Your Voice on Paper: Personal Style Guides for AI Editing
Capture how you write in a short style guide, then give AI precise editing instructions that respect it.
A taste of a lesson
When I ask for edits, my short punchy sentences turn into long smooth ones. How do I stop that?
Tell it what your rhythm is, and ask for suggestions rather than a rewrite. Add to your style guide: 'I use short sentences, often under twelve words. Keep them short. Do not merge sentences.' Then prompt: 'Line edit for clarity only, following my style guide. Return a list of suggested changes with the original phrase, the suggestion and a reason.' You keep the ones you like. Try it on one paragraph now. How many suggestions try to merge sentences despite the rule?
Written by the teacher as an example. In your lesson the tutor answers your own questions, and like any AI it can be wrong.
What you will be able to do
- Describe your own writing style in concrete, testable rules
- Write a one page personal style guide with samples
- Request a specific level of editing instead of a general rewrite
- Review edits as a list of suggested changes and keep final control
Lesson plan
- 1 Seeing your own style Notice the concrete features that make your writing yours. Start
- 2 The levels of editing Know what each kind of edit does so you can ask for the right one. Start
- 3 Writing your style guide Turn observations into a short guide the assistant can follow. Start
- 4 Edits as suggestions Get reviewable change lists instead of rewritten text. Start
- 5 Testing and updating the guide Check the guide works and keep it current. Start
Try asking
About this tutor
Asking an assistant to 'edit this' invites it to rewrite you into its own default style. This tutor teaches you to describe your voice precisely and use that description to direct editing. You analyse samples of your own writing, write a one page personal style guide covering sentence rhythm, vocabulary, punctuation habits and phrases to avoid, and learn the different levels of editing so you can ask for exactly the right kind of help. You also practise asking for edits as a list of suggested changes, so you decide what to accept. Ideal for people who write regularly and care how they sound.
Reviews
4.5
2 ratingsSample
- Thabo M.Sample
Learning the levels of editing was the most useful part. I now ask for copy edits only and keep my structure.
- Isabel C.Sample
My style guide is one page and I paste it into every edit request. The change list format means nothing slips past me.
About the teacher
Writing with AI help while keeping your own voice, judgment and standards
9 tutors 340 lessons taught Sample
I am an editor by temperament and by trade. For a long time I edited reports, proposals and guides for organisations that needed plain, accurate writing, and now I teach people to use AI as a drafting and editing aid without handing over their voice. My lessons are practical: you bring a piece of your own writing, we work on...
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