Are you getting vague and even terrible revision suggestions from ChatGPT? If you are, it’s not the AI’s fault—it’s your prompts!
Generic instructions like “Correct this essay for me” lead to surface-level revisions because they just don’t give enough context or guidance for ChatGPT to do its magic.
Luckily, you don’t need to be a crazy prompt engineer to make ChatGPT revise your article just as you prefer. All you need to do is follow these easy-to-follow AI writing revision steps — we promise you won’t get lost!
1. Assign ChatGPT As Your Editor
First and foremost, ChatGPT wears multiple hats. It can be a math teacher, a historian, a B2B marketing specialist, a social media manager, and so on.
Without giving it a specific ‘hat’ to complete your prompt, you’d be asking it to tap into resources that may or may not align with what you are looking for.
Now, since you want it to revise your article, there are two possible roles that you can give it —a proofreader or an editor.
If you only want to revise your article in terms of correcting grammar mistakes, formatting, and spelling, go with a proofreader. But if your concern includes the tone and overall quality of your article, choose editor.
To assign ChatGPT a persona or role, you could write, “Assuming the role of a [Persona]…”
2. Give a Detailed Prompt to ChatGPT
I’ve mentioned earlier that detailed prompt matters if you want ChatGPT to have enough context to revise your article. So, what does ‘detailed’ include? Let’s take a closer look:
2.1 Correct Syntax and Grammatical Errors
You can use ChatGPT to address grammar errors ranging from basic punctuation like misplaced apostrophes to fixing tricky punctuations like semicolons and identifying run-on sentences.
Consider specific instructions like:
“Analyze the text for a range of syntax and grammatical errors and provide corrections. Pay attention to punctuation, correct word usage, sentence structure, subject-verb agreement, and improve overall grammatical integrity.”
But while the prompt above is all-encompassing, you can provide short, specific prompts for precise results.
For example, if you notice punctuation is the issue, you may write:
“Review this text for punctuation mistakes and suggest improvements for better readability.”
2.2 Maintain Tense Consistency
When you accidentally switch between past, present, and future tenses, ChatGPT Editor can help you maintain consistency.
A simple prompt like, “Maintain consistency, ensuring correct verb tenses throughout,” should do.
Assuming, in the first paragraph, you mention, “I walked to the store,” then say, “I buy groceries,” your ChatGPT editor will change “buy” to “bought” for uniformity.
2.3 Cut Down Excess Verbs or Adjectives
Are your sentences too wordy or complex for your readers to follow? You can enhance coherence and clarity by prompting the ChatGPT Editor to remove unnecessary words.
For instance, you can write, “Cut down on excess verbs or adjectives to improve readability.”
If you have a sentence like “He was walking slowly and very carefully across the street,” ChatGPT might simplify it to “He crossed the street carefully.”
Alternatively, if a sentence feels overwhelming with too many clauses or ideas, you can ask ChatGPT to cut it into smaller, digestible parts.
Tip: You can also use ChatGPT to simplify a sentence.
2.4 Adjust Style and Tone for Your Target Audience
Using ChatGPT as your AI editor goes beyond checking grammar mistakes; you can also have it adjust the tone and style based on who you are writing the article for.
For instance, if you are writing for high-level business executives, using a casual tone and online slang terms should be out of the question.
But sometimes, especially if you are unfamiliar with the topic or the intended readers, you’d throw in some casual interjections.
That’s where ChatGPT can come in because it can correct them.
Here’s a sample prompt:
Act as a business editor. Your objective is to adjust the style and tone of the text [insert text] that resonates with [target audience].
2.5 Ask to Provide At Least 3 Recommendations
The suggestions should be based on the areas covered in the previous section: grammar, consistency, readability, style, and tone.
You could say:
“Please give me three versions of your revision based on grammar, clarity, tone, and style. ”
Tip: Don’t be afraid to ask for more ChatGPT suggestions on how to improve your draft.
3. Select Your Preferred Version
It’s time to review what ChatGPT has for you and pick what you prefer. Any suggestion that makes a sentence clearer or easier to read is likely a keeper. However, you’re free to leave things that feel off or stray too far from your style.
Use a simple prompt like, “I prefer the third revision.”
Putting It All Together
So, what is one thing left to do? The final step is putting everything together in one detailed prompt. You could say:
Assume the role of an editor. You are going to revise an article by:
• Correcting syntax and grammatical errors
• Maintaining [present tense or past tense] tense consistency throughout the article
• Cutting down excess verbs or adjectives to [insert percentage], with 100% being the fullest.
• Adjust style and tone for [target audience]
Please give me three versions of your revision based on the requirements mentioned above.
Article: [insert article]Final Thoughts
ChatGPT can be a professional editor —only if you guide it to be!
Steer it in the right direction by providing what it needs to correct, whether that’s using the right tone for your target audience or you want to check for punctuation issues. Remember, less is not more in AI blog post writing and revisions!