avatarMidnight Young

Summary

The author advocates for the use of AI tools like Grammarly, Hemingway, and Bard to enhance writing skills, confidence, and efficiency, while also acknowledging the importance of personal judgment and style.

Abstract

The article discusses the author's personal experience with integrating AI into their writing process. The author, who initially resisted the bot's suggestion to change a headline, now embraces AI as a means to improve craftsmanship and learn. AI tools are presented as a modern evolution of resources once found in libraries, leveling the playing field by providing universal access to writing aids. The author particularly highlights the benefits of Grammarly, which has boosted her husband's writing confidence and professional self-perception. While the author personally disfavors Hemingway for its strict editing style, it has proven beneficial for her husband's scientific writing. Bard, another AI tool, is praised for its versatility in enhancing readability, suggesting synonyms, acting as a dictionary, and even assisting in poetic rhyme. The article concludes by encouraging writers to leverage AI to correct mistakes, improve readability, and bolster language skills, ultimately leading to increased confidence and independence in writing.

Opinions

  • The author values AI's role in writing but maintains a critical eye, scrutinizing the information provided by AI tools.
  • AI tools like Grammarly are seen as confidence boosters and professional enhancers, particularly for non-native English speakers.
  • The author believes that AI can democratize access to writing resources, similar to how libraries once did.
  • Hemingway's editing tool is deemed too rigid for the author's personal style, though it is recognized as useful for others.
  • Bard is appreciated for its ability to provide context-specific writing assistance, including readability improvement, synonym suggestions, dictionary functions, and poetic guidance.
  • The author suggests that AI can reduce dependency on human editors and ARC readers, fostering a sense of independence among writers.
  • There is an acknowledgment that while AI can aid writing, it cannot replace the unique voice and creativity of the human writer.

Writing | Creativity | AI

I Use AI For My Writing

You should too

Image by Pavel Danilyuk (Pexels.com)

Bard told me to change the headline — the bot suggested “I leverage AI for my writing”. But I’m a stubborn one, so I stuck with the initial idea. Because it might just hit a nerve — Who does she think she is? She writes with AI? Block, immediately block!

In marketing, they say that bad advertisement is still advertisement. And most of the time it comes for free. Two birds — one stone. I’ll take the shot.

I use AI to improve my writing. I use it because it allows me to learn and become better at my craft. In essence, it combines all the tools I deployed before ChatGPT became a thing. Do you mean to tell me I was a cheater before AI even came to be? Perhaps, if that’s how you want to see it.

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Working smart means using the tools available at our disposal. Years ago that meant going to the library — my mum used to spend hours doing her research. At that time, internet was not a commodity one could easily access. A library card was. Chances are, your resources also depended on where you lived. Small town? The basics. Proper city? You’ll have some decent resources. A major metropolis, or even better — the capital? Ding ding ding — we’ve got a winner!

Does that make my mother, who successfully authored several books, a cheater? No. She worked with what she had. And we just happened to live in a big urbanopolis. Tough luck for those who didn’t.

Times changed, and technologies emerged. Every Joe has at least one smart device. Innovation balanced the scales — we finally have equal access to resources. The trick is the barrier to entry — one needs to be tech-savvy. But with a bit of effort (and maybe a kind heart of someone willing to help), anyone could learn.

I use AI for my writing. It substituted a gazillion of time-consuming tools I used to deploy before. That doesn’t mean I trust the bot — I scrutinise every piece of information it coughs up. But it speeds up the process and makes life easier.

Chances are, you too are using AI. Even in your writing. But it’s so well integrated that you barely notice it.

Image by energepic.com (Pexels.com)

Grammarly

Years ago, my husband asked me to read every single important email he had to send. English is not his first language and working at one of the biggest universities in the world made him anxious about his capabilities.

You’re a neuroscientist, for goodness sake, no one will judge your professionalism because you forgot a comma?! — I would say. My words fell on deaf ears and he would anxiously read his emails over and over again. So, at the end of each working day, I would sit down to go through his writing.

My efforts paid off - after a couple of years his writing improved. I still needed to read his research papers, but the writing was decent.

Came Grammarly and I immediately installed it on every single device we owned. He’s not a fan of all this technology — tracking, collecting data... Orwellian — that’s how it makes him feel. And I agree. But at the same time, I think it did something amazing. It boosted his confidence.

My husband is still very much uncomfortable about his writing. But Grammarly is there to point out small errors or suggest a way to improve readability. Sentences are structured differently in different languages and sometimes he scribbles in a way that makes me feel drowsy. It makes sense, yet it doesn’t. But it looks fine to him.

Second language acquisition is a funny thing — you learn the language, but you still fall through the cracks. Subtle undertones and ways of using combinations of words… they don’t necessarily come. It takes time, effort and practice.

Grammarly helped. It elevated his writing — he is now confident with his emails, research papers, reviews… He even started writing stories. At the same time, it improved our relationship — he feels more independent. What I found psychologically interesting was the professional boost — he somehow believes that writing better made him a better neuroscientist.

