Write with AI. Keep your voice.

What you’ll be able to do

• Choose whether you need questions, structure, feedback, or a draft.
• Request a revision that preserves your meaning and factual claims.
• Explain the edits you accept and reject.

Decide what kind of help you need

An assistant can ask questions before you write, organize points you have already chosen, identify unclear passages, or suggest revisions. Those are different relationships to the work. Naming the role helps you keep responsibility for the ideas.

If you are learning to write, asking for a finished answer can remove the practice you need. A better request may be: “Ask me one question at a time until I can explain my main claim and evidence.” For work governed by a school or organization, check its rules about assistance and disclosure before using the output.

A worked example: preserve the claim

Original paragraph:

“Our library workshop helped me start using AI for small tasks. I practiced making agendas and checking summaries against my notes. I still make mistakes, but now I know what to check.”

A poor revision says: “This transformative program made me an AI expert.” It introduces expertise and a stronger outcome the writer did not claim.

A faithful revision might say: “The library workshop helped me use AI for small tasks, including agendas and note summaries. I still make mistakes, but I now have a clearer process for checking the results.” The wording changes while the underlying claim remains modest and recognizable.

Try a feedback-first prompt

Act as an editor, not a substitute author.
First identify my main point in one sentence.
Then point out two places where a reader might need clarification.
Suggest a revision that preserves my factual claims, level of certainty, and plainspoken tone.
Do not add experiences, credentials, statistics, or quotations.
Explain each substantive edit.

Paragraph: Our library workshop helped me start using AI for small tasks.
I practiced making agendas and checking summaries against my notes.
I still make mistakes, but now I know what to check.

Your practice: revise with a reason

1. Write a 120-word paragraph about something you personally learned. Use only details you are comfortable sharing.
2. State the point you want the reader to understand.
3. Ask for feedback before requesting a rewrite.
4. Accept one suggested change, modify another, and reject a third. If there are fewer than three suggestions, ask for additional options.
5. Write a one-sentence reason for each decision.
6. Read the final paragraph aloud. Replace phrases you would not naturally use.

Your finished artifact: Your original paragraph, a revision, and a short editorial decision log. You should be able to explain every factual statement and every important change.

Ask questions that develop thinking

Try: “What would a skeptical reader ask about my claim?” or “Which sentence needs an example?” The goal is to expose a gap you can address, not to generate impressive wording that conceals the gap.

You can ask the assistant to challenge your reasoning, then decide whether the challenge is relevant. Agreement is not always helpful feedback, and disagreement is not automatically insight.

A common mistake

Letting a revision make a statement more absolute. Words such as “always,” “proves,” and “guarantees” deserve a check against your evidence. Preserve uncertainty when uncertainty is part of the truth.

Reflection

Which revision clarified your thinking, and which merely made the prose sound more formal?

Go deeper

Anthropic’s prompting overview discusses defining the result you want before iterating on prompts.