help scanning in a PDF so you can fill in? Here’s how to scan documents on iPhone .

Adding a signature to a PDF on iPhone

One of the most common ways that people need to edit PDFs is to add a signature. This could be to sign a contract agreement or anything that requires you to prove your compliance with what’s in the document. Thankfully, this is easy on iPhone. 

Open the PDF and then select the Edit button (this looks like a circle with a pen inside). 

Martyn Casserly

Now to the ‘+’ icon and choose Add Signature or Signature from the pop-up menu.  

You’ll be presented with either a selection of signatures you’ve previously created or, if this is the first time, or you need to create a new signature, select the Add or Remove Signature option. 

Create a signature by drawing it on your iPhone screen with your finger or a stylus, then tap Done . 

Now your signature will appear in a box on the document. Simply drag it into place and resize it to add the signature.

When you’re done, tap anywhere other than the box to leave the signature in place. 

Add text to a PDF on iPhone

If you need to fill out a text field in a PDF, then your iPhone makes this easy to do as well. Follow the same steps outlined above: tap on the pen icon, then tap on +, but this time instead of selecting ( Add ) Signature , choose the ( Add ) Text option instead. 

A text box will appear on the form, so just move it to the correct place, adjust the size, then double tap the Text section of the box and type in the words you want to use.

Tapping the AA icon on the bottom row opens up the text menu, from which you can select the font and size of the text. When you’re done, just tap outside the box and your text should be left on the form. 

There is another even more precise way to add text to a PDF if the PDF has been set up with fields in it.

In fact, in this case, you may even be offered help to AutoFill the form. Should you see an option to AutoFill Form Tap on it and the fields will be selected for you to fill in. The fields that are editable will be highlighted blue, and you may even get suggestions of what to enter, such as your name or address in the correct fields, depending on whether this is set up on your iPhone.

If you don’t automatically see a pop-up offering to help AutoFill the form tap on the AutoFill icon, which looks like a pen and three dots in a box and you will be able to edit the fields in the PDF.

Annotate a PDF on iPhone

Sometimes you might want to highlight areas of a PDF, particularly if you’re working on it with a friend or colleague, so in those instances, you can use the annotation tools available on the iPhone.

To do this, open the PDF, tap on it, then you’ll see the row of tools appear on the bottom of the screen.

From there you can choose the highlighter by tapping on it. If you want to adjust the thickness of the pen stroke, just tap it again and a pop-up menu will appear with the various sizes available. There’s also the opacity shown on the slider beneath, so you can make the strokes either see-through or solid. 

On the right, next to the ’+’ button, there’s a circle that displays the current color of the highlighter. Tap this can you can use the palette to change it to the tone your prefer.

Aside from the highlighter, you can choose the pen tool, marker, eraser and other ones to add the kind of annotation that you desire. 

If you make a mistake at any point, just tap the Undo icon (arrow curved towards the left) to remove the last annotation. 

That’s it, a free and easy way to annotate PDFs on your iPhone. If you want to try the same thing on a bigger screen, then you can check out our how to edit PDFs on a Mac guide. 

Best iPhone apps for editing PDFs

For more refined PDF editing on your iPhone try some of these tools, all of which are cross-platform, with versions available for the Mac as well. In fact, we have reviewed all of these in our round-up of the Best PDF editors for Mac .

• Readdle PDF Expert. Create, edit and annotate PDFs. Merge PDFs together. From $9.99/£9.99. Get it from the iOS App Store here .
• Abbyy FineReader. Scan PDFs, extract text and edit PDFs. From $2.99/£2.99. Get it from the iOS App Store here .
• Adobe Acrobat Sign. Free app to fill in and sign PDFs. Get it from the iOS App Store here .
• Wondershare PDFelement. Edit, read, sign, and annotate PDFs. From £6.99 for PDF Editor and Scanner. Get it from the iOS App Store here .
• Foxit Reader. View, edit and sign PDFs. From £10.49 a year. Get it from the iOS App Store here .

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How to fill out and sign PDF forms on iPhone and iPad

Filling out and signing forms using only an iPhone is easier than you think.

Having to fill out a form is an inevitable fact of life, and digital forms continue to be based on their paper-oriented cousins. The Mac has long had tools available to help manage, fill and sign forms , but sometimes you only have an iPhone or iPad available where you are.

Recent updates to iOS and iPadOS make it much easier to complete these documents on your smaller-device screens, without any requirement for third party apps. If you fill out a lot of forms on a routine basis, one of those apps may be of even more help.

Filling out a PDF form on iPad or iPhone

Before you begin, there's a simple step that will save you a lot of time and trouble the more often you fill out forms.

Before you begin, make sure your card in Contacts has all the usual information. Name, date of birth, current address, phone numbers and more can be autofilled if they are present in the "My Card" contact in the Contacts app.

If you've been sent a form you need to fill out in PDF format, just tap on it on your iPhone or iPad. It will open in a Markup screen.

Next, tap one of the boxes in the form, such as "Last Name" or "Address." You may see a pop-up bubble that offers to pull that information from the contact card.

You may also see contact info displayed in the predictive text field in the on-screen keyboard. If neither of these are available, tap the small icon that looks like three dots and a pen at the bottom of the screen, and type in the correct response.

If you're filling out a form on behalf of a family member or friend, add their information into Contacts first. When you tap on a field, tap the "Choose Other" option to fill in someone else's information.

You may need to move the page around, or move to other pages in the PDF to fill out further fields. When all the required boxes have been filled out, tap the "Done" button in the upper right of the screen if no signature is required.

When a signature is required

Many forms, especially those based on paper originals, want a signature in order to be complete. You can create a signature ahead of time, or as you're filling out the form.

First, open a PDF form on your iPhone or iPad by tapping on the form. If you're just creating a signature for future use, any kind of PDF file will do.

The PDF will open in Markup. Tap the plus sign in the lower right corner of the screen, and choose Add Signature from the pop-up options.

This will create a blank area where you can sign using your finger or a stylus. For the best resemblance to your written signature, use a stylus for the iPhone, and an Apple Pencil or another stylus on the iPad.

You can label the signature with pre-set labels such as "Legal Name" or create your own label. You can have more than one signature available for future use.

Once you're happy with the signature you've created, tap the Done button. You can then resize and place the signature on the PDF document in the right place.

Tap Done once the signature is in the right place, and the PDF will be resaved to include both any form responses you filled in, and your signature. The completed form can now be emailed or texted away, with your copy saved for future reference.

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What is ChatGPT and why does it matter? Here's what you need to know

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot with natural language processing (NLP) that allows you to have human-like conversations to complete various tasks. The  generative AI  tool can answer questions and assist you with tasks such as composing emails, essays, code, and more.

Also :  How to use ChatGPT: What you need to know now

It's currently  open to use for free . A paid subscription version called ChatGPT Plus launched in February 2023 with access to priority access to OpenAI's latest models and updates.

Who made ChatGPT?

AI startup OpenAI launched ChatGPT on November 30, 2022. OpenAI has also developed  DALL-E 2  and DALL-E 3 , popular  AI image generators , and Whisper, an automatic speech recognition system. 

Who owns ChatGPT currently?

OpenAI owns ChatGPT. Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI thanks to multiyear, multi-billion dollar  investments. Elon Musk was an investor when OpenAI was first founded in 2015, but has since completely severed ties with the startup and created his own AI chatbot, Grok .

How can you access ChatGPT?

On April 1, 2024, OpenAI stopped requiring you to log in to use ChatGPT. Now, you can access ChatGPT simply by visiting  chat.openai.com . You can also access ChatGPT  via an app on your iPhone  or  Android  device.

Once you visit the site, you can start chatting away with ChatGPT. A great way to get started is by asking a question, similar to what you would do with Google. You can ask as many questions as you'd like.

Also: ChatGPT no longer requires a login, but you might want one anyway. Here's why

There are still some perks to creating an OpenAI account, such saving and reviewing your chat history and accessing custom instructions. Creating an OpenAI account is entirely free and easy. You can even log in with your Google account.

For step-by-step instructions, check out ZDNET's guide on  how to start using ChatGPT . 

Is there a ChatGPT app?

Yes, an official ChatGPT app is available for both iPhone and Android users. 

Also: ChatGPT dropped a free app for iPhones. Does it live up to the hype?

Make sure to download OpenAI's app, as there are a plethora of copycat fake apps listed on Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store that are not affiliated with the startup.

Is ChatGPT available for free?

ChatGPT is free to use, regardless of what you use it for, including writing, coding, and much more. 

There is a subscription option , ChatGPT Plus, that users can take advantage of that costs $20/month. The paid subscription model guarantees users extra perks, such as priority access to GPT-4o and the latest upgrades. 

Also: ChatGPT vs ChatGPT Plus: Is it worth the subscription fee?

Although the subscription price may seem steep, it is the same amount as Microsoft Copilot Pro and Google One AI, Microsoft's and Google's premium AI offerings. 

