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Prompting

Edit an AI Draft Until It Sounds Like You

Field Guide

  • 30 minGuided walkthrough

Edit a short AI-written message so its facts, commitments and voice fit what you mean to say. You’ll make specific editing decisions, check the revised reply and keep useful notes for the next draft.

You’ll leave with

A saved reply whose facts and promises match your situation, plus at least one editing note explaining wording you changed or chose to keep.

What You Need for This Guide

  • A short message to write, its reader and the facts it must carry. Step 1 can help you create the draft.
  • A small sample of your writing; two or three sentences in your own voice are enough.
  • Your approved AI tool and a document or notes app for keeping the revised message.

Choose the tool you’re allowed to use

Your approved tool

The tool your company approved.

Pick your approved tool above to see the steps and screenshots for it.

Start guide
6 steps · At your own pace
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Standard Data rules for AI at work

Data Rules

Data rules for AI at work

Check with your IT Team before you paste any work data into an AI tool. Avoid names, account numbers, customer data, or anything sensitive without explicit permission from IT. If you aren't sure, redact anything sensitive and replace it with generic information. AI makes mistakes, make sure to fact check your agents outputs even if they sound right.

Before you start

  • Check with your IT teamAsk what your company allows before you put anything from work into an AI tool. Your company policy is the one that counts, and it is the one this library cannot see.
  • Use the tool your company approvedChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Gemini are all covered here. Use the one your company approved, not the one you like best.
  • Sign in with your work accountA work account keeps your chats inside the agreement your company signed. A personal account in the same product sits outside it.
  • No approved account yetFollow the steps with made-up example text, or on paper, until IT gives you one.

Never put this into an AI tool

  • Customer or personal detailsNo names, email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses or account numbers. That covers colleagues as well as customers.
  • Regulated recordsHealth, financial, HR and legal records stay in the systems built to hold them, unless IT has told you in writing that this tool may see them.
  • Passwords, keys and access codesNo credentials of any kind, yours or anyone else’s, and nothing that grants access to a system.
  • Anything under an NDA or not yet publicUnreleased plans, contracts, pricing and source code need clearance before they go near a chat window.
  • Anything your company policy prohibitsYour company’s rules win over anything in this library. If policy keeps something out of AI tools, it stays out, whatever a guide suggests.

Do this instead

  • Swap real details for placeholdersWrite “Customer A”, “[client name]”, “$X”. You get the same quality of answer, and you put the real details back yourself.
  • Describe the situation rather than pasting the documentMost of what an agent needs is the shape of the problem, not the file it arrived in.
  • Trim a file before you upload or paste itTake out the identifying columns and pages first, or work from a short extract.

Check the answer before you use it

  • Read it as if a colleague had drafted itAn agent states wrong things with complete confidence. Your name goes on the work, so the check is yours.
  • Say where the agent helpedFollow your company rule on disclosing AI assistance, especially in client-facing or formal work.

When you are not sure

  • Ask before you paste or upload, not afterA question to your IT team takes a minute. Cleaning up after a data incident takes a great deal longer.
  • When in doubt, leave it outIf you would not put it in an email to someone outside the company, keep it out of the chat.
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Step

Start from a message you actually need to send

Pick one short message you owe someone: turning down a date you cannot meet, an update where one detail is unconfirmed, a note to a school office. Under about a hundred words is the right size.

In a note, write who reads this, what the message has to do, and the facts it must carry, including anything you cannot promise yet. Then add a voice sample: something you already wrote and sent, or two or three sentences saying this to your reader as you would out loud. Follow the shared Read this first rules for your assigned tool.

Open a fresh conversation in your assigned ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat or Gemini Enterprise and keep it open through step five. On a phone, return here after each reply appears.

No draft yet? Start with this card. Select Copy, paste it into the conversation, fill in both bracketed sections and send it. Answer any question it asks there, then copy the draft it writes into the next card.

Write a first draft of your own short message
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I need to send a short message and I do not have a draft yet. Write a plain first draft in 90 words or fewer using only the facts below. Keep anything unknown visible as unknown. Do not invent details, add promises or dates I did not give you, or turn an unknown into a commitment. Do not search for information or send a message to anyone. If a fact you need is missing, ask me one focused question and wait for my answer before drafting. Return the draft only, or the one question.

Reader and purpose:
[describe who reads this and what the message has to do]

Facts this message must carry, including anything still unknown:
[list the facts one per line, and write down anything you cannot promise yet]

Now select Copy on the card below, fill in all four bracketed sections, and send it in the same conversation, pasting your facts in again even if you used the first card.

