I’m on a 30-Day Writing Challenge, so a repetitive task I’m doing everyday is grammar checking and proofreading.
This would sound like an obvious task ChatGPT could excel at. So how did it perform? Well it can certainly help, but it requires some guidance.
Correcting Spelling and Grammar
If you just ask ChatGPT to check a piece of text for grammar errors, it will return an updated version of your work.
But here lies the problem… it won’t show you where the corrections have been made. Checking two versions of your writing to identify the updates is soul destroying.
So I’ve used the following prompt as a starting point for correcting errors.
Please correct the spelling and grammar of the following text. Show the corrections in bold so I can see what has been corrected.
This prompt highlights in bold where updates have been made, giving you a chance to reverse the changes if you disagree.
In my testing this has been quite efficient at catching common grammatical errors such as: pronoun errors, subject-verb agreement errors, and my personal pet peeve, apostrophe errors.
Proofreading Your Work
Sometimes I can write a first draft that’s grammatically correct but just needs punching up to make it more concise. My goal as a copywriter is to make the words flow easily, so readers don’t stumble over awkward sentences.
With this in mind, I’ve created the following prompt:
Act as a proofreader and review the following text. Feel free to rephrase sentences or make changes to enhance clarity but maintain the overall tone and style of the original. Show all changes in bold so I can see what has been updated.
This prompt gives ChatGPT the go-ahead to reword awkward sentences and make my stories easier to follow. However, I don’t want it to go too far and make huge changes to my work.
The results from this prompt are a bit more variable but overall I’m quite pleased with how this is working out.
Next Steps
I plan to further refine these prompts to edit my work while maintaining a certain style of writing. This could help in being consistent with brand guidelines.
So can you cancel your Grammarly subscription or retire your human proofreader? I wouldn’t go that far just yet. However, ChatGPT can certainly be a big help in the writing process.