{"course":{"slug":"prompting","title":"Getting Real Work out of a Model","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/prompting","level":"beginner","track":"start"},"lesson":{"slug":"drafting-in-your-own-words","title":"Drafting without losing the thing that was yours","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/prompting/drafting-in-your-own-words","position":64,"of":72,"minutes":9,"answer":"Do the thinking out loud, hand over transcription and diagnosis, and keep the first sentence, the argument, the commitments and anything personal: a draft you merely accept is the average version.","keyIdea":"Do the thinking out loud, hand over transcription and diagnosis, and keep the first sentence, the argument, the commitments and anything personal: a draft you merely accept is the average version."},"body":{"format":"markdown","text":"## The two ways people use it for writing, and only one works well\n\n**The bad way:** ask for a finished piece, receive competent generic prose, spend forty minutes editing it into something you would have written in thirty.\n\n**The better way:** do the thinking, hand over the parts that are transcription, and keep the parts that are judgement.\n\nThe difference is not effort. It is which end you start from.\n\n## The pattern that works: talk first, draft second\n\nMost people can say what they mean and struggle to write it. Use that.\n\n> I am going to think out loud about what I want to say. Do not write anything yet. Ask me a question when something is unclear or when I have skipped a step.\n>\n> [three paragraphs of messy, unpunctuated thinking]\n\nThen:\n\n> Now turn that into a 400-word note for [reader]. Use my words and my order where you can. Do not add points I did not make. Mark with [?] anything you had to infer.\n\nThat last instruction is the important one. It marks the places where your thinking was thin, which are usually the places the reader would have stopped.\n\nYou have used the model as a transcriptionist and an editor. The content is yours, the structure is yours, and the draft took four minutes.\n\n## The three passes worth knowing separately\n\n**The structure pass.** \"Here is my draft. Do not rewrite it. Tell me the order the points appear in and whether any of them are in the wrong place for this reader.\" Diagnosis, not treatment. Often the whole problem.\n\n**The cut pass.** \"Cut this to 60% without losing any point. Show me what you cut as a list, so I can put anything back.\" The list is what makes this safe: you can see the four things it removed rather than discovering later that one mattered.\n\n**The clarity pass.** \"Find every sentence that could be read two ways, and every place where a reader would have to already know something I have not said.\" This is the pass that most improves professional writing and it produces no prose at all: just a list of problems, which you fix yourself.\n\nNotice that two of the three produce diagnosis rather than replacement. That is deliberate: a diagnosis you act on preserves your voice, and a rewrite does not.\n\n## The \"make it mine\" pass\n\nIf you do accept a draft, one instruction reclaims most of what it lost:\n\n> Rewrite using only words I would use. Here are three things I wrote: [paste]. Any sentence you cannot imagine me saying out loud, cut or replace.\n\nThen read it aloud. The sentences that make you wince are the ones that were not yours, and reading aloud finds them faster than reading silently does.\n\n## What to keep for yourself, always\n\n- **The first sentence.** It carries the intent and it is the sentence a reader decides on.\n- **Anything with a number or a commitment.** Dates, prices, promises. You own those.\n- **The argument.** If the piece argues something, the argument is yours or it is nobody's.\n- **Anything personal.** Condolence, apology, reference, thanks. A perfectly written version of these is worth nothing, because their entire value is that a person wrote them.\n\n## The failure to watch for\n\nThe draft you accept because it is fine is not neutral. It is the average version, and the average version does not persuade anybody, does not sound like you, and does not say the awkward specific thing your reader needed to hear.\n\nIf you find you are accepting drafts rather than arguing with them, that is worth noticing. It usually means you have moved from writing with a tool to publishing what a tool produced, and the difference shows in ways your readers register without naming.\n\n## A test for whether you are still writing\n\nLook at the last thing you sent and find the sentence that carries the point: the one you would keep if you had to cut everything else.\n\nDid you write it? If you did, the process is working however much of the surrounding prose came from elsewhere. If you did not, and you cannot remember deciding what the point was, that is the moment worth catching. It is not a moral failure and it is a slow loss of the part of the job that was actually yours."},"check":{"question":"Which request most improves a draft while keeping the writer's voice?","options":[{"text":"\"Do not rewrite it. List every sentence that could be read two ways, and every place I assume knowledge the reader may not have.\"","correct":true},{"text":"\"Rewrite this to be clearer and more engaging.\"","correct":false,"tempting":"Replaces the writer's prose with the model's default register, which is what \"engaging\" resolves to."},{"text":"\"Improve the flow and transitions between paragraphs.\"","correct":false,"tempting":"Invites the connective phrasing that is the most recognisable part of the machine register."},{"text":"\"Make it sound more professional.\"","correct":false,"tempting":"An adjective with no mechanics behind it, and it typically means longer and more formal."}]},"prev":{"slug":"how-much-checking","title":"How much checking is enough","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/prompting/how-much-checking"},"next":{"slug":"the-message-you-do-not-want-to-write","title":"The message you have been putting off","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/prompting/the-message-you-do-not-want-to-write"},"authorship":"Founder and series editor: Dr Mustafa Mun. Written by AI models to a written standard. Exam keys checked blind by a second model: 3,665 of 3,666 agreed. Academic review invited.","review":{"status":"Draft, open for academic review"},"cite":"Addaly (2026) 'Drafting without losing the thing that was yours', in Getting Real Work out of a Model. Edited by M. Mun. Addaly. Available at: https://addaly.com/learn/prompting/drafting-in-your-own-words (Accessed: 13 October 2026).","licence":{"name":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"},"reader":{"schema":1,"title":"Drafting without losing the thing that was yours","courseTitle":"Getting Real Work out of a Model","module":{"index":8,"slug":"the-work-you-actually-have","title":"The work you actually have"},"answer":null,"keyIdea":"Do the thinking out loud, hand over transcription and diagnosis, and keep the first sentence, the argument, the commitments and anything personal: a draft you merely accept is the average version.","hero":{"kind":"plate","image":null,"alt":null,"caption":null},"blocks":[{"t":"h2","id":"the-two-ways-people-use-it-for-writing-and-only-one-works-we","runs":[{"text":"The two ways people use it for writing, and only one works well"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The bad way:","b":true},{"text":" ask for a finished piece, receive competent generic prose, spend forty minutes editing it into something you would have written in thirty."