After reading the chapter from The Craft of Research, ask ChatGPT to write a 100-word title and topic statement for your essay and to include 4 sources. You should use a prompt that is as specific as possible. Given a general prompt like “Write a topic statement for a college level essay on global warming” ChatGPT produces an overly broad single sentence that is more like a title than a topic statement. For example:
“Unraveling the Global Climate Puzzle: Understanding the Complexities and Impacts of Global Warming on Our Planet”
To solve this problem, make sure that your prompt includes all the elements that you need. For example: “Write a title and 100-word topic statement for a college level essay on global warming and list 4 sources.” BUT note that the topic statement that ChatGPT will produce in this case is still not specific enough for our purposes because we’ve only asked it to write about a very general topic, “global warming”. Be sure to add other elements to your prompt to get a good statement. If you need additional help with this, go back to the chapter from The Craft of Research and reread section 3.2 From a Broad Topic to A Focused One. Your prompt should look something like: “Write a title and 100-word topic statement for a college level essay on the impact of global warming on and food supplies in the United States in the 21st century and list 4 sources in Chicago Manual of Style format.” Notice that in addition to making the topic more precise by adding an element (“food supplies”), I’ve also added a specific time (“the 21st century”) and place (“the United States”) to the prompt. In this example, ChatGPT wrote the following:
Title: “Scorched Earth and Empty Plates: Analyzing the 21st Century Impact of Global Warming on Food Supplies in the United States”
Topic Statement: This college-level essay examines the far-reaching consequences of global warming on food supplies in the United States during the 21st century. Drawing on extensive research, climate data, agricultural studies, and policy analysis, the essay explores how rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and changing precipitation patterns disrupt crop production, distribution networks, and food security. By assessing vulnerabilities in regions and sectors, the essay delves into the potential socio-economic and environmental impacts, while also investigating adaptation strategies, technological innovations, and policy measures to enhance the nation’s food resilience and mitigate global warming’s adverse effects on food supplies.
Sources (in Chicago Manual of Style format):
United States Global Change Research Program. Fourth National Climate Assessment: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2018.
Lobell, David B., and Michael J. Roberts. “The Impact of Climate Change on Crop Yields in the United States.” Science 344, no. 6183 (2014): 769-773.
National Research Council. Advancing the Science of Climate Change. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2010.
Brown, Molly E., et al. “Climate Change, Global Food Security, and the U.S. Food System.” In Climate Change, Global Food Security, and the U.S. Food System, edited by Rosamond L. Naylor and Walter P. Falcon, 135-160. Cham: Springer, 2015.
This is significantly better BUT for a short essay you may want to make it even more specific so that you’re not trying to do too much. For example, notice that ChatGPT’s statement says that the essay will discuss the impact of climate change on “crop production, distribution networks, and food security.” For a short essay you should probably choose just one of these.
Once you have a topic statement and list of sources composed by ChatGPT you must do two things:
Look at the list of sources and make sure at least two of these are peer reviewed academic sources. If you are unsure, speak with me about this. You must have at least 2 academic sources for your essay. Be sure to read these yourself. ChatGPT is not always able to do this and doesn’t always do a good job summarizing these. In addition, you need to make sure that the sources ChatGPT has cited are real. From time to time, it will make up sources if it cannot locate suitable real ones.
Rewrite/edit the title and topic statement until it is well written, specific, and accurately describes what you would like your essay to focus on.
Upload the final title, topic statement, and list of sources on this page as a Word document or in Rich Text Format.
