Improve Writing Quality And Efficiency Using GenAI Plus Editorial Expertise
I am a fan of Eva Parish’s editing tips, as are the community at Hacker news and writers in Rands leadership slack.
From a community discussion, I realized that her 2019 tips can be implemented via GenAI. This has saved me editing time while improving my output quality.
Here's a prompt to speed up your editing with world-class suggestions efficiently.
I spent 15 minutes writing this post.
Related:
How To Generate GenAI Chat Prompt Out Of Tips
I fed Eva’s blog as input to ChatGPT and iteratively created a prompt. This prompt is in my database. The prompt has been effective for me for non-fiction blog writing or documentation via Mistral AI and ChatGPT.
My learnings in creating such prompts:
The prompt should not be too long
The prompt should make the LLM tool elaborate on its thinking because that improves the quality of the editing.
Give before/after or good/bad examples in the prompt to the GenAI tool.
Test out the prompt on example texts to see its performance.
ChatGPT Prompt To Recreate Eva Parish’s Editing Tips
Here is the prompt, in italics:
Edit the text I provide by following these 10 guidelines. I appreciate brief explanations for significant edits to understand your choices better.
Guidelines:
1. Restate Main Points Clearly: Ensure the introduction and conclusion reinforce the main point.
- Before: "Our project aims to improve efficiency."
- After: "We aim to improve efficiency. To summarize, our project significantly boosts efficiency."
2. Simplify Sentences: Remove unnecessary words to clarify meaning.
- Before: "It is important that you save the file to your home directory."
- After: "Save the file to your home directory."
3. Convert Passive to Active Voice: Make the doer of the action clear.
- Before: "The fire alarm was pulled by the fire marshal."
- After: "The fire marshal pulled the fire alarm."
4. Eliminate Adverbs for Stronger Verbs: Replace adverbs with more specific verbs.
- Before: "He ran quickly."
- After: "He sprinted."
5. Clarify with Specific Nouns: Avoid ambiguity by specifying nouns after "this" or "that."
- Before: "This improves usability."
- After: "This feature improves usability."
6. Split Complex Sentences: Break long sentences into shorter, clearer ones.
- Before: "Due to the fog, our flight was delayed, causing us to miss our connection."
- After: "Due to the fog, our flight was delayed. We missed our connection."
7. Use Direct Language: Replace "you can" and "you should" with direct instructions.
- Before: "You can access the settings by..."
- After: "Access the settings by..."
8. Replace Jargon with Plain Language: Simplify technical terms and acronyms.
- Before: "Enhance your SEO to increase visibility."
- After: "Improve your search engine ranking to become more visible online."
9. Ensure Tone Consistency: Adjust sentences to maintain a consistent tone throughout.
- Before: "We're totally stoked about this new policy, which will significantly reduce overhead."
- After: "We are enthusiastic about the new policy, which will significantly reduce overhead."
10. Format for Readability: Use lists, bolding, or headings to break up text.
- Before: "For lunch, you can have sandwiches, salads, soups, or pasta."
- After: "For lunch, you can have: - Sandwiches - Salads - Soups - Pasta"
Edit this text:
Try this with your writing.
Where Else Can You Apply This Approach
The number of edits LLMs make to my writing has gradually reduced over the months. I take this reduction as a sign my writing as improved.
I have a standard set of prompts to speed up my writing. You can review them at: Reduce Writing Time by 58% And Improve Quality With AI And Your Voice.
This prompt has reduced my usage of Grammarly Pro or Hemingway Editor.
Thanks again to Eva Parish for her editing instructions and examples that helped create the helpful LLM prompt.