The free version is still a solid option as it can access the same model and most of the same perks. One major exception: only subscribers get guaranteed access to GPT-4o when the model is at capacity. 

I tried using ChatGPT and it says it's at capacity. What does that mean?

The ChatGPT website operates using servers. When too many people hop onto these servers, they may overload and can't process your request. If this happens to you, you can visit the site later when fewer people are trying to access the tool. You can also keep the tab open and refresh it periodically. 

Also: The best AI chatbots

If you want to skip the wait and have reliable access, you can subscribe to  ChatGPT Plus  for general access during peak times, faster response times, and priority access to new features and improvements, including priority access to GPT-4o.

You can also try using Bing's AI chatbot, Copilot . This chatbot is free to use, runs on GPT-4, has no wait times, and can access the internet for more accurate information.

What is ChatGPT used for?

ChatGPT has many functions in addition to answering simple questions. ChatGPT can compose essays , have philosophical conversations, do math, and even code for you . 

The tasks ChatGPT can help with also don't have to be so ambitious. For example, my favorite use of ChatGPT is for help creating basic lists for chores, such as packing and grocery shopping, and to-do lists that make my daily life more productive. The possibilities are endless. 

ZDNET has published many ChatGPT how-to guides. Below are some of the most popular ones. 

Use ChatGPT to: 

• Write an essay
• Create an app
• Build your resume
• Write Excel formulas
• Summarize content
• Write a cover letter
• Start an Etsy business
• Create charts and tables
• Write Adruino drivers

Can ChatGPT generate images?

Yes, ChatGPT can generate images, but only for ChatGPT Plus subscribers. Since OpenAI discontinued DALL-E 2 in February 2024, the only way to access its most advanced AI image generator, DALL-E 3, through OpenAI's offerings is via its chatbot and ChatGPT Plus subscription.

Also: DALL-E adds new ways to edit and create AI-generated images. Learn how to use it

Microsoft's Copilot offers image generation, which is also powered by DALL-E 3, in its chatbot for free. This is a great alternative if you don't want to shell out the money for ChatGPT Plus.

How does ChatGPT work?

ChatGPT runs on a large language model (LLM) architecture created by OpenAI called the  Generative Pre-trained Transformer  (GPT). Since its launch, the free version of ChatGPT ran on a fine-tuned model in the GPT-3.5 series until May 2024, when the startup upgraded the model to GPT-4o. 

Also:   Here's a deep dive into how ChatGPT works  

With a subscription to ChatGPT Plus , you can access GPT-3.5, GPT-4, or  GPT-4o . Plus, users also have the added perk of priority access to GPT-4o, even when it is at capacity, while free users get booted down to GPT-3.5. 

Generative AI models of this type are trained on vast amounts of information from the internet, including websites, books, news articles, and more.

What does ChatGPT stand for?

As mentioned above, the last three letters in ChatGPT's namesake stand for Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT), a family of large language models created by OpenAI that uses deep learning to generate human-like, conversational text. 

Also: What does GPT stand for? Understanding GPT 3.5, GPT 4, GPT-4 Turbo, and more

The "Chat" part of the name is simply a callout to its chatting capabilities. 

Is ChatGPT better than a search engine?

ChatGPT is a language model created to converse with the end user. A search engine indexes web pages on the internet to help users find information. One is not better than the other, as each suit different purposes. 

When searching for as much up-to-date, accurate information as you can access, your best bet is a search engine. It will provide you with pages upon pages of sources you can peruse. 

Also: The best AI search engines of 2024: Google, Perplexity, and more

As of May, the free version of ChatGPT can get responses from both the GPT-4o model and the web. It will only pull its answer from, and ultimately list, a handful of sources, as opposed to showing nearly endless search results.

For example, I used GPT-4o to answer, "What is the weather today in San Francisco?" The response told me it searched four sites and provided links to them. 

If you are looking for a platform that can explain complex topics in an easy-to-understand manner, then ChatGPT might be what you want. If you want the best of both worlds, there are plenty of AI search engines on the market that combine both.

What are ChatGPT's limitations?

Despite its impressive capabilities, ChatGPT still has limitations. Users sometimes need to reword questions multiple times for ChatGPT to understand their intent. A bigger limitation is a lack of quality in responses, which can sometimes be plausible-sounding but are verbose or make no practical sense. 

Instead of asking for clarification on ambiguous questions, the model guesses what your question means, which can lead to poor responses. Generative AI models are also subject to hallucinations, which can result in inaccurate responses.

Does ChatGPT give wrong answers?

As mentioned above, ChatGPT, like all language models, has  limitations  and can give nonsensical answers and incorrect information, so it's important to double-check the data it gives you.

Also: 8 ways to reduce ChatGPT hallucinations

OpenAI recommends that you provide feedback on what ChatGPT generates by using the thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons to improve its underlying model. You can even join the startup's Bug Bounty program , which offers up to $20,000 for reporting security bugs and safety issues.

Can ChatGPT refuse to answer my prompts?

AI systems like ChatGPT can and do reject  inappropriate requests . The AI assistant can identify inappropriate submissions to prevent the generation of unsafe content.

Also:  6 things ChatGPT can't do (and another 20 it refuses to do)

These submissions include questions that violate someone's rights, are offensive, are discriminatory, or involve illegal activities. The ChatGPT model can also challenge incorrect premises, answer follow-up questions, and even admit mistakes when you point them out.

These guardrails are important. AI models can generate advanced, realistic content that can be exploited by bad actors for harm, such as spreading misinformation about public figures and influencing elections .

Can I chat with ChatGPT?

Although some people use ChatGPT for elaborate functions, such as writing code or even malware , you can use ChatGPT for more mundane activities, such as having a friendly conversation. 

Also:  Do you like asking ChatGPT questions? You could get paid (a lot) for it

Some conversation starters could be as simple as, "I am hungry, what food should I get?" or as elaborate as, "What do you think happens in the afterlife?" Either way, ChatGPT is sure to have an answer for you. 

Is ChatGPT safe?

People are expressing concerns about AI chatbots replacing or atrophying human intelligence. For example, a chatbot can write an article on any topic efficiently (though not necessarily accurately) within seconds, potentially eliminating the need for human writers.

Chatbots can also write an entire essay within seconds, making it easier for students to cheat or avoid learning how to write properly. This even led  some school districts to block access  when ChatGPT initially launched. 

Also:  Generative AI can be the academic assistant an underserved student needs

Now, not only have many of those schools decided to unblock the technology, but some higher education institutions have been  catering their academic offerings  to AI-related coursework. 

Another concern with AI chatbots is the possible spread of misinformation. ChatGPT itself says: "My responses are not intended to be taken as fact, and I always encourage people to verify any information they receive from me or any other source." OpenAI also notes that ChatGPT sometimes writes "plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers."

Also:  Microsoft and OpenAI detect and disrupt nation-state cyber threats that use AI, report shows

Lastly, there are ethical concerns regarding the information ChatGPT was trained on, since the startup scraped the internet to train the chatbot. 

It also automatically uses people's interactions with the free version of the chatbot to further train its models, raising privacy concerns. OpenAI lets you turn off training in ChatGPT's settings.

Does ChatGPT plagiarize?

Yes, sort of. OpenAI scraped the internet to train ChatGPT. Therefore, the technology's knowledge is influenced by other people's work. Since there is no guarantee that when OpenAI outputs its answers it is entirely original, the chatbot may regurgitate someone else's work in your answer, which is considered plagiarism. 

Is there a ChatGPT detector?

Concerns about students using AI to cheat mean the need for a ChatGPT text detector is becoming more evident. 

In January 2023, OpenAI released a free tool to target this problem. Unfortunately, OpenAI's "classifier" tool could only correctly identify 26% of AI-written text with a "likely AI-written" designation. Furthermore, it provided false positives 9% of the time, incorrectly identifying human-written work as AI-produced. 

The tool performed so poorly  that, six months after being released, OpenAI it shut down "due to its low rate of accuracy." Despite the tool's failure, the startup claims to be researching more effective techniques for AI text identification.

Also: OpenAI unveils text-to-video model and the results are astonishing

Other AI detectors exist on the market, including GPT-2 Output Detector ,  Writer AI Content Detector , and Content at Scale's AI Content Detection  tool. ZDNET put these tools to the test, and the results were underwhelming: all three were found to be unreliable sources for spotting AI, repeatedly giving false negatives. Here are  ZDNET's full test results .

What are the common signs something was written by ChatGPT?

Although tools aren't sufficient for detecting ChatGPT-generated writing, a  study  shows that humans could detect AI-written text by looking for politeness. The study's results indicate that  ChatGPT's writing style is extremely polite . And unlike humans, it cannot produce responses that include metaphors, irony, or sarcasm.

Will my conversations with ChatGPT be used for training?

