Everyday writing and the ground rules

Time to practise, on the kinds of writing you actually come across. For each one, the same method: you bring the substance, the AI helps with the form, and you reread before sending.

The delicate email

Turning down a request, chasing a client who hasn't paid, breaking bad news. AI helps you find the right tone, as long as you give it the situation and the goal.

"I need to say no to a friend who's asked me to look after her dog for three weeks. She matters to me and I don't want to upset her. Here's my draft. Tell me if it might be taken badly, and where. Don't rewrite it."

Watch out for personal details: don't paste confidential information about other people (health, conflicts, client data). Change the names if needed.

The cover letter

This is where a generic text shows the most. Recruiters read a lot of them, and stock phrases are easy to spot. AI can help you sort your arguments and match the job ad, but the examples must come from your own background.

"Here is the job ad and my notes on my background. What are the three main requirements of the role, and which of my examples best answers each one? Flag the requirements for which I have no example."

And don't make anything up: a skill you don't have will end up showing in the interview.

The social media post

Give it your style sheet and your idea, ask for three different hooks, and keep yours if it's better. Read the final version aloud: if it sounds like an advert, cut it down.

The children's story, the short story

Here, AI can be a wonderful playmate: "My six-year-old son loves dinosaurs and is scared of the dark. Suggest five ideas for a short story where a dinosaur makes friends with the night." You choose, you tell the story, you add the name of the cuddly toy and the family joke. For a short story, use it to get a plot unstuck or to test an ending, and keep the writing of the scenes for yourself: that's where your voice matters most.

The ground rules

• Never publish or send a text you haven't reread. AI can slip in a mistake, a made-up fact, a clumsy phrase. It's your name at the bottom of the text, not the AI's.
• Saying whether you used AI. For an everyday email you've reread and rewritten, it's generally not necessary. But some contexts have their own rules: a school, a competition, a publisher or an employer may require you to disclose it, or forbid it. Find out beforehand and, when in doubt, be open about it.
• Copyright. The rules on texts produced with AI vary from country to country and are still evolving. Stay cautious: don't have the AI closely imitate a living author for something you publish, don't paste a protected text into your requests to have it "rewritten" under your name, and for a commercial project (a book, a publishing contract), get advice from a professional.