So, if you didn’t know, Grammarly is very much AI. Collects your data, learns all about your style… and tracks your activity to improve that odd sentence. Furthermore, it’s so well integrated that we barely noticed. AI at its finest.

Hemingway

Not a fan. Maybe it’s because I have a particular style. I’m learning how to cut my sentences (and write shorter articles!). I accept it could be difficult to read. So, I’m proactive about it and try to improve — experimenting with different shapes and forms, trying to be concise with my ideas, but still pouring in spices to make sure it’s personal. You know, representing my inner voice.

And boy, does Hemingway hate me. Or my writing. It cuts through the structures and words, alerting in reds and popping up suggestions. Because, you know, AI could rewrite this. AI could make it better. Yada yada yada.

Screenshot by the author

So, I don’t use it. It annoys me. I know which sentences are difficult to read, thank you very much. People who know my style will still read it — the joke’s on them.

But my husband uses it, and he loves it. He also loves how the text “repairs” itself. His scientific scribbles sometimes would take ages to figure out — I would spend hours reading a paper, marking entire lines and asking tons of questions. It would frustrate both of us — me, with no clue what was going on in that salad of scientific jargonism. Him — wondering if I was stupid or just scientifically retarded, because it was obvious what his main idea was?! Dare to say, AI saves marriages.

Go for it, it might just make your life easier. It’s not cheating — it’s checking the readability of your text and making sure the audience can understand what you’re blabbering about.

Bard / any other AI

I got used to Bard — it’s pretty popular in my workplace. I also learned how to prompt it, so the user experience is rather pleasant.

  1. Readability

I sometimes struggle with rewriting difficult sentences. It usually happens when scribbling corporate nonsense — loads of professional terms. Sentences make sense, but then they don’t because the intended audience is from a different department. Or a client. Or anyone else with no in-depth knowledge of what I’m talking about.

In comes AI — I dump my sentence, explain the context, tell the bot what my intended audience is… et voila! Bard analyses my sentence, tells me why it’s difficult to read, and offers suggestions on how to improve it.

Image by Startup Stock Photos (Pexels.com)

2. Substitute for Thesaurus

I used to study Thesaurus just for the sake of fun. It’s a great resource, but I think AI has more to offer.

When editing, I sometimes realise the same words are constantly repeating themselves. So, I ask Bard for synonyms. I give Bard the word and explain the context — the bot then spits out what’s most appropriate.

The same goes for antonyms — when I’m looking for contrasts, a word that comes to mind is not quite what I mean. So, Bard saves the day — feed the word, give it context and Bard will do the rest.

3. Substitute for a dictionary

I’m trilingual. That’s not as cool as people make it to be. I sometimes get stuck because a word in one language doesn’t seem to have an equivalent in the other.

Imagine painting in teal and realising that where you are people don’t know what teal is — how can blue and green come togeteher? Electric — someone will say. And I will judgementally glare at them. But will eventually have to accept: it’s the best they can do.

Bard helps to navigate those odd labyrinths of language. I might still lack a tone or two, but it’s the closest I could get.

Bonus point — I sometimes create words. Mix and match something known or translate one language to the other (but with a twist!..). I feed these words to the bot and ask if it makes sense if my words convey the meaning behind them. It’s been an invaluable tool for my fantasy scribbles.

4. My guide to rhyme

Medium has brought me to poetry. I’ve scribbled a few pieces before, but had little to no knowledge of how rhyme should look like, what is the structure and composition of stanzas, etc.

I used to search online — what a Shakespearean sonnet looks like? how the structure differs from an Italian sonnet? etc. It would take several resources to understand certain metric systems.

In comes Bard — and life is less complicated:

Screenshot by the author

I also asked Bard to help me with my rhyme. That is still a work in progress — I am doing better without it. But sometimes, when I’m absolutely stuck and nothing rhymes, I go and try. The other day I asked Bard to give me words that rhymed with “teeth” or “feet”. It was a flex because I also asked the words to fit a specific context. No wonder it didn’t work…

It also took me a few prompts so that it would stop rhyming a whole damn poem!.. But it has potential, so I will continue trying. Who knows, maybe one day it will offer me that perfect word — cherry on top of a sonnet!..

All in all. Go and write, people. Use AI to detect your human mistakes, improve readability and enhance language. AI has so much potential to boost our scribbles and writing skills, but it goes beyond it. Collaboration with AI can also catapult our confidence — we’re less dependent on editors or ARC readers.

Work hard, but work smart!

My scribbles dive into a variety of topics. Yet whether I scribble fantasy or horror, highly opinionated or research-driven pieces, I hope it leaves you with something to ponder: makes you feel better (or worse?..), strikes an inner monologue (hopefully, voiced out in the comments!) or simply gives you something to chew on, inspiring to keep the creative ball rolling.

Thank you for reading!

Writing
Collaborative Learning
Digital Life
Tech
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