One of the major risks when using generative AI models is that they become more intelligent by being trained on user inputs. Therefore, when familiarizing yourself with how to use ChatGPT, you might wonder if your specific conversations will be used for training and, if so, who can view your chats.

Also:  This ChatGPT update fixed one of my biggest productivity issues with the AI chatbot

OpenAI will use your conversations with the free chatbot to automatically training data to refine its models. You can opt out of the startup using your data for model training by clicking on the question mark in the bottom left-hand corner, Settings, and turning off "Improve the model for everyone."

What is GPT-4?

GPT-4 is OpenAI's language model that is much more advanced than its predecessor, GPT-3.5. Users can access GPT-4 by subscribing to ChatGPT Plus for $20 per month or using Microsoft's Copilot.

Also: What does GPT stand for? Understanding GPT-3.5, GPT-4, and more

GPT-4 has advanced intellectual capabilities, meaning it outperforms GPT-3.5 in a series of simulated benchmark exams. The newer model also supposedly produces fewer hallucinations. 

What is GPT-4o?

GPT-4o is OpenAI's latest, fastest, and most advanced flagship model. As the name implies, it has the same intelligence as GPT-4. However, the "o" in the title stands for "omni," referring to its multimodal capabilities, which allow it to understand text, audio, image, and video inputs and output text, audio, and image outputs. 

Also:  6 ways OpenAI just supercharged ChatGPT for free users

The model is 50% cheaper in the API than GPT-4 Turbo while still matching its English and coding capabilities and outperforming it in non-English languages, vision, and audio understanding -- a big win for developers.

Are there alternatives to ChatGPT worth considering?

Although ChatGPT gets the most buzz, other options are just as good -- and might even be better suited to your needs. ZDNET has created a list of the best chatbots, which have all been tested by us and show which tool is best for your requirements. 

Also: 4 things Claude AI can do that ChatGPT can't

Despite ChatGPT's extensive abilities, there are major downsides to the AI chatbot. If you want to try the technology, there are plenty of other options: Copilot , Claude , Perplexity ,  Jasper , and more.  

Is ChatGPT smart enough to pass benchmark exams?

Yes, ChatGPT is capable of passing a series of benchmark exams. A professor at Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania's business school, used ChatGPT to take an MBA exam and the results were quite impressive. 

ChatGPT not only passed the exam, but the tool scored between a B- and a B. The professor, Christian Terwiesch, was impressed at its basic operations management, process analysis questions, and explanations.

OpenAI also tested the chatbot's ability to pass benchmark exams. Although ChatGPT could pass many of these benchmark exams, its scores were usually in the lower percentile. However, with GPT-4, ChatGPT can score much higher.

For example, ChatGPT using GPT-3.5 scored in the lower 10th percentile of a simulated Bar Exam, while GPT-4 scored in the top 10th percentile. You can see more examples from OpenAI in the chart below.

Can ChatGPT be used for job application assistance?

Yes, ChatGPT is a great resource to help with job applications. Undertaking a job search can be tedious and difficult, and ChatGPT can help you lighten the load. ChatGPT can build your resume  and write a cover letter .

Also :  How to use ChatGPT to write an essay

If your application has any written supplements, you can use ChatGPT to help you write those essays or personal statements . 

What are the most common ChatGPT plugins, and how do I use them?

Plugins allowed ChatGPT to connect to third-party applications, including access to real-time information on the web. The plugins expanded ChatGPT's abilities , allowing it to assist with many more activities, such as planning a trip or finding a place to eat. 

Also:  My two favorite ChatGPT Plus features and the remarkable things I can do with them

On March 19, 2024, however, OpenAI stopped allowing users to install new plugins or start new conversations with existing ones. Instead, OpenAI replaced plugins with GPTs , which are easier for developers to build. 

Users can find 3 million ChatGPT chatbots, also known as GPTs, on the GPT store. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of spam in the GPT store.

What is Microsoft's involvement with ChatGPT?

Microsoft was an early investor in OpenAI, the AI startup behind ChatGPT, long before ChatGPT was released to the public. Microsoft's first involvement with OpenAI was in 2019, when the company invested $1 billion, and then another $2 billion in the years after. In January 2023, Microsoft extended its partnership with OpenAI through a multiyear, multi-billion dollar investment .

Also: ChatGPT vs. Copilot: Which AI chatbot is better for you?

 Neither company disclosed the investment value, but unnamed sources told Bloomberg that it could total $10 billion over multiple years. In return, OpenAI's exclusive cloud-computing provider is Microsoft Azure, powering all OpenAI workloads across research, products, and API services.

Microsoft has also used its OpenAI partnership to revamp its Bing search engine and improve its browser. 

On February 7, 2023, Microsoft unveiled a new Bing tool , now known as Copilot, that runs on OpenAI's GPT-4, customized specifically for search.

What does Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) have to do with ChatGPT?

In February 2023,  Microsoft unveiled  a new version of Bing -- and its standout feature was its integration with ChatGPT. When it was announced, Microsoft shared that Bing Chat, now Copilot, was powered by a next-generation version of OpenAI's large language model, making it "more powerful than ChatGPT." Five weeks after the launch, Microsoft revealed that Copilot had been running on GPT-4 before the model had even launched. 

How does Copilot compare to ChatGPT?

Copilot uses OpenAI's GPT-4, which means that since its launch, it has been more efficient and capable than the standard, free version of ChatGPT. At the time, Copilot boasted several other features over ChatGPT, such as access to the internet, knowledge of current information, and footnotes.

In May 2024, however, OpenAI supercharged the free version of its chatbot with GPT-4o. The upgrade gave users GPT-4 level intelligence, the ability to get responses from the web via ChatGPT Browse with Bing, analyze data, chat about photos and documents, use GPTs, access the GPT Store, and Voice Mode. Therefore, after the upgrade, ChatGPT reclaimed its crown as the best AI chatbot. 

What is Gemini and how does it relate to ChatGPT?

Gemini is Google's AI chat service, a rival to ChatGPT. On February 6, 2023, Google introduced its experimental AI chat service, which was then called Google Bard. Over a month after the announcement, Google began rolling out  access to Bard first via a waitlist . Now, it is available to the general public. 

Artificial Intelligence

Chatgpt vs. copilot: which ai chatbot is better for you, how to use chatgpt (and how to access gpt-4o), what does gpt stand for understanding gpt-3.5, gpt-4, gpt-4o, and more.

iPhone - Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

The iPhone, introduced by Apple Inc. in 2007, revolutionized the smartphone industry with its intuitive user interface and sleek design. Essays could delve into the impact of the iPhone on mobile communication, exploring how it set new standards for smartphone design and functionality. They might also discuss the economic and cultural implications of the iPhone’s popularity, including its contribution to the app economy and its influence on social behaviors. Discussions might extend to the competition between Apple and other smartphone manufacturers, and how it drives innovation in the mobile technology sector. The discourse may also touch on the criticisms surrounding the iPhone, such as concerns over digital addiction, privacy issues, and the ethical considerations related to its production and environmental footprint. A substantial compilation of free essay instances related to iPhone you can find at Papersowl. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

The Invention of the IPhone

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Android Vs. IPhone

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Apple's iPhones have come along way. To the amount of storage you can hold to the invention of iCloud. The iPhone has changed people's daily lives and have let people experience different experiences. There are several approaches that the company has made to improve a person's experience by advancing the amount of apps and the quality of them. The evolution of the iPhone shows the drastic changes and creations that has improved the content of the product. In 2005, Steve […]

Steve Jobs and Apple Company

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IPhone and Steve Jobs – Essay

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About Apple Multi-Technology Company

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The IPhone and all of its Capabilities

In 2007, a new device was released that changed the lives of so many people around us. During this year, Steve Jobs released the very first iPhone. Steve Jobs and his teamed worked on perfecting this device for nearly three years, and at the time it was cutting edge for all of technology. Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, dreamed of the idea of creating a multitouch screen computer where he could type on the screen in 2005. Jobs knew […]

Optimizing IPhone X Storage: Tips and Tricks

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Supreme Companies such as Supreme and Apple have proven to be superior in their industries when selling luxury brands to a younger demographic. Supreme started off as a small, high-quality clothing shop in downtown Manhattan in 1994 that focused on catering towards skateboarders. With a lack of advertisement to draw in the public’s attention, Supreme relied on word of mouth and foot traffic. Those who knew about the business in its early days, mainly consisted of an elite group of artists, […]

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IPhone App Development and Growing your Business Globally

According to a statistical survey by App Annie, it has been predicted that the market of mobile apps will reach a figure of about 101 billion dollar by 2020. This is an evident idea of the growing market of mobile apps and its huge possibilities which can be experienced in the coming future. For going into the depth of the competitive market of iPhone app development, you need to have purposeful apps for engaging and attracting the targeted users. A […]

IPhone Versus Android

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The Long-Lasting Iphone

A. The battery life on smartphones is one of the major concerns with phone users. Which is one of the reasons why the product that we will be developing is a phone that has long lasting battery. Right now, phones are being fueled by lithium batteries, but with our new phone they will be built with nanobatteries instead. It will allow the phone to not only work better but charge better, increase the life time of the phone, and less […]

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History of IPhone

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The Applications Health, Edmodo and IPhone

In 2007, Steve jobs launch the first iPhone and from that day onwards, they have been making groundbreaking changes to both the business and health world. One company deploying has said "The iPhone is not a game changer, it's an industry changer. It changes the way how you can interact with your customers and suppliers" (laudon, 2014). This statement implies that iPhones don't only help you to stay in contact with friends and family but it helps to develop and […]

Popularity of IPhone in Society Nowadays

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Steve Jobs and Hitler: Personal Branding

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Digital Divergence: Navigating the Android Vs. IPhone Tapestry

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ChatGPT: the latest news, controversies, and tips you need to know

ChatGPT has continued to dazzle the internet with AI-generated content, morphing from a novel chatbot into a piece of technology that is driving the next era of innovation. No tech product in recent memory has sparked as much interest, controversy, fear, and excitement.

How to use ChatGPT

How to use the chatgpt iphone and android apps, is chatgpt free to use, who created chatgpt, what do the chatgpt errors mean, latest chatgpt controversies, can chatgpt be detected, common uses for chatgpt, what are chatgpt plugins, is there a chatgpt api.

• What’s the future of ChatGPT and GPT-5?

ChatGPT alternatives worth trying

Other things to know about chatgpt.

If you’re just now catching on, it’d be fair to wonder what the fuss is all about. You can try it out for yourself for free (or use the official free iOS app ), but here’s the detailed guide you’ve been looking for — whether you’re worried about an AI apocalypse or are just looking for an intro guide to the app.

ChatGPT is a natural language AI chatbot . At its most basic level, that means you can ask it any question, and it will generate an answer.

Using the ChatGPT chatbot itself is fairly simple, as all you have to do is type in your text and receive information. The key here is to be creative and see how your ChatGPT responds to different prompts. If you don’t get the intended result, try tweaking your prompt or giving ChatGPT further instructions. ChatGPT knows the context of previous questions you ask, so you can refine from there rather than starting over fresh every time.

For example, starting with “Explain how the solar system was made” will give a more detailed result with more paragraphs than “How was the solar system made,” even though both inquiries will give fairly detailed results. Take it a step further by giving ChatGPT more guidance about style or tone, saying “Explain how the solar system was made as a middle school teacher.”

• ChatGPT not working? The most common problems and fixes
• Macs just got a huge AI boost
• The best ChatGPT plug-ins you can use

You also have the option for more specific inputting requests for an essay with a specific number of paragraphs or a Wikipedia page. We got an extremely detailed result with the request “write a four-paragraph essay explaining Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” And remember, ChatGPT is great at making tweaks to previous answers, so you can always ask for more detail, ask it to rewrite something, or ask it further questions.

To see what it can do, try using ChatGPT in daily life or work activities to see how it can help. Ask it to write emails, craft business proposals, fun date night ideas, or even a best man’s speech. So long as it doesn’t break some of the explicit or illegal content rules, the generator will do its best to fulfill the commands. It’s certainly is potential for ChatGPT to begin filling in gaps with incorrect data. As OpenAI notes, these instances are rare, but AI “hallucinations” certainly do happen . The company also notes that ChatGPT, which uses the GPT-3.5 LLM (large language model), currently has “limited knowledge of world events after 2021.” For more recent knowledge of the world, consider using another tool like Bing Chat .

However, OpenAI recently announced that ChatGPT Plus subscriber, who have access to the GPT-4 model, will be able to search the web for up-to-date information .

Even so, you have the option to input queries continuously until you close your browser or reset the thread to clear your previous requests. These chats are then saved in conversations in the sidebar, even automatically naming the chat. From there, you can manage these chats, renaming or deleting them as needed. You can even “hide” specific chats if needed .

You also have the option to use ChatGPT in dark mode or light mode.

Unlike Bing Chat , which can now generate images with Bing Image Creator and receive images as prompts for questions, ChatGPT only provides text outputs. In September 2023, however, OpenAI added the ability for you to use an image or voice as an input for your prompt. It’s currently only available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers.

As opposed to a simple voice assistant like Siri or Google Assistant , ChatGPT is built on what is called an LLM (Large Language Model). These neural networks are trained on huge quantities of information from the internet for deep learning — meaning they generate altogether new responses, rather than just regurgitating specific canned responses. They’re not built for a specific purpose like chatbots of the past — and they’re a whole lot smarter.

This is implied in the name of ChatGPT, which stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer. In the case of the current version of ChatGPT, it’s based on the GPT-3.5 LLM. The model behind ChatGPT was trained on all sorts of web content including websites, books, social media, news articles, and more — all fine-tuned in the language model by both supervised learning and RLHF (Reinforcement Learning From Human Feedback). OpenAI says this use of human AI trainers is really what makes ChatGPT stand out.

First, go to chat.openai.com . If it’s your first time, you’ll need to set up a free account with OpenAI before getting started. You have the option of choosing an easy login with a Google or Microsoft account, or just entering your email address. You’ll be asked next to enter a phone number ; however, keep in mind that you cannot use a virtual phone number (VoIP) to register for OpenAI. You will then receive a confirmation number, which you will enter on the registration page to complete the setup.

You’ll see some basic rules about ChatGPT, including potential errors in data, how OpenAI collects data, and how users can submit feedback — all of which have some wondering about whether or not ChatGPT is safe to use . Once you’re through that, you know you have successfully registered. You’re in!

After many months of anticipation, OpenAI has finally launched an official iOS app that you can go and download today . The app quickly topped half a million downloads in less than a week and is becoming available in an increasing number of countries .

Instructions for using it aren’t dissimilar to the ChatGPT web application. You do get an extra option for signing in using your Apple ID account, but it otherwise functions nearly identically to the web app — just type in your question and let the conversation begin.

The clean interface shows your conversation with GPT in a straightforward manner, hiding the chat history and settings behind the menu in the top right.

For those who are paying for ChatGPT Plus, the app lets you toggle between GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 too. You can even use the microphone to chat with ChatGPT over voice.

As our mobile editor noted in his experience with the app, it still doesn’t provide a connection to the internet like chatbots like Bing Chat and Perplexity .

Users have been asking for Android support for months, and now, a ChatGPT Android app is finally available . You can find it in the Google Play Store, but it’s limited to certain countries at the moment, including the U.S., India, and Brazil.

Some devices go beyond just the app, too. For instance, the Infinix Folax is an Android phone that integrated ChatGPT throughout the device. Instead of just an app, the phone replaces the typical smart assistant (Google Assistant) with ChatGPT.

Yes, the basic version of ChatGPT is completely free to use. There’s no limit to how much you can use ChatGPT in a day, though there is a word and character limit for responses .

It’s not free for OpenAI to continue running it, of course. Initial estimates are currently that OpenAI spends around $3 million per month to continue running ChatGPT, which is around $100,000 per day. A report from April indicated that the price of operation is closer to $700,000 per day .

Beyond the cost of the servers themselves, some egregious information has recently come out about what else has been done to train the language model against producing offensive content.

OpenAI also has a premium version of its chatbot, called ChatGPT Plus . It costs $20 a month but provides access even during peak times, faster responses, and first access to new features like GPT-4 .

ChatGPT was created by an organization called OpenAI, a San Francisco-based AI research lab. The organization started as a non-profit meant for collaboration with other institutions and researchers, funded by high-profile figures like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.

OpenAI later became a for-profit company in 2019 and is now led by its CEO, Sam Altman. It runs on Microsoft’s Azure system infrastructure and is powered by Nvidia’s GPUs, including the new supercomputers just announced this year . Microsoft has invested heavily in OpenAI too, starting in 2019.

Many people attempting to use ChatGPT have been getting an “at capacity” notice when trying to access the site . It’s likely behind the move to try and use unofficial paid apps, which have already flooded app stores  and scammed thousands into paying for a free service.

Because of how much ChatGPT costs to run, it seems as if OpenAI has been limiting access when its servers are “at capacity.” It can take as long as a few hours to wait out, but if you’re patient, you’ll get through eventually. Of all the problems facing ChatGPT right now, this had been the biggest hurdle for keeping people from using it more. In some cases, demand has been so high that ChatGPT has gone down for several hours for maintenance multiple times over the past few months.

This seems to be less of a problem recently, though, as demand has normalized and OpenAI has learned to manage the traffic better, but in the middle of the day, it still makes an appearance from time to time.

Although ChatGPT is a very useful tool, it isn’t free of problems. It’s known for making mistakes or “hallucinations,” where it makes up an answer to something it doesn’t know. A simple example of how unreliable it can sometimes be involved misidentifying the prime minister of Japan .

