Writing & Editing

Writing is where AI assistants shine: turning rough notes into a clear email, making a message friendlier, cutting a page down to a paragraph, or catching mistakes before you hit send. Today you'll use an assistant as a writing partner, while you stay the author.

Draft from your own notes

The best drafts start from your rough thoughts, not a blank request. Bullet points are fine:

Turn my notes into a short email to my team. Friendly, clear, under 120 words.
 
Notes:
- office closed Friday for electrical work
- work from home that day
- Monday team meeting moves to Tuesday 10am, same room
- ask Priya if you need a laptop to take home

Because the facts come from you, the assistant only has to organise and phrase them, which it's very good at.

Change the tone, length or level

The same message can be rewritten in many ways. Paste your text and say how to change it:

Make this message more polite and less blunt, but keep it short:
 
"Your report is late again. I need it by tomorrow or we'll miss the deadline."

Other useful rewrites:

• "Make this half as long without losing any facts."
• "Rewrite for someone who isn't an expert. No jargon."
• "Make it sound more confident; remove phrases like 'I just wanted to' and 'sorry to bother you'."
• "Turn this into 3 bullet points for a slide."
• "Translate into Spanish, keeping it informal." (Check important translations with a fluent speaker.)

Proofread without losing your voice

If you only want mistakes fixed, say so. Otherwise the assistant may "improve" your writing into something that doesn't sound like you:

Proofread the text below. Correct only spelling, grammar and punctuation. Keep my wording and style. After the corrected text, list each change you made.
 
[paste your text]

Ask for feedback instead of a rewrite

To get better at writing yourself, ask for feedback:

Here's my cover letter for a junior graphic designer role. Don't rewrite it. Point out the 3 weakest parts, explain why each is weak, and suggest how I could fix it myself.
 
[paste your letter]

Ask for options

When you're not sure what you want, ask for several versions and compare:

Give me 3 different subject lines for this newsletter: one playful, one straightforward, one that creates curiosity. Under 8 words each.

Then mix and match: "Use the opening of version B with the ending of version C."

Check before you send

A final read-through also catches the most common giveaway of AI writing: generic, over-polished phrases that don't sound like a real person. Cut them, or ask: "Make it sound more natural and less like a template."

Recap

• Draft from your own notes; the assistant organises and phrases, you supply the facts.
• Rewrite for tone, length and audience by saying exactly how to change it.
• For proofreading, ask for corrections only and a list of changes.
• Ask for feedback without a rewrite to improve your own writing.
• Request several options and combine the best parts.
• Check facts, names, dates and promises before you send anything.

Tomorrow you'll use assistants to summarise and understand long documents.