Tip: Upgrade Your Writing Skills: 8 ChatGPT Tricks

ChatGPT Word 8 Tips Transcript

ChatGPT will improve your writing.

This video is definitely not about cheating on an overdue homework writing assignment.

Rather, I will demonstrate eight valuable CHATGPT tips to enhance your writing skills.

Hi, this is Les from Power Up Training. Let’s do it and power up.

Let’s start with this poorly written single-paragraph introduction to our YouTube tutorial. It is filled with rambling sentences, poor word choice, inconsistent capitalization and awkward phrasing.

Listen

“In this self-help youtube training video, I will try to attempt explaining how best to edit a text document to make it super crystal clear on the best technique  . . .”

Oh, I have to stop . .  this is painfully dreadful.

Let’s have ChatGPT fix it with this simple 3-word command; “improve this paragraph”

I’ll paste the copied paragraph from Word into the GPT prompt box.

Press enter, and within seconds, I get a much-improved paragraph.

However, it is still a bit awkward with pompous word choices. Listen as I read aloud.

In this educational YouTube tutorial, I will succinctly illustrate the most effective strategies for refining a poorly constructed Word Document . . .”

While technically correct, it sounds  . . . stilted, not natural.

So let’s do some interactive GPT editing with an additional prompt of :

“Rewrite in a more simple writing style”

And the results with just two GPT prompts are excellent:

“In this YouTube video, I’ll show you how to fix up a messy Word document. This will help make what you’re trying to say easier to understand, and improve your writing overall. This is a great way to let your talent shine.”

Much clearer and instantly understandable with the bonus of going from 56 words to a more efficient 42 words.

So let’s power Up and dig deeper into better controlling GPT’s results.

Tip #1 – Grammar Help

Let’s give GPT the simple task of fixing the grammar of this paragraph

(Is it really that simple? Because if grammar is so simple, then I would never make a mistake . . .no! Proper grammar is hard.)

At a high level, ChatGPT is an interactive tool with a simple interface.

Ask a question; get results.

Let’s try.

At the bottom of the screen, I will ask:

“Improves this paragraph and show your changes: ”

The core command is IMPROVE THIS PARAGRAPH but this time, I added a modifier of “show your changes” which instructs GPT to highlight what modifications were made.

Next, I paste in the target of my command: the paragraph to be improved.

Press enter and the results are astounding.

Our AI robot found and fixed seven grammar and spelling-related mistakes, plus several more word changes to add clarity.

A great set of results for minimal work.

However, I still find it hard to read.  If I want a quick recap of the meeting, this paragraph still makes it difficult to quickly skim the meeting notes.

So TIP #2 to the rescue – Create Bullet Points

Our meeting recap is really just a set of topics covered.  So why not just turn them into bullet points instead of a single paragraph of mishmashed topics.

ChatGPT makes this a snap.  I simply issue the command of “Turn this into bullet points” . . . and Presto . . bullet points.

That is cool.  But look closer.  Our GPT robot did not just turn each sentence into a bullet point. No, it looked at the context and ORGANIZED them; specifically note “Identified Complications” where GPT grouped three sub-bullet points together.

And those last three were not individual sentences, instead, GPT pulled out three individual ideas stuck in a single sentence.

This is simple & effective.  And so much more digestible than the original jumbled paragraph recap.

You can do this to any other text that you have written. .  just copy and paste. And tell GPT to turn into bullet points.

Before going to the next tip, I want to highlight the  earlier command of “turn this into bullet points.”

I issued the action command, but I did not include the target for the action.

GPT assumed the target to be the previous results. This is the “chat” nature of the ChatGPT.

It continues along in conversation mode.  Supply a command; GPT responds, you respond with a modifier and GPT continues the interactive interaction.

As we go to TIP #3 “Change the Tone,” I want to emphasize the importance of always starting with a NEW CHAT.  Watch as I navigate up to the top left of the screen and click NEW CHAT.

This will wipe GPT’s “previous memory” so that any previous instructions will NOT taint my new results. Later, I will show you when you do not want to do a MindWipe. There are uses for both approaches.

Also note, that I am selecting GPT-4, the latest version of Open AI’s tool that is currently only available to paying customers like me.  However, the earlier version will provide similar results; although obviously the paid version has superior results.

Ok back to Tip #3 – Improving the tone of your writing.

Your writing should have a goal, such as: teach, persuade, amuse, convince, or empathize.

And so you want the word choice and sentence construction to match the mood or textural tone to better achieve your goal.

Let’s see how ChatGPT can help.

Here is a longer than a single-paragraph essay on improving your copy editing skills.

