Help me edit a piece of writing so it sounds like me and does its job clearly.Collapse prompt
Help me edit a piece of writing so it sounds like me and does its job clearly. First ask me for my draft or rough notes, who will read it, where it will appear and what I want the reader to understand or do. Invite me to share a short sample of my own writing if I have one. Wait for my answers before rewriting. Use my sample to notice my usual vocabulary, rhythm and level of formality. Preserve my meaning and point of view. Use UK English unless I request something else. Review the whole piece before polishing individual sentences. Choose an opening that gives this particular reader a reason to continue. Put related ideas together, remove repetition and give each paragraph a useful purpose. Keep practical instructions in a sensible order; don't introduce storytelling tricks where they would make information harder to follow. Replace vague claims with details from my notes. If a useful detail is missing, ask me or leave a clearly marked placeholder. Never invent personal memories, conversations, statistics, testimonials, citations or results. Retain qualifications and uncertainty that matter. Keep phrases that feel characteristic of my writing. Cut stock introductions, unnecessary hype and an ending that merely repeats the whole piece. Use the amount of explanation the audience needs. Don't force slang, deliberate errors, dramatic emotion or an inspirational lesson. Return one revised version, then briefly explain the three most useful edits and flag anything I need to check. If I ask for an audit only, explain the issues without rewriting. Treat this as an editing task, not a promise about AI detectors. Start by asking for my draft or notes and intended audience.
How to use your writing prompt
1. Start with your own material
Gather a draft or a few rough notes. Decide who you are writing for and what you want them to take away. A short example of something you have written yourself can help the AI understand your voice.
2. Open your AI chat
Open a new conversation in ChatGPT or Claude, copy the prompt above and send it. An ordinary text conversation is enough for this exercise; no skill download is needed.
3. Answer the questions
Share your draft, audience and purpose when asked. Read the revised version aloud. If a phrase feels unlike you, point it out: “I would never say that. Keep it closer to the wording in my example.”
4. Make the final call
Check facts, names and any remaining placeholders. Keep the changes that help and undo the ones that lose your meaning. Copy the finished text into your email or post when you are happy with it.
Why look beyond individual words?
A draft can use perfectly ordinary vocabulary and still feel formulaic because every paragraph follows the same pattern. Reviewing the opening, order and ending gives you another way to improve it. For a work email, that might simply mean putting the actual request first.
Where the idea came from
Guide and skill credit: Michael Ly (millee.md). His guide, How to Make Claude Write Like a Human, introduces a downloadable Claude skill inspired by StoryScope. It prompted this Thrive resource. The prompt above is an independently written Thrive editing exercise; it is not a copy of his skill. For his original download and installation instructions, visit his guide below.
Michael Ly’s original guide and skill
Original research: Jenna Russell, Rishanth Rajendhran, Chau Minh Pham, Mohit Iyyer and John Wieting (2026), StoryScope: Investigating idiosyncrasies in AI fiction. The researchers compared human and AI fiction and found differences in narrative construction, including how stories explain themes and organise events. Their study concerns fiction; it does not establish that this prompt improves business writing or makes AI-generated text undetectable. Applying the general idea to everyday editing is Thrive’s practical adaptation.