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The better way:","b":true},{"text":" do the thinking, hand over the parts that are transcription, and keep the parts that are judgement."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The difference is not effort. It is which end you start from."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-pattern-that-works-talk-first-draft-second","runs":[{"text":"The pattern that works: talk first, draft second"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Most people can say what they mean and struggle to write it. Use that."}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"I am going to think out loud about what I want to say. Do not write anything yet. Ask me a question when something is unclear or when I have skipped a step."}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"[three paragraphs of messy, unpunctuated thinking]"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Then:"}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"Now turn that into a 400-word note for [reader]. Use my words and my order where you can. Do not add points I did not make. Mark with [?] anything you had to infer."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"That last instruction is the important one. It marks the places where your thinking was thin, which are usually the places the reader would have stopped."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"You have used the model as a transcriptionist and an editor. The content is yours, the structure is yours, and the draft took four minutes."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-three-passes-worth-knowing-separately","runs":[{"text":"The three passes worth knowing separately"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The structure pass.","b":true},{"text":" “Here is my draft. Do not rewrite it. Tell me the order the points appear in and whether any of them are in the wrong place for this reader.” Diagnosis, not treatment. Often the whole problem."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The cut pass.","b":true},{"text":" “Cut this to 60% without losing any point. Show me what you cut as a list, so I can put anything back.” The list is what makes this safe: you can see the four things it removed rather than discovering later that one mattered."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The clarity pass.","b":true},{"text":" “Find every sentence that could be read two ways, and every place where a reader would have to already know something I have not said.” This is the pass that most improves professional writing and it produces no prose at all: just a list of problems, which you fix yourself."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Notice that two of the three produce diagnosis rather than replacement. That is deliberate: a diagnosis you act on preserves your voice, and a rewrite does not."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-make-it-mine-pass","runs":[{"text":"The “make it mine” pass"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"If you do accept a draft, one instruction reclaims most of what it lost:"}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"Rewrite using only words I would use. Here are three things I wrote: [paste]. Any sentence you cannot imagine me saying out loud, cut or replace."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Then read it aloud. The sentences that make you wince are the ones that were not yours, and reading aloud finds them faster than reading silently does."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"what-to-keep-for-yourself-always","runs":[{"text":"What to keep for yourself, always"}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"The first sentence.","b":true},{"text":" It carries the intent and it is the sentence a reader decides on."}],[{"text":"Anything with a number or a commitment.","b":true},{"text":" Dates, prices, promises. You own those."}],[{"text":"The argument.","b":true},{"text":" If the piece argues something, the argument is yours or it is nobody’s."}],[{"text":"Anything personal.","b":true},{"text":" Condolence, apology, reference, thanks. A perfectly written version of these is worth nothing, because their entire value is that a person wrote them."}]]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-failure-to-watch-for","runs":[{"text":"The failure to watch for"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The draft you accept because it is fine is not neutral. It is the average version, and the average version does not persuade anybody, does not sound like you, and does not say the awkward specific thing your reader needed to hear."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"If you find you are accepting drafts rather than arguing with them, that is worth noticing. 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List every sentence that could be read two ways, and every place I assume knowledge the reader may not have.”"}],"correct":true,"tempting":null},{"text":[{"text":"“Rewrite this to be clearer and more engaging.”"}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Replaces the writer’s prose with the model’s default register, which is what “engaging” resolves to."}]},{"text":[{"text":"“Improve the flow and transitions between paragraphs.”"}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Invites the connective phrasing that is the most recognisable part of the machine register."}]},{"text":[{"text":"“Make it sound more professional.”"}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"An adjective with no mechanics behind it, and it typically means longer and more formal."}]}],"order":[2,0,3,1],"why":null},"prev":{"slug":"how-much-checking","title":"How much checking is enough","minutes":8},"next":{"slug":"the-message-you-do-not-want-to-write","title":"The message you have been putting off","minutes":9}}}