I will be using this as our base text for the rest of the tutorial as a more realistic way of working with longer text.

Let me start with my go-to standard starting command: “Rewrite this essay about copyediting for easy reading”

One: The action command of “rewrite”

Two: then add some context about the content. I’m telling gpt that this is an “essay about copy editing”

And three: this KEY MODIFIER on what reading level to compose for: “FOR EASY READING.”

I find GPT provides more natural results with this MODIFIER of “FOR EASY READING.”

Lastly, I add “wait for my text.” This instructs GPT that I am not done with my command and it should wait for the follow up text in the next prompt.

The only reason I do that here, is it becomes more clear for you, my YouTube viewers, to see the commands versus the text being operated on.

Once I hit enter, GPT will think and then rewrite the full essay, which follows MY THOUGHTS and STRUCTURE but cleans up the formatting, grammar, and sentence flow.

We will not examine the whole essay, but just compare the ending.

See the consistency of capitalization? The first words after the category.

Plus fixing grammar and just the idea flow from the mess of the last line “COMPREHENSIBLE: I ensure your writing flows well and makes sense.” to

“COMPREHENSIBLE: Make sure your writing flows smoothly and makes sense to the reader.”

Much, much better. But if I want to nitpick; I could put my on human copy editor hat and point out that this should be IT STARTS WITH and not FROM

or drop the “OR” as it is not needed.

or the numeric 5 should be spelled out, which is an accepted style rule for numbers under 12.

But overall not bad; the tone is pretty easy going.

And if we think it could be better, it is simple to just click REGENERATE RESPONSE to get an alternative to work with.

And we could keep rolling the dice with more “REGENERATE RESPONSE” but lets not be so random.

Instead, we can get more specific with our tone; which is different from the writing style of easy to read.

If I was writing this for my company coworkers, I could change the tone with this command:

Rewrite this essay to make it more professional.

And both the new title and opening lines immediately show a radically new tone:

“Mastering the Art of Copy Editing: A Comprehensive Guide for Elevating Your Writing Skills

The ability to enhance one’s writing skills constitutes a comprehensive process that includes ideation, constructing an outline, creating a draft, followed by meticulous editing. ”

Now let’s go from “professional” to “ make it more academic”

“Enhancing Written Communication Through the Application of Copy Editing Techniques

The ability to compose effective written communication involves a comprehensive process. This process encompasses initial ideation, structure development, draft creation, and, significantly, the iterative stage of editing. ”

or  a humorous tone:

“How to Sprinkle Your Writing with the Fairy Dust of Copy Editing

If you’re keen on joining the Wordsmith’s Guild, you’ve signed up for a roller-coaster ride from the dizzying heights of the brainstorm to the daunting depths of drafting, only to ascend again on the wings of edit after edit. ”

Ok, ok . . . that is a bit over the top but you could later tell GPT to “tone it down.”

My point here is to experiment with different tone commands to more target your writing.

Here is a good list to try for different tones or styles of writing:

> Professional

> academic

> humorous

> conversations

> empathic

> Creative

But there are some BIG RED FLAGS here.

If you are passing the results off as your own creative writing; beware of a radical shifts compared to your own personal writing style.

It is very possible that your teacher or boss or team member may notice such a dramatic change from your normal writing style and assume you are “cheating.”

And yes, you are cheating if you are copying and pasting from the GPT results window with no thoughts or modifications by you.

As an alternative, one strategy is to take your first draft and select just one tone plus the additional modifier of using a simpler writing style.  This should keep the end results closer to your original text and more in your own voice.

This would be more in line of a copyeditor guiding your own original creative work; not blindly using the text from an AI Robot. Copy editing is a long-time tradition for better writing; and now if used lightly, acceptable with tools like GPT.

Tip #4 Targeting your Audience with a Point of View

As demonstrated in Tip #3, changing the “Tone” is about the style of writing, but not targeting who will be reading your essay or email.

What I mean is that even if you write in a professional tone, the resulting words and construct would be quite different if you were planning to send the essay to a bunch of 6th graders versus the finance budget board.

So let’s take our earlier copy editing essay and now have CHATGPT rewrite essay from a new Point of View with

“rewrite this as if I am a corporate trainer”

So as to speed this along, let’s just look at the changing titles.

Corporate trainer:

Unlock Your Writing Potential: A Guide to Effective Copy Editing

Now let’s rewrite if if I am a  high school career counselor.:

Upgrade Your Writing Skills with Copy Editing Techniques

Or shifting from point of view to focusing on your target audience:

Rewrite this as if I am speaking to college freshmen.

or to customer service agents.

