Lesson №5 "The Art of Creating Theses and Dissertations: A Battlefield or a Field of Inspiration?"

1. Master Class on Writing Theses and Dissertations: A Comprehensive Guide to Creating a Compelling Thesis or Dissertation.

Introduction

Crafting a thesis or dissertation is an exceptionally important process in which you transform from a student into a scholar. This process requires extensive research, the ability to perform literature reviews, strict structuring, and rigorous editing. Let's go step by step and try to create a plan that will allow you to write such serious academic works as a thesis or dissertation.

Generating a Thesis Topic

Defining a topic is not just about choosing an area that interests you. It is about committing to conducting thorough research within that area, presenting your findings, and going through the defense process. It is the field of knowledge that you may be exploring for several months or even years. But how do you choose a topic that is interesting, important to society, and yet unique enough to represent scientific value?

This is where ChatGPT begins its work.

Thanks to its vast database and training on a huge amount of texts, it can suggest potential topics for your research.

• Compilation of Potential Topics

Ask ChatGPT a question like this: "Suggest topics for a thesis in marketing." Artificial intelligence applies its algorithms and will offer you a list of potential topics. These could be topics based on current trends in the field of marketing or more general topics that can be explored from different angles.

In response to such a request, ChatGPT might suggest the following:

• Assessment of Topics

When you receive a list of potential topics, you will need to evaluate them based on various criteria. How relevant is this topic? How suitable is it for you? What are the prospects for conducting research in this area? What will it give you in the long term? ChatGPT can help you assess these topics by suggesting self-assessment questions or providing additional information about each topic.

For example, ask it: "Which of these topics would be easier, yet interesting to write about?".

Answer:

• Choosing a Topic

After evaluating and narrowing down the list of topics, it comes time to make a decision. It is important to remember that ideally, the topic should be engaging to you, as you will be working with it for an extended period of time. Once the topic is selected, you can ask ChatGPT to generate additional subtopics or aspects for research, which will help in further shaping your work plan.

Using ChatGPT, you can turn the complex process of selecting a topic for your thesis into a more structured and thoughtful process. It is important to remember that ChatGPT is a tool that helps you make a decision, but the final choice always remains with you.

Devising the Content

The content of the thesis is a sort of roadmap that will help you structure your research and ensure its logical progression. It consists of a list of the main sections, subsections, and key points that you plan to address in your work. The main sections of the thesis may include an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion. However, the specific structure may vary depending on the requirements of your educational institution and the specifics of the research itself.

• Generating the Thesis Structure with ChatGPT

ChatGPT can help you generate the basic structure of your thesis. Simply ask the question: "What should the content of a thesis on the topic 'Influencer Marketing: Features, Effectiveness, and Development Trends' look like?" The artificial intelligence will offer you a general structure that you can modify according to your requirements and the specifics of the topic.

Here's what it might suggest:

• Delving into Each Section

Once you have established the general structure, you can ask ChatGPT to assist you in formulating subsections and key points for each of the sections. For instance, in the literature review section, you can request help from ChatGPT in phrasing for various thematic reviews that should be included. In the methodology section, ChatGPT can help you identify different methods and approaches that may be applied to your research.

• Iteration and Refinement

The process of content creation often requires multiple iterations and refinements. You can continue to ask questions and "tweak" them with the help of ChatGPT until you achieve the desired outcome. Remember that content is a flexible structure, and you can always make changes if necessary during the writing process.

In this process, ChatGPT can become your reliable assistant, providing structured and thoughtful suggestions that facilitate the creation of content for your thesis.

Conducting a Literature Review and Developing Methodology

The literature review and methodology development are two critical components of any research project. The literature review allows you to secure support from existing research, while the methodology demonstrates how exactly you plan to conduct your research.

• Literature Review

This process is not just reading; it is an active process of analyzing and synthesizing ideas and theories that already exist in your field. To prepare a literature review, you need to review a large number of studies and articles related to your topic and identify which ideas and approaches have already been explored. Here ChatGPT can assist you in formulating queries for academic research and summarizing the main findings from the found works.

For example, you can ask: "Summarize the key findings from research on the topic 'Influencer Marketing: Features, Effectiveness, and Development Trends'". ChatGPT will help you process large volumes of information, extracting and analyzing key points from different sources.

• Developing a Methodology

Methodology is the approach you plan to take to research your topic. It may include selecting appropriate methods for data collection and analysis, as well as explaining why these methods are the most suitable for your study.

Here, ChatGPT can become a powerful tool for researching and selecting an appropriate methodology. You can ask questions like: "What research methods are best suited for the topic 'Influencer Marketing: Features, Effectiveness, and Development Trends'?", or "Can you compare quantitative and qualitative research methods?". For instance, in response to the first question, ChatGPT might answer:

In addition to this, ChatGPT can assist you in understanding the specifics of applying various methods in practice by providing examples of their use in past research.

Together, these two stages create a foundation for your research and help ensure its quality and validity.