Beyond just making mistakes, many people are concerned about what this human-like generative AI could mean for the future of the internet, so much so that thousands of tech leaders and prominent public figures have signed a petition to slow down the development. It was even banned in Italy due to privacy concerns, alongside complaints from the FTC — although that’s now been reversed. Since then, the FTC has reopened investigations against OpenAI on questions of personal consumer data is being handled.

Speaking of bans, a number of high-profile companies have been disallowing the use of ChatGPT internally, including Samsung, Amazon, Verizon, and even the United States Congress . Apple is also on the list, though Tim Cook stated that he uses it, just weeks after having it banned .

There’s also the concern that generative AI like ChatGPT could result in the loss of many jobs — as many as 300 million worldwide, according to Goldman Sachs. In particular, it’s taken the spotlight in Hollywood’s writer’s strike , which wants to ensure that AI-written scripts don’t take the jobs of working screenwriters.

Beyond that, multiple controversies have also sprung up around people using ChatGPT to handle tasks that should probably be handled by an actual person. One of the worst cases of this is generating malware, which the FBI recently warned ChatGPT is being used for.

For example, Vanderbilt University’s Peabody School was recently under fire for generating an email about a mass shooting and the importance of community. In addition, JPMorgan Chase is restricting the use of the AI chatbot for workers, especially for generating emails, which companies like Apple have also prohibited internally.

There are also privacy concerns. A recent GDPR complaint says that ChatGPT violates user’s privacy by stealing data from users without their knowledge, and using that data to train the AI model.

Lastly, ChatGPT was even made able to generate Windows 11 keys for free , according to one user. Of course, this is not how ChatGPT was meant to be used, but it’s significant that it was even able to be “tricked” into generating the keys in the first place.

Teachers, school administrators, and developers are already finding different ways around this and banning the use of ChatGPT in schools . Others are more optimistic about how ChatGPT might be used for teaching, but plagiarism is undoubtedly going to continue being an issue in terms of education in the future. There are some ideas about how ChatGPT could “watermark” its text and fix this plagiarism problem, but as of now, detecting ChatGPT is still incredibly difficult to do.

ChatGPT recently launched a new version of its own plagiarism detection tool , with hopes that it will squelch some of the criticism around how people are using the text generation. It uses a new feature called “AI text classifier,” which operates in a way familiar to other plagiarism software. According to OpenAI, however, the tool is still a work in progress and is “imperfect.”

Other tools like GPTZero claim to help detect ChatGPT plagiarism, too. Although they work, some extra editing on AI responses can still trip up these tools.

Well, that’s the fun part. Since its launch, people have been experimenting to discover everything the chatbot can and can’t do — and some of the results have been mind-blowing .

Learning the kinds of prompts and follow-up prompts that ChatGPT responds well to requires some experimentation though. Much like we’ve learned to get the information we want from traditional search engines, it can take some time to get the best results from ChatGPT. If you want to get started, we have a roundup of the best ChatGPT tips .

It really all depends on what you want out of it. To start out, try using it to write a template blog post, for example, or even blocks of code if you’re a programmer.

Our writers experimented with ChatGPT too, attempting to see if it could handle holiday shopping or even properly interpret astrological makeup . In both cases, we found limitations to what it could do while still being thoroughly impressed by the results.

But the fun is in trying it out yourself. Whether you think ChatGPT is an amazing piece of tech or will lead to the destruction of the internet as we know it, it’s worth trying out for yourself to see just what it’s capable of.

Following an update on August 10, you can now use custom instructions with ChatGPT . This allows you to customize how the AI chatbot responds to your inputs so you can tailor it for your needs.

You can’t ask anything, though. OpenAI has safeguards in place in order to “build a safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence.” That means any questions that are hateful, sexist, racist, or discriminatory in any way are generally off-limits.

The announcement of ChatGPT plugins caused a great stir in the developer community, with some calling it “the most powerful developer platform ever created.” AI enthusiasts have compared it to the surge of interest in the iOS App Store when it first launched, greatly expanding the capabilities of the iPhone.

Essentially, developers will be able to build plugins directly for ChatGPT, to open it up to have access to the whole of the internet and connect directly to the APIs of specific applications. It’s ChatGPT out in the real world. Some of the examples provided by OpenAI include applications being able to perform actions on behalf of the user, retrieve real-time information, and access knowledge-based information.

It’s currently only available on a waitlist, but early applications to use plugins with ChatGPT include Expedia, Instacart, Slack, and OpenTable — and now there are lots to explore, including the ones we’ve seen as the best ChatGPT plugins to try out.

Outside of the ChatGPT app itself, many apps had been announced as partners with OpenAI using the ChatGPT API. Of the initial batch, the most prominent example is Snapchat’s MyAI .

Essentially, this is a way for developers to access ChatGPT and plug its natural language capabilities directly into apps and websites. We’ve seen it used in all sorts of different cases, ranging from suggesting parts in Newegg’s PC builder to building out a travel itinerary with just a few words. Recently, OpenAI made the ChatGPT API available to everyone, and we’ve seen a surge in tools leveraging the technology, such as Discord’s Clyde chatbot or Wix’s website builder .

What’s the future of ChatGPT and GPT-5?

There’s no doubt that the tech world has become obsessed with ChatGPT right now, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. GPT-4, the next iteration of the model, has officially launched, though it’s currently only available for ChatGPT Plus. We do know, however, that Bing Chat is at least partially built on the GPT-4 language model, even if certain elements such as visual input aren’t available.

But the bigger development will be how ChatGPT continues to be integrated into other applications. Microsoft reportedly made a multibillion-dollar investment in ChatGPT , which is already starting to pay off. The first integration was in Teams Premium , with some of OpenAI’s features showing up to automate tasks and provide transcripts. Most prominently, Microsoft revealed 365 Copilot , which integrates ChatGPT natural language prompts directly into Office apps like Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more.

There were initial reports that GPT-5 is on the way and could finish training later this year, with some people claiming that it would achieve AGI (artificial general intelligence). That’s a big, controversial statement, but clearly, things are progressing at a rapid pace.

Since then, OpenAI has stated that GPT-5 is not on the timeline and is not currently planned. That being said, the next version, GPT-4.5, is currently training and may be available later this year. OpenAI indicated that it may be done planning as early as September or October.

All that to say, if you think AI is a big deal now, just wait until it’s built into the most common applications that are used for work and school.

ChatGPT remains the most popular AI chatbot at the moment, but it’s not completely without competition. Microsoft’s Bing Chat is the biggest rival, which uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 model as a basis for its answers. Although it requires downloading the Edge browser to use, Bing Chat is free and offers some added features such as different writing modes, image creation, and search links. It even got a significant update recently that introduced features like export, third-party plugins, and multimodal support. There’s also YouChat, which uses GPT-3, an older model from OpenAI, and Forefront AI , which gives you access to GPT-4 and beyond.

The biggest non-GPT competitor to ChatGPT is Google Bard . It’s based on Google’s own homegrown language model, LaMDA, and Google seems intent on competing directly with OpenAI with Google Bard. The most recent updates make it a far more compelling alternative to ChatGPT , even if it’s not quite there.

There are a number of other chatbots out there, some of which are based on Meta’s open-source language model, LLaMA, such as Vicuna and HuggingChat .

Reports suggest Apple has been working on a ChatGPT rival for years , as well, though we haven’t seen it yet. Some reporters say it is “significantly behind competitors” at the moment.

Are ChatGPT chats private?

It depends on what you mean by private. All chats with ChatGPT are used by OpenAI to further tune the models, which can actually involve the use of human trainers. No, that doesn’t mean a human is looking through every question you ask ChatGPT, but there’s a reason OpenAI warns against providing any personal information to ChatGPT.

It should be noted that if you don’t delete your chats, the conversations will appear in the left sidebar. Unlike with other chatbots, individual chats within a conversation cannot be deleted, though they can be edited using the pencil icon that appears when you hover over a chat. When you delete the conversations, however, it’s not that ChatGPT forgets they ever happened — it’s just that they disappear from the sidebar chat history.

Fortunately, OpenAI has recently announced a way to make your chats hidden from the sidebar . These “hidden” chats won’t be used to train AI models either.

When was ChatGPT released?

ChatGPT was originally launched to the public in November of 2022 by OpenAI. The chatbot is based on the GPT-3.5 LLM, which is a fine-tuned version of GPT-3, a model first launched on March 15, 2022. GPT-3 itself, though, has been around for a few years now. It was first released in June 2020, but only as an autoregressive language model.

The predecessors to GPT-3 had very limited public exposure. GPT-2 was announced in February 2019, and the first research paper on GPT was published on OpenAI’s website in 2018.

Will ChatGPT replace Google Search?

Rather than replace it, chatbots are likely to be integrated directly into search. Microsoft has already done this with Bing Chat and Bing, which puts a “chat” tab right into the menu of Bing search.

Even Google has begun experimenting with integrating the smarts of Google Bard into search through its Search Generative Experience . We’re in the early days where all these exist as different products, but it’s not hard to imagine a future where it’s a completely unified experience.

