Stop asking AI to improve your writing

When you reread your own text, there is a problem that is hard to notice: you know what you meant to say.

Your brain completes the sentence before it finds the flaw.

My old reflex was to ask an AI to “improve the text.” Today I try to ask for something else.

Improving and auditing are not the same task

When you ask for improvement, the model returns another version.

It may be clearer. It may be shorter. It may even be better.

But there is a side effect: the editorial decision starts to shift from you to the model.

When I ask for an audit, the work is still mine.

I want the AI to point out the problem and stop there.

The seven checks

These are the categories I usually look for:

#	what to look for	how it shows up
01	unsupported claim	a number, data point or factual claim with no source or context
02	internal contradiction	two passages that seem to argue for incompatible things
03	open promise	the title promises something the body does not deliver
04	unstable term	the same word changes meaning over the course of the text
05	stalled paragraph	the text repeats the previous idea without moving forward
06	generic passage	it could appear in almost any article on the subject
07	late answer	the main question is only answered after a long introduction

The goal is not to have the AI “grade” the text.

It is to turn it into a second pair of eyes.

The three lines that change the result

My base prompt starts like this:

Do not rewrite anything.
Quote the exact passage before commenting.
At the end, list only the 3 most serious problems.

The third instruction matters.

A list of twenty problems looks thorough, but it also makes it more likely that you will accept everything on autopilot or ignore everything.

With three, you have to make a judgment.

The limit

AI can point out that a number has no source. That does not mean the number is wrong.

It can find an apparent contradiction that makes sense once you know the context.

It can call a passage generic because it has no access to the reason you chose that example.

That is why the audit is for finding places to look.

Checking, deciding and publishing are still human work.