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Generative AI is the boogeyman for anybody that does anything with text, with writers of all stripes up nights worrying what this new technology means for them. Thankfully it’s not all doom and gloom: there are many ways in which AI can be used to improve writing and make it better than ever before — especially for those just starting out as writers.
In this article we’ll go over some of the ways in which generative AI can make life easier for anybody that writes. Whether you’re a professional journalist, somebody who writes in their off hours, or even a student looking to improve their grades, AI can help you get a little more oomph out of your written word.
Get Feedback
Probably the most useful thing about generative AI is that it can give you one of the most valuable resources for a writer: feedback. While you could ask family, friends, coworkers or even the internet for their opinion on something you’ve written, a program like ChatGPT has the benefit of being available to you whenever you need it.
The way it works is that you ask ChatGPT “give me feedback on this” and then below paste the text (you can add a “please” to make a good impression if you’re worried about the robot uprising). The upside is that you get your feedback whenever you want it, you’re not dependent on others. ChatGPT focuses very strongly on how content comes across, which is good if you’re writing for an audience.
However, there are some downsides. For one, the human touch is missing: ChatGPT will look at any text in a very technical way and make sure it hits all the markers set by existing articles on the same topic. There’s not too much room for personal expression or for doing anything new. Also, a good human reader will be able to give you feedback on the kind of interpersonal nuance that’s lost on AI.
Also, it doesn’t help that ChatGPT especially is very upbeat: it will always tell you you did well, even if you didn’t. Though it’s never fun, hearing “that was awful” from a trusted friend or coworker may actually do more for your writing in the long run.
Helping with Grammar and Sentence Structure
Besides giving general feedback, ChatGPT can also give specific suggestions on improving your writing, especially when it comes to things like grammar or sentence structure. As it’s something all of us struggle with from time to time, this may be where generative AI shines.
One example is to simply ask it to help you improve sentence structure, in our case it gave us a writing assignment straight out of college:
Writing little prompts like this are a great way to get better at writing. Not only can you write around yourself and figure out what you like best, you can feed your creations back into ChatGPT to get its opinion.
While we’re not a huge fan of the sentence we fed ChatGPT, its critique is exactly what many learning writers need to improve. Its feedback on grammar is equally thorough:
While our example is very basic, ChatGPT also picks up on more obscure grammatical errors and will help you correct them. If you’re looking to improve that aspect of your writing, it’s a solid tool, and we like it more than Grammarly, say, and it’s occasionally odd stylistic choices.
Expand Vocabulary
Writers’ tools are words, and it’s always good to have more, and better, tools. ChatGPT is pretty good, here, too, acting like an interactive dictionary that can help you grow your vocabulary. In fact, in some ways it’s better, as it can help you figure out alternative words and phrasing on the fly.
For one, you could use it as a dictionary, simply asking it what a word means. For more complicated subjects you may want to add that you want the explanation in simple terms or get hit with a wall of text. However, for simple things, you get a dictionary-style answer.
You can also use it as a thesaurus, which is a compendium that helps you find synonyms, words that mean the same as another, and antonyms, words that mean the opposite.
However, where ChatGPT has most old-school tools like these beat is that it can also help you in the context of a sentence, or even reword entire sentences.
As you can see, though, this may be still a work in progress. While our original sentence was, well, crap, ChatGPT’s version isn’t much better. Still, we like its train of thought in that it forces you to rethink how your sentences work, which will, eventually, make you a better writer.
Research
Another huge part of writing that’s fast less about the nuts and bolts is research, also known as knowing what the hell you’re writing about. Google search, academic papers and a whole host of other means can help you gain an understanding of how something works, but ChatGPT is a great way to distill them all down to a few paragraphs. You just need to ask the question.
The nice thing about doing your research this way is that you can isolate things you’d like to know more about in ChatGPT’s explanations and thus keep learning. You can also use ChatGPT to create examples for you, like if you need some sample code to illustrate a point or are looking for an anecdote to lend legitimacy to a point you’re making.
All that said, this may be the point where ChatGPT’s weaknesses are the most blatant. While it’s great to get a quick idea of what something is, using ChatGPT as a study-buddy for school, or to look up a detail you don’t know, there’s no way in its current incarnation it can stand up to real, skilled research — or, let’s be honest, a thorough reading of Wikipedia.
For a quick fact check, ChatGPT is adequate, but for anything more than that, it becomes shaky. Ask it for the causes of the First World War it comes out with cookie cutter stuff that gives many historians pause, and its explanation of theological concepts would give a cleric conniptions. It’s not too great on hard sciences, either, so tread with care in this regard, and double check when in doubt.
Writing Prompts
The trick to becoming a better writer is actually quite simple once you boil it all down: write. The more you write, the better you get at it. ChatGPT is a great help here, as it can set up prompts for you that will help you build your skills. For example, say you want to write more about how accountants could use AI.
That’s a pretty thorough breakdown, and it’s a good way to get started with a subject you may not know much about. That said, there’s a chance that this article already exists, so it’s just for you to experiment with, unless you manage to give it a unique twist. Much the same goes for any fiction prompts you ask ChatGPT for.
We’re pretty sure we’ve seen this prompt before: ChatGPT likes people finding keys in forests, it seems. As you can see, though, if you’re stuck or just want to practice a bit, it does come in handy, just don’t expect to win any prizes.
However, you will see that our prompts are quite specific in this case; that’s because otherwise you get weird, nonsensical prompts. When asking AI for anything remotely abstract, you need to construe your prompts well or run into issues. In a way, that’s another great way to practice your writing!
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