Is Bing Chat the same as ChatGPT?

Microsoft has officially brought ChatGPT to Bing in the form of Bing Chat . After a long beta period, it was officially available to try out. But unlike ChatGPT , Bing Chat does require downloading the latest version of Edge. So Safari or Chrome users are out of luck.

In the early days of its release, Bing Chat was capable of some unhinged responses , but Microsoft has been quick to tame things a bit. It was recently announced that Bing Chat is using the latest GPT-4 language model , meaning it’s more powerful and accurate than ChatGPT . The new Edge Copilot mode also provides a more user-friendly way to get started, offering suggested prompts, links to learn more, and ways to tweak the kinds of answers it gives you. And now with the Windows Copilot , Bing Chat will live right on your desktop.

Is Google Bard the same as ChatGPT?

Unlike Bing Chat, Google Bard  uses an entirely different LLM to power its natural language capabilities. Upon its release, Bard has been using LaMDA, the company’s own model, which stands for Language Model for Dialogue Applications. As has been demonstrated from early on, Bard didn’t have quite the precision in its answers.

Reports indicate, however, that Bard is getting a massive update soon, going from being trained on 30 billion parameters up to 600 billion parameters. That could make it closer to what is possible with GPT-4.

Can you write essays with ChatGPT?

The use of ChatGPT has been full of controversy, with many onlookers considering how the power of AI will change everything from search engines to novel writing. It’s even demonstrated the ability to earn students surprisingly good grades in essay writing.

Essay writing for students is one of the most obvious examples of where ChatGPT could become a problem. ChatGPT might not write this article all that well, but it feels particularly easy to use for essay writing. Some generative AI tools, such as Caktus AI , are built specifically for this purpose.

Can ChatGPT write and debug code?

Absolutely — it’s one of the most powerful features of ChatGPT. As with everything with AI, you’ll want to double-check everything it produces, because it won’t always get your code right. But it’s certainly powerful at both writing code from scratch and debugging code.

Developers have used it to create websites, applications, and games from scratch — all of which are made more powerful with GPT-4, of course. There’s even a plug-in called ChatGPT Code Interpreter that makes programming with AI even more accessible.

What is the ChatGPT character limit?

OpenAI doesn’t set an exact character limit, but it will cut off around its responses at about 500 words or 4,000 characters. If you happen to give the chatbot a request for a specific number of words above 500, you might find that it cuts off mid-sentence somewhere after 500 words.

One way to get around this is just to ask it to “go on” or “continue,” but it depends on the prompt and type of response. Sometimes ChatGPT will more or less repeat the previous answers in different words.

The best way to get access to responses with longer characters is to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus.

Is there a ChatGPT bug bounty program?

Yes. A bug bounty program for ChatGPT was recently announced . The program was unveiled officially on OpenAI’s website , which details the types of “cash awards” that are being offered. They range from $200 to up to $20,000 for what it calls “exceptional discoveries.”

While addressing security researchers interested in getting involved in the program, OpenAI said it recognized “the critical importance of security and view it as a collaborative effort. By sharing your findings, you will play a crucial role in making our technology safer for everyone.”

Do you need to download ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is available via a webpage , so no downloading is needed. However, OpenAI has finally released a free, official iOS app that needs to be downloaded from the iOS app store. For many months, the various app stores were full of fake versions. These are still out there, though, and should be installed and used with caution, as they are not official ChatGPT apps. There is no still no official Android app.

On desktop, there are a couple of ways to install ChatGPT, though. First, you can navigate to the ChatGPT website and save it as a Windows app through Edge. Go to the site, click the ellipsis menu, and hover over Apps.  Select  Install this site as an app  to load ChatGPT from your desktop.

Other tools like MacGPT also allow shortcuts to access the browser service from your desktop.

Can you use ChatGPT on iPhone or Android?

Now that there’s an official iOS app, you no longer have to rely solely on the web app to use ChatGPT on your phone . So, whether with the official app as downloaded through the app store or just the web version, you can certainly use ChatGPT on iPhones. In addition, there’s even a way to replace Siri with ChatGPT on your iPhone, as well as some useful mobile apps like Perplexity AI .

As for Android, you’ll need to rely on the web app. Just as on desktop, type in chat.openai.com to start using ChatGPT.

Can you get ChatGPT to answer any question?

Not exactly. ChatGPT has limitations in the kinds of questions it can answer. First of all, it can’t write about anything that requires internet knowledge after late 2021, which is when its training stopped.

Beyond that, ChatGPT is careful about answering questions that might imply illegal, explicit, or damaging activity. It’ll avoid swearing or political debates, and will (usually) avoid making malware. There is some amount of jailbreaking that can be done to get around these restrictions, but OpenAI is constantly tightening its content policies to restrict unwanted answers. One example of a common jailbreaking technique is the DAN (Do Anything Now) prompt , though OpenAI has worked hard to plug these holes over time.

What is Auto-GPT?

Built on GPT-4, Auto-GPT is the latest evolution of AI technology to cause a stir in the industry. It’s not directly related to ChatGPT or OpenAI — instead, it’s an open-source Python application that got into the hands of developers all over the internet when it was published on GitHub .

With ChatGPT or ChatGPT Plus, the capabilities of the AI are limited to a single chat window. Auto-GPT, at its simplest, is making AI autonomous. It can be given a set of goals, and then take the necessary steps towards accomplishing that goal across the internet, including connecting up with applications and software.

According to the official description on GitHub, Auto-GPT is an “experimental open-source application showcasing the capabilities of the GPT-4 language model. This program, driven by GPT-4, chains together LLM ‘thoughts’, to autonomously achieve whatever goal you set. As one of the first examples of GPT-4 running fully autonomously, Auto-GPT pushes the boundaries of what is possible with AI.”

The demo used on the GitHub page is simple — just create a recipe appropriate for Easter and save it to a file. What’s neat is how Auto-GPT breaks down the steps the AI is taking to accomplish the goal, including the “thoughts” and “reasoning” behind its actions. Auto-GPT is already being used in a variety of different applications, with some touting it as the beginning of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) due to its autonomous nature.

What is GPT-4 and how does it compare to GPT-3.5?

GPT-4 is a more advanced LLM — the most powerful that OpenAI currently offers. At the current moment, OpenAI only offers access to GPT-4 through ChatGPT Plus. GPT-3.5, on the other hand, is the LLM that powers the free ChatGPT tool. OpenAI no longer says exactly how many parameters these advanced models are trained on, but it’s rumored that GPT-4 boasts up to 1 trillion parameters.

Regardless, the results are a fairly dramatic difference between GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 in terms of quality. It offers much more precise answers, is significantly better at coding and creative collaboration, and can provide (and respond to) much longer selections of text. GPT-4 remains the best possible model available, while GPT-3.5 is more in line with some other models available.

Who owns the copyright to content created by ChatGPT?

This is a question open to debate. Much of the conversation around copyright and AI is ongoing, with some saying generative AI is “stealing” the work of the content it was trained on. This has become increasingly contentious in the world of AI art. Companies like Adobe are finding ways around this by only training models on stock image libraries that already have proper artist credit and legal boundaries.

According to OpenAI, however, you have the right to reprint, sell, and merchandise anything that was created with ChatGPT or ChatGPT Plus. So, you’re not going to get sued by OpenAI.

The larger topic of copyright law regarding generative AI is still to be determined by various lawmakers and interpreters of the law, especially since copyright law as it currently stands technically only protects content created by human beings.

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• OpenAI strikes major deal with News Corp to boost ChatGPT
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• Apple finally has a way to defeat ChatGPT
• GPT-4 vs. GPT-3.5: how much difference is there?
• Artificial Intelligence

ChatGPT, the AI-powered chatbot that went viral at the start of last year and kicked off a wave of interest in generative AI tools, no longer requires an account to use.

Its creator, OpenAI, launched a webpage on Monday that lets you begin a conversation with the chatbot without having to sign up or log in first.

In recent years, the listening time required by a piece of AI to clone someone’s voice has been getting shorter and shorter.

It used to be minutes, now it’s just seconds.

It looks like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Sora, among other projects, are about to get a lot more juice. According to a new report shared by The Information, Microsoft and OpenAI are working on a new data center project, one part of which will be a massive AI supercomputer dubbed "Stargate." Microsoft is said to be footing the bill, and the cost is astronomical as the name of the supercomputer suggests -- the whole project might cost over $100 billion.

Spending over $100 billion on anything is mind-blowing, but when put into perspective, the price truly shows just how big a venture this might be: The Information claims that the new Microsoft and OpenAI joint project might cost a whopping 100 times more than some of the largest data centers currently in operation.

