Before I share the tricks that help me polish my posts without distorting what I originally wrote, let me confess that I’ve cut a few corners in the past using AI prompts.
The most questionable trick I’ve used was asking ChatGPT to draft a conclusion by feeding it only two-thirds of a written post. There’s no excuse—I feel bad even admitting it—but at the time, I was overwhelmed with life and couldn’t come up with conclusions. Later, I realized that not every post needs one. Sometimes, the post is complete when you’ve run out of meaningful things to say, and it reads perfectly fine without moral lessons, unsolicited advice, or redundant perspectives.
The reason I felt guilty—if it’s not obvious—is the deep respect I have for the craft of writing and for writers of all kinds, those who carefully consider every word they use. It felt like a betrayal of my principles and my own creative process, and it’s not something I ever want to repeat.
That said, I won’t entirely dismiss the power of AI-driven tools to help proofread and refine my writing or to catch inconsistencies and inaccuracies that my own eyes might miss—especially given how little time I can dedicate to this time-consuming activity.
Here are a few helpful, ethically sound (by my standards) and simple prompts I’ve developed over time:
Proofreading
Writers know that no piece of writing—regardless of its audience or purpose—should go public without at least a second pair of eyes reviewing it. Proofreading styles vary greatly: some people practically rewrite your work, while others stick to spotting typos and fixing orthographic issues.
But here’s the thing—those “second eyes” require time, experience, and they’re rarely free (unless you know a benevolent soul whose sole priority is helping you improve). This is where ChatGPT can be incredibly handy. My prompt for this is:
- Correct any grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
- Ensure clarity and consistency without altering the intended tone or writing style.
- Preserve the structure and flow of the text unless minor adjustments are necessary for readability or coherence.
- Highlight unclear sections or sentences that could benefit from rephrasing, while suggesting minimal, non-intrusive edits.
Fact-Checking
So far, I’ve written only a few posts that required this prompt. It’s for posts where I reference studies or attempt a journalistic analysis of societal issues. I aim to research thoroughly, check sources, and quote or paraphrase without inaccuracies.
This is something I’d like to focus on more, but it’s not a top priority right now. Here’s the prompt I use for fact-checking:
- Offer concise feedback for maintaining journalistic integrity and readability.
- Identify any claims, data points, or studies that require verification.
- Suggest credible sources to verify the information or correct inaccuracies, if any.
- Highlight sections where citations or additional clarity could improve reliability.
- Ensure quotes are accurately represented and properly attributed.
SEO
I wish I could say I’m passionate about SEO, but that’s not the case—yet. Despite reading books, taking courses, and watching videos on the subject, it hasn’t fully clicked for me. Maybe one day!
For now, I use this prompt to tackle SEO-related tasks:
- Propose broad categories that accurately reflect the main themes and context of the post, ensuring they fit a typical WordPress blog taxonomy.
- Suggest relevant tags to help readers and search engines quickly identify key topics or concepts discussed in the post.
- Write a max 100 characters, human-readable excerpt summarizing the core idea of the blog post in an engaging and SEO-friendly way. Aim to capture the reader’s interest while reflecting the content accurately.
There you have it—my secrets. I hope you find them helpful! Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any tricks to share, resources you recommend, or books and authors that have inspired you.
