Roundup
7 best AI tools for writing a research paper
A research paper is eight stages and no tool covers all of them. Here is which one owns each stage, and the order to actually use them in.
Write It teamUpdated 6 min read
Research papers go wrong for a scheduling reason more often than an ability one: people research and write at the same time, and end up with forty sources and no argument. The fix is doing the stages in order, with the right tool for each.
Which tool owns which stage
| Stage | What it needs | Best tool |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Understand the assignment | Read the rubric, not just the prompt | No tool — 20 minutes |
| 2. Orient in the topic | Find out what the debate is | Perplexity |
| 3. Settle the question | Narrow to something answerable | ChatGPT (to argue with) |
| 4. Find sources | Peer-reviewed material you can access | Google Scholar, Write It |
| 5. Screen and take notes | Decide what earns a place | Elicit, Zotero |
| 6. Outline as claims | Structure before prose | Write It |
| 7. Draft | Get it into the document | Write It |
| 8. Cite and check | Bibliography and proofread | Write It, Grammarly |
Stage 1 is the one most students skip and the cheapest to fix.
1. Write It — stages 4, 6, 7 and 8
Write It covers more of the sequence than anything else here because it runs inside Google Docs. Research Mode handles source discovery with your citation style and course lens applied, keeps approved sources in a library tied to that document, and inserts a formatted Works Cited when you are done.
Apollo Agent Mode handles the drafting half — outline, then section by section, holding to your tone and rubric constraints, with a review step before anything lands in the doc. The auto typer puts text in keystroke by keystroke so the revision history reflects writing. The Writing Assistant covers grammar and clarity, and the AI Detector shows which paragraphs still read as machine-written.
Key features of Write It
- Research Mode. Source discovery tuned by citation style and course lens.
- Per-document library. Sources stay attached to the paper, so you know in March what you kept in October.
- Works Cited insertion. MLA 9, APA 7, Chicago in notes or author-date, or IEEE — placed in the doc formatted.
- Apollo Agent Mode. Multi-step drafting with a review step first.
- Auto Typer. Variable speed and self-corrected mistakes rather than a paste.
- AI Detector and Humanizer. Find and fix the paragraphs that read as machine-written.
Pros and cons of Write It
Pros
- Covers four of the eight stages, more than anything else here
- The only one that works in the document you submit
- Research and citations included rather than a separate subscription
- Free tier covers Research Mode
Cons
- Library is lighter than Zotero — no PDF storage or annotation
- Does not screen large sets of empirical papers the way Elicit does
- Proofreading is not as deep as Grammarly’s
- Browser only
Cover four stages in one place
Source discovery, drafting, citations, and the final check inside your Google Doc.
2. Zotero — stage 5
Free, open source, and the right home for a library you keep for years. One-click capture from almost any page, catalog, or database, with the PDF and your annotations stored alongside the record and thousands of citation styles available.
Pros and cons of Zotero
Pros
- Free permanently
- Cleanest citation metadata of anything here
- PDF storage and annotation
- Standard in academia
Cons
- Does not find sources
- No AI assistance
- Dated interface
- Paid cloud storage above a threshold
3. Google Scholar — stage 4
Free, comprehensive, and still the first stop. The "cited by" links are the fastest way to trace a debate forward from a foundational paper, which is exactly the kind of engagement rubrics reward.
Pros and cons of Google Scholar
Pros
- Free with no account
- "Cited by" traces debates forward
- Broad disciplinary coverage
- Library links route to full text
Cons
- No quality filtering
- Full text often paywalled
- Keyword rather than conceptual search
- No organizing features
4. Perplexity — stage 2
For the first hour, when you do not yet know the vocabulary of the debate. Ask a real question, get a synthesized answer with links, and use those links to find the actual sources.
Pros and cons of Perplexity
Pros
- Fastest orientation in a new topic
- Sources attached to every claim
- Strong general capability
- Generous free tier
Cons
- Not citable itself
- Indexes general web content
- No citation formatting
- Easy to mistake for having done the reading
5. Elicit — stage 5
If your paper rests on many empirical studies, Elicit turns screening into a table — each row a paper, each column something you asked for. That is a genuinely different experience from twenty PDFs in sequence.
Pros and cons of Elicit
Pros
- Best structured extraction across papers
- Built for academic literature
- Saves real time on screening
- Free tier available
Cons
- Overkill for humanities work
- No document integration
- Best features are paid
- Extraction still needs checking
6. ChatGPT — stage 3
The single highest-leverage use of a chatbot on a research paper is arguing with it about your question before you commit. Give it your thesis and ask for the strongest case against. If it collapses in two paragraphs, better now than after 3,000 words.
Pros and cons of ChatGPT
Pros
- Best at pressure-testing an argument
- Covers every subject
- Good at unpacking what a rubric asks for
- Strong free tier
Cons
- No document access
- Citations it produces are often invented
- Whole-paper output is fluent and empty
- A paste is visible in version history
7. Grammarly — stage 8
For the final pass, still the best. Catches subtler problems, explains its suggestions, and handles academic register with real nuance. It is also the only tool here that works outside the browser.
Pros and cons of Grammarly
Pros
- Best proofreading available
- Works in desktop apps and mobile
- Explanations teach the rule
- Usable free tier
Cons
- No help producing text
- No source or citation management
- Best suggestions are paid
- Cannot fix structure or argument
The order that saves the most time
Read the rubric first
Twenty minutes. It tells you what is actually graded, which is often not what the prompt emphasizes.
Shallow pass before you commit to a question
Find out what people disagree about before deciding what to argue.
Research until new sources stop changing your mind
That is the signal to stop, not a source count.
Write one sentence per source as you read
What it claims, what evidence it gives, how it bears on your question. Worth more later than the PDF.
Outline as claims, then draft straight through
Leave brackets for anything you need to check. Do not stop to research mid-draft.
Revise in passes, cite last
Structure, evidence, sentences, mechanics. Then the bibliography and the final check.
Run the middle four stages in one place
Install Write It free — source discovery, drafting, citations, and the final check inside Google Docs.