Best Chat GPT Apps That Are Worth Trying in 2024

Image by frimufilms on Freepik

https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/opened-ai-chat-laptop_38259334.htm  

Artificial intelligence has evolved the ways humans interact with machines, and a vivid example of this narrative is ChatGPT. The ChatGPT platform has taken the world by storm, and there is no doubt about that because there are various applications that come along with this machine-learning model. Whether you want to generate content or need to write code for a computer program, all things can be done with the help of ChatGPT in a matter of seconds and with full precision and perfection. Due to these capabilities and aids, you might be wondering is there are any ChatGPT apps for Android or iOS users so that you can access it anywhere and anytime. Well, if you are wondering about such matters, then you are on the right track because we will explore the best Chat GPT apps that are worth trying in 2024 so that things get more accessible for you. 

In the following discussion, you will get to know whether there is any dedicated Chat GPT app for Android or iOS, and if yes, what the best ChatGPT apps for Android and iOS are. So, let us start to explore every section of this discussion to make everything more understandable. 

Is There Any Official Chat GPT App for Android or iOS?

When we come to discuss this matter, things get exciting as the ChatGPT platform offers its application to both android and iPhone users so that they can boost their productivity exponentially. Whether you are an Android user or an iOS one, you can easily interact with the GPT application on your mobile. ChatGPT has recently launched its iOS application so that users can get the best and most exceptional conversational experience. In addition, the app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store and is easy to use. The iOS application of Chat GPT uses third-party voice recognition so that you can easily write your commands through your voice. In addition, all the other perks of ChatGPT are the same as for other users, such as you can buy its Plus variant and get access to the internet and the capability of generating images with the DALL E 3 extension. 

If you are an Android user, OpenAI has launched many applications along with third-party developers that use the official API of ChatGPT to build their apps. Additionally, for the latest updates about this matter, there are many reliable resources, such as AIChief , ApproachableAI, and Open AI Master that provide instant AI tool reviews and all the related information. You can follow them for the latest updates, reviews and guides for the latest Ai Tools. In the next section of our discussion on the best Chat GPT apps for iOS and Android, we will discuss third party apps in detail. So, keep reading to explore more about this matter.  

Best Chat GPT Apps for iOS & Android:

Well, here comes our main discussion in which we will explore the best Chat GPT apps for iPhone and Android so that you can keep up with your productivity and increase your exposure with this conversational AI. So, let us start our discussion with iOS ChatGPT apps, and then we will go for Android. 

Frank - Your AI Chat Assistant: (iOS)

In the list of the best Chat GPT apps for iPhone, our first choice is Frank. It is an OpenAI-based AI chat assistant that lets yuo be involved in captivating conversations and enables you to do as many other tasks as you can on the ChatGPT platform. In addition, the Frank app enables you to generate text using your voice and images and has an intuitively smooth experience that makes it one of the best AI applications for iOS based on ChatGPT. This application's Natural Language Processing ability also enables it to exponentially generate high-quality and accurate content. 

Key Features of Frank:

• Offers you a chat experience without ads.
• You can use its Chat extension for a seamless user experience.
• Enables you to generate text and images along with a voice-search ability. 

ChatOn - An Exceptional AI Chatbot: (iOS)

ChatOn, our second-best Chat GPT app for iOS, also offers you an extensive way to interact with GPT-3 and GPT-4 AI models, making it one of the most powerful AI conversational assistants from which you can ask anything. Whether you are a student or a marketer, the ChatOn app allows you to generate content and high-quality images that you can use for various purposes. Its machine-learning capabilities enable it to understand your text and generate content and images that resonate with your preferences and requirements. The best part is that you can download this application from your App Store easily and get started with it. Here are the best features of the ChatOn app. 

• Offers you a simple interface with image-to-text conversion
• Allow you to do math and write code for you instantly
• Enable you to generate multi-lingual text

Nova AI - Your Best Conversational Partner: (Android)

While discussing the best Chat GPT apps for Android, Nova AI comes with great potential with the power of GPT-3 and GPT-4. This machine learning model can be downloaded from your App Store conveniently, and with it, you can generate text of whatever kind you want. In addition, it offers you a simple yet engaging interface so you can make the most out of it. This app has many applications, as you can use it to get suggestions for your outfit or ask for songs that please you. This versatile ChatGPT application offers you plenty of features, such as;

• Offers you to translate more than 140 languages accurately
• Allows you to generate text with your voice
• You can access this app on multiple devices using a single account

Alissu - Chat with AI: (Android)

Alissu is one of the best Chat GPT apps that possess the power of GPT-3 and GPT-4 AI models, making it an amazing chatbot for Android users. In addition, the machine learning ability of this application enables it to generate responses to your prompts smoothly and conveniently. Whether you want to generate text on any topic or need to be involved with your desired AI model, the Alissu application offers you plenty of options that make your experience more elegant. Here are the key features of using the Alissu ChatGPT app;

• Enable you to perform voice-to-text conversation
• Offer you multiple AI models and the ability to customize them
• Uses the power of GPT-3 and GPT-3.5 

These are the best ChatGPT apps for iOS and Android that are worth trying in 2024. As you can see, the use of these applications is quite simple, and there is no complex knowledge required to master them as they all offer you a straightforward interface for a better experience. So, choose the best one that fits your needs and explore the potential of GPT technology at your fingertips. 

Conclusion: 

At the end of our discussion on the best Chat GPT apps for Android and iOS that are worth trying in 2024, we can say that the above applications offer you plenty of features and ease of functionality to boost your AI chatbot experience. Choose from the above GPT applications that fit your mood and skyrocket your productivity with their machine-learning abilities.

The Ethicist

Can i use a.i. to grade my students’ papers.

The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on artificial intelligence platforms, and whether it’s hypocritical for teachers to use these tools while forbidding students from doing the same.

By Kwame Anthony Appiah

I am a junior-high-school English teacher. In the past school year, there has been a significant increase in students’ cheating on writing assignments by using artificial intelligence. Our department feels that 13-year-old students will only become better writers if they practice and learn from the successes and challenges that come with that.

Recently our department tasked students with writing an argumentative essay, an assignment we supported by breaking down the process into multiple steps. The exercise took several days of class time and homework to complete. All of our students signed a contract agreeing not to use A.I. assistance, and parents promised to support the agreement by monitoring their children when they worked at home. Yet many students still used A.I.

Some of our staff members uploaded their grading rubric into an A.I.-assisted platform, and students uploaded their essays for assessment. The program admittedly has some strengths. Most notable, it gives students writing feedback and the opportunity to edit their work before final submission. The papers are graded within minutes, and the teachers are able to transfer the A.I. grade into their roll book.

I find this to be hypocritical. I spend many hours grading my students’ essays. It’s tedious work, but I feel that it’s my responsibility — if a student makes an effort to complete the task, they should have my undivided attention during the assessment process.

Here’s where I struggle: Should I embrace new technology and use A.I.-assisted grading to save time and my sanity even though I forbid my students from using it? Is it unethical for teachers to ask students not to use A.I. to assist their writing but then allow an A.I. platform to grade their work? — Name Withheld

From the Ethicist:

You have a sound rationale for discouraging your students from using A.I. to draft their essays. As with many other skills, writing well and thinking clearly will improve through practice. By contrast, you already know how to grade papers; you don’t need the practice.

What matters is whether an A.I.-assisted platform can reliably appraise and diagnose your students’ writing, providing the explanation and guidance these students need to improve. In theory, such tools — and I see that there are several on the market, including from major educational publishers — have certain advantages. The hope is that they can grade without inconsistency, without getting tired, without being affected by the expectations that surely affect those of us who hand-grade student work.

I notice you haven’t raised concerns about whether the platform provides reliable assessments; you’ll have to decide if it does. (If it isn’t quite up to snuff, it might become so in a year or two, so your question will persist.) Provided the platform does a decent job of assessment, though, I don’t see why you must do it all yourself. You should review the A.I.-annotated versions of your students’ writing, check that you agree with the output, and make notes of issues to bring up in class. But time saved in evaluating the papers might be better spent on other things — and by “better,” I mean better for the students. There are pedagogical functions, after all, that only you can perform.

In sum: It’s not hypocritical to use A.I. yourself in a way that serves your students well, even as you insist that they don’t use it in a way that serves them badly.

Readers Respond

The previous question was from a reader who asked about professional boundaries. He wrote: “I am a retired, married male psychiatrist. A divorced female former patient of mine contacted me recently, 45 years after her treatment ended. Would it be OK to correspond with her by email? Or is this a case of ‘once a patient, always a patient?’”

