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Home Investigations Tech AI Research Education GPTZero Writing Tips

Content today is fueled by the ‘same sounding AI text’. That's why we've developed this collection of writing tips - to support writers and content creators in ensuring their work retains that unmistakable human touch. Whether you're a seasoned author or just starting out, our aim is to provide guidance that fosters authenticity in your writing and preserves your distinct human voice and creativity.

A very flat engagement

AI Writing Tip: AI lacks the critical engagement made possible by human writing. AI won’t ask questions or challenge their audience. So, prompt reflection directly with your reader. Pose a tricky hypothetical, and implore them from the page to consider how they’d respond. Ask a question. Present a conundrum. Catalyze a deeper level of thinking. Robots were not trained to do that, but humans can. Engagement is a key component of effective writing, especially when it comes to connecting with rea

Faizan MehdiApr 30, 2024 - 1 min read

Too “perfect”

AI Writing Tip: Humans can embrace imperfection and vulnerability. AI writing doesn’t have that capability. To sound more human in your writing, be “imperfect.” Embrace a distinctive, relatable voice. After an AI is prompted, it outputs meticulously polished and perfectly organized language. That’s because AI algorithms adhere to rote grammatical norms and stylistic conventions. Perhaps with a bit of creative prompting, you can get AI to mimic a certain tone of voice or a more creative personal

Faizan MehdiApr 18, 2024 - 1 min read

Static characters

AI writing tip: In order to differentiate your writing from AI, imbue your characters with rich inner lives and allow them to grow and change in response to the events of your story. Pay special attention – not just to their exterior journey – but also their motivations, fears, and hopes, and how those evolve as the narrative does. If you’re trying your hand at fictional writing supported by AI, you’ll find yourself coming up woefully short on character construction. That’s because when AI con

Faizan MehdiApr 10, 2024 - 1 min read

Avoiding controversy

Writing Tip: AI writing shies away from controversy. It will never default to serving as a platform for advocacy or debate. To make your writing sound differentiated from ChatGPT, take a stance. AI writing stands out for its cautious approach, particularly when it comes to “controversial” or contentious issues. AI systems are programmed to maintain neutrality and avoid inflammatory rhetoric. While this tendency probably helps the organizations creating these AI systems to avoid legal issues

Faizan MehdiApr 8, 2024 - 1 min read

"In conclusion"

Writing Tip: Steer clear of phrases like “In conclusion” when you’re wrapping up your thoughts in a paper. These phrases are hallmarks of AI writing tools, which use very obvious, formulaic transition phrases to signal the end of a thought. Instead, opt for something more nuanced or personal to summarize your points. ChatGPT tends to put a summary sentence at the end of any response, even if it's just writing a few simple sentences. For example, if you ask: “Why is the sky blue?”, it will give

Faizan MehdiApr 4, 2024 - 1 min read

Overexplaining

Writing Tip: To differentiate your writing from AI, skip the detailed explanations of everything, and save them for the subjects that require them. Thoroughness across the board is robotic; applying selective, strategic thoroughness is a valuable human skill. If asked a simple question, like "Why is the sky blue?" ChatGPT doesn't just answer with an equally short explanation. It will defer back to that listicle-style response. AI writing tools default to an in-depth, robust explanation for thi

Faizan MehdiApr 2, 2024 - 2 min read

Repetition

Writing Tip: If a body of writing repeats ideas and lacks a genuine progression of the thesis, it sounds like AI. Make sure your “new” ideas are actually new, and aren’t just the same idea with reordered phrasing. Insert research, opinions, quotations, and/or references to deepen your argument. Go further into the context of what you’re presenting. One characteristic of ChatGPT is its propensity for repetition. This isn’t just about using the same word too many times, although that’s certainly

Faizan MehdiApr 1, 2024 - 2 min read

Lack of sensory detail

Writing Tip: ChatGPT lacks the sensory details that humans bring, since it doesn’t technically have “senses.” To differentiate your writing from AI, inject sensory details about what something feels like, sounds like, or looks like. Be creative, and draw on your own memories and experiences. One of the more subtle but telling distinctions between human and AI-generated text lies in the absence of sensory detail. Humans experience the world through senses —sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste.

Faizan MehdiMar 28, 2024 - 2 min read

Lack of slang

Writing Tip: Incorporate slang into your writing. Reference cultural phenomena that anchor your writing in a specific place and time. If done correctly, you can transport your reader to another place, and encourage them to see things from a different perspective. ChatGPT doesn't use regionalized language, slang, or any quirky wording; even to the degree that it seems totally impersonal and inauthentic. But cultural references and slang are powerful tools in a writer’s arsenal. They reflect t

Faizan MehdiMar 27, 2024 - 2 min read

The rule of “three”

Writing Tip: Embrace unpredictability in your sentence structure. Sure, say three things in a sentence sometimes. Other times, just stick to one thing. Consider the rhythm of your writing as music. Embrace tempo changes and emotional swells and contractions, rather than following a metronome's unchanging beat. When AI writing tools write long-form responses, they tend to favor sentences with three objects. They like to say three things per sentence. For example, "OpenAI continues to develop a

Faizan MehdiMar 4, 2024 - 2 min read

Avoiding a neutral tone in writing

Writing tip: ChatGPT doesn’t have opinions. Boldly state yours, and defend it throughout your writing. "Generally." "Typically." "In some cases." AI-writing tools are intensely neutral. Almost to the point of seeming indecisive. There is a telltale lack of boldness in all AI writing. Even with the most opinionated prompts, AI writing is always giving itself a way out from what it is saying. AI doesn’t have polarizing opinions. AI writing is intensely neutral by design. The neutrality is not

Faizan MehdiMar 1, 2024 - 1 min read

Beginning, middle, end

Writing Tip: Conduct experiments with the way you structure your writing and language. It’s okay not to adhere to a perfectly structured framework. There’s no substitute for the richness of human language. When you’re in middle school English class and you first learn about writing, teachers encourage a formulaic writing structure. You might write a thesis statement, and then every subsequent paragraph maps back to that thesis statement, until the final concluding paragraph that wraps it all

Faizan MehdiFeb 26, 2024 - 2 min read

Why did the GPT cross the road?

Writing Tip: ChatGPT doesn’t have a sense of humor. If you can inject your own sense of levity, weirdness, quirkiness, or humor into your writing, you’re doing something that AI can’t. What makes someone funny? Is it something that a Large Language Learning model can emulate? If an LLM could mimic the complex set of psychological, social, and biological factors that turn someone into the class clown, would it succeed in making you laugh? If you prompt ChatGPT to be funny, it might be able to

Faizan MehdiFeb 24, 2024 - 2 min read

The queen is dead

AI: ‘It is with the deepest sorrow that we announce the passing of Her Majesty, the Queen.’ AI Prompted to Sound Like Shakespeare: In profoundest grief, we doth herald the demise of Her Majesty, the Queen. Shakespeare: The Queen, my lord, is dead. Literary scholars have pointed out that for the famous line in Macbeth Act 5, Scene 4, Shakespeare had at least two if not three other options for announcing the Queen’s death. * The Queen is dead, my lord. * My lord, the Queen is dead. * An

Edward TianFeb 6, 2024 - 2 min read