Prompts for the text improver
Start from what is actually wrong with the text rather than from a wish to improve it. Pick the fault, see on the example how the sentence changes, then send the prompt to the tool with your own draft straight after it.
Clarity
Text you have to read twice. Make writing clearer by cutting the padding, break sentences four lines long into ones that end, rewrite officialese in plain English and unpack the acronyms nobody explained.
Cut the padding
Five lines of text carrying one line of meaning.
Cut this text by about a third: drop the padding, the throat-clearing and the points made twice. Keep every fact, figure, name and date exactly as written, and add nothing of your own.
I would just like to take this opportunity to mention that we are currently in the process of putting together the report, and we are aiming to have it wrapped up by the end of this week.
We're writing the report and will have it finished by Friday.
Untangle long sentences
One sentence, four lines, three subordinate clauses.
Break the long sentences into short ones: one idea per sentence. Unpick the stacked clauses and keep both the order of the argument and the meaning exactly as they are.
Having received your email in which you inform us of the delay to the delivery, we have, after reviewing the situation with our logistics team, taken the decision to move the dispatch date, which we hereby confirm.
We've received your email about the delayed delivery. We've been through it with our logistics team. The dispatch date is moving.
Officialese into plain words
“Utilise” where “use” would have done the job.
Swap the officialese and the business jargon for ordinary words: “utilise” becomes “use”, “in view of the aforementioned” becomes “so”. Keep the facts, the figures and the courtesy.
In view of the aforementioned, we kindly request that you effect the provision of the requisite documentation no later than the 15th of this month.
So please send us the documents by the 15th.
Spell out the jargon
The text is going to people outside your field.
Leave the text as it is, but unpack the terms, acronyms and in-house jargon so someone outside the field can follow it. Explain briefly, in brackets or a short clause, and lose no accuracy.
We set up CI, cleared the tech debt on the legacy module and added e2e before the release.
We set up CI — builds and tests that run automatically — tidied up the old module, and added end-to-end tests that check the whole app, all before the release.
Tone
One message lands cold, apologetic or furious and gets three different answers back, so change the tone of a message to something warmer, stop over-apologising in work emails, and take the heat out before sending.
Make it warmer
An email that reads as though a machine wrote it.
Make this warmer and more human: a real greeting, ordinary words instead of stock formulas, respect for the reader. No over-familiarity, no emoji, no extra exclamation marks, and don't change the facts.
Please be advised that your request has been processed. Await a response from a specialist within three working days.
Thanks — we've got your request and we're looking into it. One of our specialists will write back within three working days, to this same address.
Drop the apologies
“Sorry to bother you, I might be wrong, but…”
Take out the apologies and the hedges — “I think”, “maybe”, “if it's not too much trouble”. Say the same thing directly and confidently, but politely: a request has to stay a request, not become an order.
Sorry to bother you! I might be wrong, but I think the invoice may still be unpaid. If it's not too much trouble, would you maybe have a look when you get a chance?
Could you check the invoice, please? Our records still show it as unpaid. When can we expect payment?
Take the heat out
A reply written angry that has to go out calm.
Strip out the irritation, the sarcasm and the judgements, and leave the facts and the request. Keep the tone level and neutral: a complaint should read as business, not as a row.
Are you serious? That's the third time you've sent the wrong file. Is anybody actually reading what we ask for?
The attachment is the wrong file again — this is the third one. What we need is the August report as an XLSX. Please send it today.
Order and structure
Rebuild a text so the reader gets the point in the first line, break a wall of text into paragraphs that each carry one idea, and set out as a list the three things already written as a list inside prose.
Point first
The news sits in the last paragraph; people read the first.
Reorder this so the point — the news, the decision or the request — is in the first sentence, with the background and the detail after it. Drop nothing, only change the order.
We spent a long time going over the scope with the contractor, comparing quotes and looking at timings, and there were several options on the table. In the end the launch is moving to 20 October.
