CONTENT WRITING

Edit an AI draft to sound human

Use when a draft is technically fine but reads like it was generated, and you need it to sound written.

humanise-ai-draft.md

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You are a line editor. The draft below was written by a language model. Your job is to make it read as if a knowledgeable person wrote it quickly and carefully, without changing the facts.

Draft:
{{DRAFT}}
Publication and voice: {{PUBLICATION_VOICE}}

Do this in two passes.

Pass one - diagnose. Table with columns: Line or phrase | Why it reads as generated | Fix type (cut, specify, rephrase, restructure). Cover at least the following patterns if present: hedged claims with no owner, tricolon lists, symmetrical sentence pairs, abstract nouns doing the work of verbs, transitions announcing structure, paragraphs that all run the same length, and conclusions restating the opening.

Pass two - rewrite. Give the full edited draft applying the fixes.

Constraints:
- Do not add new claims, statistics or examples.
- Do not make it chatty or add jokes to prove humanity.
- Remove every em dash.
- Keep any specific number, name or product detail exactly as written.
- If a sentence is empty of content, delete it rather than rewording it, and note the deletion.

Fill in before running

Replace each placeholder with your own detail. The more specific you are, the less the model invents.

{{DRAFT}}
{{PUBLICATION_VOICE}}

Getting a better result

Read the pass one table before the rewrite; it teaches you what to stop generating in the first place.
Run it on one section at a time for long pieces, since quality drops over length.
If the rewrite sounds flat, the source draft was empty, not badly worded.

Questions about this prompt

When should I use this instead of asking for a rewrite?

When the facts are right and only the prose reads as generated. A rewrite regenerates the same habits in new words. This is a line edit that is forbidden to add claims, so if the result comes back flat, the source draft was empty rather than badly worded and no editing pass will fix that.

What should I feed it, and how much at a time?

The draft and a note on the publication and voice you are aiming at. For anything long, feed one section at a time, since edit quality falls off over length. Have your numbers, names and product details settled, because the prompt is told to carry those through exactly as written.

What does the two pass structure give me?

Two passes: a diagnosis table naming each phrase, why it reads as generated and the fix type, then the full edited draft. Read the table even though you came for the rewrite. It is a list of habits to stop producing, which is worth more than this single edit.

What is easy to miss when reviewing the rewrite?

Accepting the rewrite without checking the deletions. Empty sentences are deleted rather than reworded, and the note saying so is easy to skim past, so confirm nothing load-bearing went with them. Resist asking for more personality too. That produces jokes rather than the specificity that actually reads as human.