Rewrite your draft in your own voice
Download
Rewrite my rough draft below in 90 words or fewer. Use only the facts in the Facts section, and include every one of them, including anything that is still unconfirmed and anything I am asking the reader to leave open. Use my voice sample for wording and rhythm only. Do not bring facts from the sample into the reply. Do not add promises, dates, approvals or reasons I did not give you. Do not search for information or send a message to anyone. Return the rewritten reply only.

Reader and purpose:
[describe who reads this and what the message has to do]

Facts this reply must carry, including anything still unknown:
[list the facts one per line, and write down anything you cannot promise yet]

A sample of my own voice, for wording only:
[paste something short you wrote, or two or three sentences saying this to your reader the way you would say it]

Rough draft to rewrite:
[paste your rough draft]

Keep this first reply to compare with your edits.

Step

Check what the reply commits to

Read the reply beside your facts list rather than from memory, and check three things.

  • Every date, number, name and approval in the reply appears in your facts.
  • Anything you cannot promise yet still reads as unsettled.
  • Every fact the reader needs is there, including the awkward one.

If your reply invents something or leaves out a needed fact, select Copy below, fill in both bracketed sections and send it in the same conversation. For a missing fact, name the omission. Recheck the corrected version, and if your first reply passed, carry on.

Repair an incorrect or missing fact
Repair the current reply using the correction below. Correct the inaccurate detail or restore the missing fact. Keep the other accurate content and my intended tone. Do not add a replacement promise or invent a deadline. Do not search for information or send a message. Return the corrected reply only.

Incorrect or missing detail:
[copy the incorrect sentence, or name the required fact the reply left out]

What the supplied facts actually allow:
[write the correct fact and any uncertainty that must stay visible]

Step

Name the changes your voice needs

Read your sample again, then the reply. Notice how your own writing opens, how long its sentences run, which plain words it uses.

Mark where the reply does not match. There may be one, several or none. For each, name the phrase and say what belongs there instead. Asking it to sound natural gives it nothing. If a phrase already sounds like you, ask for it to stay.

If the whole reply already sounds like you, keep it and note what it gets right, such as the direct opening or a closing line naming the next action. Editing further is optional.

Otherwise select Copy, name any wording to keep (or write none), and enter the editing decisions you need. Delete an unused decision section or add one if needed, then send it in this conversation.

Give the draft specific voice feedback
Revise the current reply using my editing decisions below. Keep every supported fact and every pending condition. Keep the useful wording I name. Do not turn uncertainty into a promise or import facts from the voice samples. Do not search for information or send a message. Return the revised reply only.

Useful wording to keep:
[copy a phrase worth keeping]

Editing decision 1:
[name the phrase or sentence and the specific change you want]

Editing decision 2:
[name a different phrase or sentence and the specific change you want]

Check that each change was made and that any phrase you asked to keep came back word for word.

Step

Read the edited reply as yourself

Read the reply at speaking pace, out loud if you can. Mark any word you would stumble over or would not choose, and keep the uncertainty that belongs there.

The answer comes first and the unsettled part stays unsettled. Fix the words you marked in the same conversation, then rerun the step two checks.

Step

Decide it is ready for the person receiving it

Read it once more from the reader's chair. Does it answer what they asked? Does the tone fit your relationship with them? Will they finish it knowing what happens next?

If the tone is wrong for this reader, say so in the same conversation: this goes to a supplier I have never met, so keep the facts and drop the first-name greeting.

If a needed fact is still unavailable, write that it is unknown and leave it visible. Once those questions are answered and the step two checks hold, you have a message you can send.

Step

Save the reply and what you'll reuse

Copy the final reply into a new note in an app you already use and name it Draft editing notes.

Make any last wording changes there, then rerun the step two checks against your facts list. Underneath, write what you want to reuse: an editing instruction in your own words with a short before and after phrase, or wording you kept as written and why it fits your voice. For the next message, adapt your saved instruction to that reader and task, and supply the new facts and voice sample.

Save it, close it, reopen it by name, and check that both the reply and your notes are there. Send the message from wherever you normally send messages if and when you decide to.

Edit an AI Draft Until It Sounds Like You

Confirm your result

Confirm the outcomes below to finish this guide.

Final checks

You have a saved reply of your own whose facts and pending commitments match the facts you wrote down.

You have at least one editing note in your own words: an instruction with a short before and after phrase, or wording you kept as written and why it suits your voice.

Provide Feedback

Thanks. That went straight to the people who write these guides.

Next in Week 2

Teach Your Agent to Give Better Writing Feedback

Continue in the suggested order, or choose another guide for your task.

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Edit an AI Draft Until It Sounds Like You · Guide Library