The launch is moving to 20 October. We compared scope, quotes and timings with the contractor, and nothing else fits the schedule.
Break it into paragraphs
A wall of text with nowhere for the eye to rest.
Break this into paragraphs by subject, two or three sentences each, and open each one with a short phrase saying what it covers. Keep the wording and the facts as they are and shorten nothing.
We've updated the plans, the basic one now includes export, the old prices hold until December, pay annually and you get a month free, and support is round the clock now.
What's new: the basic plan now includes export. Prices: the old ones hold until December, and paying annually gets you a month free. Support: now round the clock.
Turn a list into a list
Five items glued into one sentence with commas.
Find the lists and the step-by-step parts and set them out as a list: one item per line, every line starting the same way. Leave the rest as prose and invent no new items.
To register you'll need your passport, your National Insurance number, a letter from your employer, two photographs and the receipt for the fee.
To register you'll need: • your passport • your National Insurance number • a letter from your employer • two photographs • the receipt for the fee
Polish
Faults invisible to the writer and obvious to everyone else: avoid repetition of the same word three times a paragraph, turn heavy nouns back into verbs, and replace the cliches you long ago stopped noticing.
Kill the repetition
The same word in every sentence, the same point made twice.
Find the repetition — the same word twice over, phrases that say the same thing, points already made — and keep each of them once. Where a word genuinely has to come back, use a synonym.
Our service is a handy service for teams. The service helps teams work faster, because with our service everything is in one place.
Our service is built for teams: everything is in one place, so the work moves faster.
Verbs instead of nouns
“Conduct an assessment” where “assess” was right there.
Replace the nominalisations and the passive voice with active verbs: “a decision was taken” becomes “we decided”, “an assessment is conducted” becomes “we assess”. Keep the meaning and the courtesy.
A decision was taken regarding the carrying out of an inspection, following which notification of the client will be effected.
We've decided to run an inspection, and we'll tell the client what it finds.
Bin the clichés
“A dynamic, fast-growing company” and other empty phrases.
Take out the clichés and the marketing filler — “dynamic, fast-growing company”, “bespoke approach”, “full range of services”. Keep only what the text actually says and invent no new facts.
A dynamic, fast-growing company with a bespoke approach to every client, offering a full range of services: website development, support and advertising.
We build websites, look after them once they're live, and run the advertising.
Fit for the reader
One draft reads differently to a colleague, to a customer and to the whole internet. Make a text more professional for a work email, get it client-ready before it goes out, and take it up to publishable.
Raise it to a work email
A chat message that now has to go to your manager.
Turn this into a work email: a greeting, the point in the first paragraph, a clear request and a deadline at the end. Lose the chat shorthand, keep the tone even and respectful, and don't drift into officialese.
hey! so the budget doesn't add up, we need to cut something. can you take a look by end of week, otherwise it'll be too late
Hello, the project budget doesn't add up, so we'll have to cut some costs. Could you go through my changes by Friday? Any later and we won't get the figures signed off in time.
Make it client-ready
An internal remark you cannot send as it stands.
Rewrite this as a reply to the customer: polite, with none of the internal workings and no blame, acknowledging the problem and giving both a fix and a date. Keep the facts and figures, and promise nothing the text doesn't already say.
They haven't read the guide again. They set it up wrong themselves, but fine, we'll fix it — not today though, we've got a release on.
Thanks for getting in touch. We can see the settings aren't right, and we'll correct them at our end. We have a release going out today, so we'll do it tomorrow and let you know once it's done.
Ready to publish
An internal note that is heading for the blog.
Get this ready to publish: drop the in-house jargon, the staff names and the working details nobody outside needs. Say what it means for the reader, keep the facts, and don't turn it into an advert.
Shipped Alex's fix for ticket 412 to prod, the queue no longer stalls above 500 rps, QA signed it off.
We've fixed the stalling under heavy load: the service now handles more than 500 requests a second without the queue backing up. The update is live for everyone.