Let's start with writing and editing

Writing and editing are the last two stages, but they are no less important. Your goal is to create a clear, structured, and well-argued text that addresses the questions of your research.

• Writing

From this point, once you have a foundation in terms of content, you can start writing the text. Begin with the general structure: introduction, main chapters, conclusion. Each chapter should have sections and subsections that help logically and coherently present your information.

Here ChatGPT can become your assistant in formulating ideas, sentences, and paragraphs for each section. Ask questions related to your topic and receive detailed responses that can be used in your thesis.

For example, you can request: "Write an introduction for my research on X" or "Explain how Y affects Z for my section about Y."

However, always check the information you receive for accuracy and relevance.

• Editing

After writing the research, it is very important to carry out its editing and proofreading. As we discussed earlier, this includes checking grammar and spelling, style and format, logic and structure, as well as the completeness and accuracy of information presentation. ChatGPT can help you here by pointing out potential issues in your text and suggesting improvements.

You can ask: "Can you check my work for grammatical errors?" or "Can you help me improve the structure of my argument?"

These two stages help ensure that your work is clearly articulated, well-structured, and free from errors.

Combating plagiarism

Every researcher must respect the intellectual property of others and honestly acknowledge the contribution of others to their work. Plagiarism is a serious violation of academic ethics, and it should be avoided in any scholarly work. It is important to note that unintentional plagiarism is still considered plagiarism, so learning and understanding what constitutes plagiarism is a key aspect of preparing a research project.

• Plagiarism check:

There are various tools and services for checking text for plagiarism. They allow you to see how original your text is and track any matches with other published works. Using these tools can be useful for identifying potential issues before submitting your work.

• Paraphrasing:

Sometimes, to increase originality, you may need to rephrase ideas taken from other sources. ChatGPT can help you rephrase ideas in such a way that maintains their original meaning but expresses them uniquely and originally. We have already talked about this in previous lessons, but we believe it is important to remind you again.

Remember, honesty and sincerity towards the work of others are important aspects of scientific work. Fighting plagiarism not only helps preserve your academic reputation but also supports a healthy and innovative scientific environment.

Creating a bibliography

Creating a bibliographic list is an important part of any research work. It shows which sources you relied on during your research and allows other scholars to access these sources if they wish to delve deeper into the topic.

• Gathering sources:

In the course of your research, you are likely to encounter a multitude of different sources - books, articles, websites, videos, etc. With the help of ChatGPT, you can compile all these sources in one place. Just ask the artificial intelligence to provide the sources it relied on when formulating responses, and add them to your list.

For example, make the following request: “Write me a list of sources that you relied on when formulating responses on the topic 'Influencer marketing: features, effectiveness, and development trends'.” The response might be:

• Formatting Sources

Each source in your reference list should be formatted in accordance with a specific citation style. Formatting rules can be complex and vary from university to university. In this case, ChatGPT can assist you in understanding the rules and provide examples of how to format sources in the required style.

An example request could be: "Format the list of sources according to the rules for formatting thesis works". The chatbot can easily handle this task, and if you provide an example or a detailed explanation, it will be even more capable.

• Source verification

After compiling a bibliography, it is important to carefully check it. Make sure that each source is properly formatted and that you have indeed used that source in your work. Additionally, ensure that your sources are reliable and authoritative. This will help support the quality of your research and the persuasiveness of your arguments.

Creating a bibliography isn't just a mandatory part of the work; it is also a way to respectfully acknowledge the work of other scholars and to demonstrate your commitment to academic integrity.

Preparation for defense and reflection

Defending your thesis is your opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the topic, justify your research approach, and present your findings. With the help of ChatGPT, you can prepare for this important event.

• Creating presentations and preparing for potential questions

We have already discussed this stage in the lesson on creating term papers, but let’s remind you that using ChatGPT can help articulate the main points of your presentation and create compelling slides. You can ask questions related to how best to structure your presentation, what visual materials to use, and how to connect your ideas into a clear and coherent narrative.

And since you will have to answer questions from the committee after your presentation, this can be an unpredictable moment, but with the help of ChatGPT, you can prepare. Try to formulate possible questions and ask AI to help you prepare well-founded responses.

Reflection and Knowledge Transfer to Future Researchers

After completing your project and defending your work, it's time for reflection. This is a crucial stage that allows you to extract valuable lessons from your research experience.

• Experience Analysis:

Analyze the entire process of writing your thesis. What went well? Where did you encounter difficulties? What would you do differently if you were to start all over again? Record your thoughts and conclusions, using ChatGPT as an interactive tool for reflection.

• Tips for Future Researchers:

Based on your experience, share tips for future researchers. Perhaps you've discovered some non-obvious difficulties or found effective ways to deal with certain tasks. Your observations and recommendations can be very valuable to those just starting their research journey, and ChatGPT can help you articulate them.

Example

Request: "What tips could be given to future researchers on the topic 'Influencer Marketing: Characteristics, Effectiveness, and Development Trends'?"

Answer: