Prompts that get you a better answer

Tips for a better answer

• Ask for “no jargon”, and name any word your line of work overuses.
• Compare the two versions side by side. You decide which changes to keep.

An example, filled in

Edit the text below so it’s clearer and shorter, for parents at our primary school. Use plain English, short sentences and UK spelling. Keep my meaning, my facts and my voice, and don’t add new points. Aim for about 60 words. Then list the three biggest changes you made and why, so I can learn from them. My text: Further to recent communications, we would like to take this opportunity to remind all parents and carers that, with effect from Monday 3 March, the school gates will be locked at 8.50am promptly, and any pupils arriving subsequent to this time will be required to enter via the main office, where they will be signed in.

Tips for a better answer

• Write the summary last, but put it first: busy readers may read nothing else.
• Check every figure in the finished report against its source, even ones the AI only repeated.

An example, filled in

I need to write a four-page report for our charity’s trustees about whether to open our helpline in the evenings. What I want readers to do after reading it: approve a six-month trial of evening opening. The facts and figures I already have: calls after 6pm have doubled this year; two volunteers can do evenings; the phone system can handle it at no extra cost. Give me an outline with: a one-paragraph summary to write last; four to six section headings in a logical order; the two or three points each section should make; and the evidence each point needs, marked “I have this” or “I need to find this”. Keep the language plain and the outline short. Don’t invent figures or sources.