The point here is that you can craft both the tone and target your audience from your own perspective.

in the end, ChatGPT forces you to think about the who, how and why you are writing.  A foundational set of understanding even if you are working with pencil and paper with no the internet.

Know your audience and know your role in the relationship.

This tip was actually a bonus of two tips bundled together on changing your authoritative perspective as the writer and tailoring the message for your audience.

And this takes us to Tip #5: Work Paragraph by Paragraph

As just discussed earlier, using the tools of GPT too aggressively can alter your speaking voice to where it is no longer recognizable as you.

So, a better plan is to adjust GPT on a paragraph-by-paragraph strategy.

Let’s see how this will work; but first let’s clear away past influences and start a new chat.

Plus, something new, as I will write a sophisticated starting prompt.

Look at the key items in this single prompt request:

the command: REWRITE

with the Context: an opening paragraph (to distinguish from writing a poem or a play)

setting the reading level: at 12th grade

including my perspective: coaching college students

Topic or the goal of the essay: how to become a better writer

And finally setting the tone: make it engaging.

Then I supply the opening paragraph.

This has pulled in all our previous 4 tips into a single prompt.

And the results are solid.

But for my taste, it is still using too many complex words and phrases.

I would never write “the art of refining” or a “multifaceted journey” or “the birth of an idea.”

That is not my personal writing style.

So let’s tone it down a notch.  And the trick to my original prompt is that I used a targeted reading level of 12 grade.

Let’s lower it down by four to 8th grade.

I am not saying my audience, and I are 8th graders, but we want to simply the word choice and complexity of sentence structure to an easier-to-grasp prose.

And for my style, I find 8th grade is an easy to understand level but not too simplistic.

It matches me.  But in this example, I find the use of terms like “cool idea” and “make you a super editor” just a bit too casual and may later experiment up a grade or two to get the words just right

And as I reread the paragraph, it does seem to pack into too many ideas for one paragraph, which is what I did with the original paragraph.

So I can fix it by stating, break this into two paragraphs.

That looks better.

And it reinforces the fact that you must always be the better editor.  ChatGPT can be a good aid, but the finished results must be your responsibility.

Which in the end, you will always be able to state that the ownership of the work is yours; not some AI robot.

So no, you are not cheating, you are just be aided by an AI copy editor that is supervised by you.

Now that you have fine-tuned the tone and style, and approach, you could put in this prompt:

“Rewrite the rest of the essay using this same style. ”

Drop in a bunch more paragraphs and have it complete the work.

For my working style, I actually stay in Word, send a paragraph over to ChatGPT and then use some of the ideas to rewrite in Word. And repeat.  It take more time but almost always results in a higher quality finished product.

Tip # 6 TL;DR – SUMMARIZE!

For some of my longer emails, I will often find it effective to summarize the topic.

An effective executive summary may encourage others to read the full email; but with the additional TLDR, too long didn’t read, at least you can get your key points across.

ChatGPT to the rescue.

Watch how easy it is to summarize our previous essay with the prompt:

“Write a one-paragraph TLDR summary.”

If it is a longer text document,  give it more than just one paragraphs to use or if it is a bit too wordy, tell it to “Rewrite with fewer words.”

Tip #7. . .  oh-no this the BIG WARNING, never, never do this:  “Create a 600-word essay about copy editing.”

Do not be fooled.  This looks great but it is not your ideas or even based on your writing.  It is the equivalent of AI Robot Plagiarism with the risk of it also being just plain wrong.  Chat-GPT will hallucinate “facts” that do not exist.

ChatGPT is NOT a RESEARCH tool it is large language word predictor and modifier.  Never let it write you essays from scratch.

So #7 is JUST DON’T DO THIS.

But instead tip #8 can be useful if you are stuck on where to begin: Give GPT directions to create an outline. Don’t let it loose unsupervised, let it work with your ideas and concepts

First think through your:

1) topic

2) Writing style

3) Details to be included in your essay

4) Specific topics to cover (the more, the better)

5) Include your thesis summary

And look at the great starter outline that chatgpt can deliver.

Here is my detailed prompt and the results.

If I copy and drop this into Microsoft Word, I now have a working plan.  Examine the outline, add and remove ideas, shift the content around, and the go write your essay in your voice with your ideas.

Remember to use our earlier tips to refine your prose once your first draft is done.

GPT is a tool to enhance your writing, not cripple you.

ChatGPT will teach you to be a better writer; not replace you.

If this was helpful, subscribe and give thumbs up.

And consider watching this tutorial, “ChatGPT Slide Title Makeover For Better Presentations,” which targets PowerPoint, but can equally be applied to helping you write better essay tiles.

Until next time, go Power UP.