In his response, the Ethicist noted: “The relevant professional associations tend to have strictures that are specifically about sexual relationships with former patients. … In light of the potential for exploitation within the therapist-patient relationship, these rules are meant to maintain clear boundaries, protect patient welfare, uphold the integrity of the profession and eliminate any gray areas that could lead to ethical breaches. But though you do mention her marital status, and yours, you’re just asking about emailing her — about establishing friendly relations. The question for you is whether she might be harmed by this, whether whatever knowledge or trust gained from your professional relationship would shadow a personal one. Yes, almost half a century has elapsed since your professional relationship, but you still have to be confident that a correspondence with her clears this bar. If it does, you may email with a clear conscience.” ( Reread the full question and answer here. )

As always, I agree with the Ethicist. I would add that the letter writer’s former patient doesn’t realize that the therapist is actually two different people — the professional and the regular person underneath. Therapists portray their professional selves to their clients. The former client may be disappointed upon meeting the therapist outside of the professional context. Additionally, the feelings she has toward the therapist may be based on transference, and they would need to address that. — Annemarie

I am a clinical psychologist. While the Ethicist’s description of professional ethical boundaries is correct, there is more to the story, and I disagree with his conclusion. A very big question here is why this former patient contacted him after 45 years. That is a question that is best explored and answered within the context of a therapeutic relationship. He would be well- advised to respond in a kind and thoughtful way to convey the clear message that he is not available for ongoing communication, and he should suggest that she consult with another therapist if she feels that would be helpful. — Margaret

In my case, it was the therapist who reached out to me, seeking to establish a friendship several years after our sessions ended. I was surprised, but he shared that he had since experienced a similar personal tragedy to one I had explored with him in sessions. Since it had been several years since we saw each other professionally, I responded. There was never any hint of romantic or sexual interest. Still, as he continued to reach out to me, clearly desiring a friendship, it never felt right to me. It did feel unprofessional, as his knowledge of me was borne out of a relationship meant to be professional, never personal, as warmly as we might have felt during our sessions. I ended up being disappointed in him for seeking out my friendship. — Liam

I am a (semi)retired psychiatrist who has been practicing since 1974. In my opinion, “once a patient, always a patient” is correct. Establishing any type of personal relationship with a former patient could undo progress the patient may have made in treatment, and is a slippery slope toward blatantly unethical behavior. As psychiatrists, our responsibility is to work with patients in confronting and resolving issues that are preventing them from having a reality-based perception of their life. With such an outlook, they are more capable of establishing satisfying relationships with others. An ethical psychiatrist is not in the business of providing such satisfaction to his or her patients. — Roger

I think there is a difference between being friendly and being friends with a former client. As someone who used to attend therapy with a therapist I think dearly of, she made it clear to me that it was OK to send her emails with life updates after our therapeutic relationship ended. But beyond that, I think it would be inappropriate and uncomfortable to pursue a friendship with her, and vice versa, because of the patient-provider relationship that we previously had and the power dynamic that existed between us. The letter writer didn’t share the content of the email his former patient sent to him, but if it’s just a friendly life update, I think it’s fine to write back and thank her for sharing. Beyond that, I feel like it would be unprofessional to meet or pursue a deeper relationship. — Meghan

Kwame Anthony Appiah is The New York Times Magazine’s Ethicist columnist and teaches philosophy at N.Y.U. His books include “Cosmopolitanism,” “The Honor Code” and “The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity.” To submit a query: Send an email to [email protected]. More about Kwame Anthony Appiah

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The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/2024/05/27/fattal-annotations-for-an-essay-that-will-never-exist-reading-barbara-johnson-and-narrativizing-a-week-in-new-york/)

Max Fattal / Associate Editor

May 27, 2024

Arts & culture, fattal | annotations for an essay that will never exist: reading barbara johnson and narrativizing a week in new york, by max fattal | may 27, 2024.

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My apartment smells like weed: I have been here for three days and been offered some two dozen joints from my roommate. I haven’t taken one yet — my psychiatrist’s anti-scientific fear mongering must have gotten to me. Anyways, I’m busy and I’ve got to get out of the house. I need a new suit, a haircut, housing for the second half of the summer and (if my insurance lets me swing it) prescription sunglasses. I haven’t started my law school essays though they’re due in less than a month and I can’t seem to pick a coffee shop in which to work. I go to The Strand — I’ve decided that it’s finally time to read Walter Benjamin. 

I Google: “Where start Walter Benjamin” 

“DO NOT DARE READ BENJAMIN IF YOU HAVEN’T READ HEGEL FIRST” 

Gotta love philosophy Reddit. Whelp, time to finally read Hegel. 

“Where start Hegel” 

“DO NOT TRY TO READ HEGEL WITHOUT AT LEAST ONE PHD.” 

I pick up Philosophy of History . Knowing, inevitably, that I’ll be bored or confused, I also grab a copy of Barbara Johnson’s The Feminist Difference — last week I’d had it recommended (perhaps that’s overselling). I check out with both. I might as well have preemptively deposited Philosophy of History in my storage unit to gather dust. The Feminist Difference , on the other hand, has already been read twice cover-to-cover. It’s all I can think about. 

Lacking the intellectual ammunition to place Barbara Johnson within a broader history of critical theory, or to analyze the texts she analyzes, I can only speak to what it feels like The Feminist Difference is doing. So here goes nothing. Obviously, Johnson knows what Freud or Lacan are going to conclude about that case of insanity or trauma — don’t we all. She knows that Baudelaire had already decided to uplift Desbordes-Valmore above all other women poets before he’d written a word about her — why he made that decision becomes semi-irrelevant. The conclusions are given and uninteresting; just as boring is the unremarkable observation that many of those conclusions neither make sense nor fit within their own internal logic. At this point that’s baked into the whole deal of reading the masculine literary and psychoanalytic canon. 

So, rather than a righteous feminist assault or precise dismantling of silly observations, Johnson simply refracts the narratives her subjects develop. She takes, for a moment, Baudelaire or Freud or Kohut at their word and enables their line of reasoning to expand outward —  the positing “as universal what may be the perspective of a particular place and time.” As the logic balloons outward and slams into walls of contradictions, cascading back and down with the force of true nonsense, she keeps going. With each essay’s final paragraphs, having successfully universalized beyond any one idea’s legitimate reach, she allows us a look at the fallen pieces of titular difference. Her conclusions are the various strands within which her subject’s reasoning cannot fit, and the perhaps unexpected places where they can.

In perhaps the collection’s best essay, Johnson cites Patricia Williams, writing about style and the often toxic veneer of face neutrality with its violations. Johnson’s appreciation for Williams is unsurprising, given the two’s common attention to causal directionality: Johnson frames the essay around The Alchemy of Race and Rights , where Williams describes the narratives necessary in the interpretation of the law. As I read her, we might view our unjust legal bedrock as a given, existing in order to preserve systems of inequality that predate it. Thus, jurisprudence follows the exact same formula of intermediating through narrative: How can we make this make sense from a social or logical perspective? Why is this injustice legally sound? From there, we can read the law as a story, knowing that it began with the ending and examining how the author gets to that point. 

So now, back to New York. I’d decided I wanted to start my column with an essay on NYC about two months ago — it was the longest stretch of my adult life that I’d spent away from the city, and my bus ticket was booked for the inevitably traumatic, closing, perhaps cathartic return just a couple weeks down the road. Before I had even arrived I was certain that the proceeding events would become the opening salvo of my next phase of writing — I’d even developed some preliminary theses. I was preparing to treatise on the process of retraumatization before I even knew an experience to be traumatic. In perhaps a libidinal display of masculinity (or maybe a preemptive pre-law hubris), I was attempting to tell a story (that is, accurately convey my internal monologue) with my conclusion already decided. 

Re-reading the half-drafted essay I attempt to follow Johnson’s approach — the perpetual expansion of my own conclusions until they collapse under the weight of an impossible universalism. My past self anticipated the draw of bold claims and offered up plenty (after all, what even is a city). In expanding I quickly came to the contradictions of my own writing; I already tend to notice the possibility as I outline, but I’ll shut my brain off for fear of perpetual dissonance — I love contradiction unless it’s my own, then I fear it. As an act of exposure therapy, the retraumatization I’d been pursuing in the original essay, that is the exercise of slamming one’s own thoughts into walls of failed universalism, was manageable. But with regards to its replacement (I still insisted upon starting my column with New York, but I’ve above flattened the phony philosophizing into a precise-diary entry reflection), I worry that I may have lost something in the deliberate attempt not to make everything about the things I make everything about. 

After a first skim of “Muteness Envy” (the first of the collection I encountered), I was asked what I thought. I said I liked it and pointed out a few quotes, but shied away from any fuller articulation. I felt thrown in the middle of a narrative without an understanding of either theses or reference points. Reading the whole collection I felt better for my fitting silence, and perhaps wonder if I’ve erred in my above articulation. For all its little digressions, thorny lines and moments of fascinating internal conflict, the overly conclusive lesson I’ve learned from The Feminist Difference is to avoid dogmatic interpretation and check for the causality of narrativization. Then again, it is precisely those things that make for such exhilarating criticism… I’ve already hit a contradiction. 

Max Fattal is a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. They* can be reached at [email protected] .   Let’s Unpack That is an arts column that traverses autocriticism and borderline psychotic hyperfixation through the lenses of pseudo-intellectualism and film analysis. It runs occasionally throughout the year.