Field Guide

Draft with AI, then edit and sign it yourself

External evidence (randomized writing experiment); method not yet tested by Today’s Worker; example is illustrative

Use AI for the first draft of routine professional writing, then edit it and put your own name on it. You supply the facts, the reader and the length. You decide what it claims, what gets cut and whether it goes out.

This method rests on one strong experiment on writing tasks. Today’s Worker has not tested it ourselves yet. The example below is invented for teaching.

What you get, and where not to use it

Outcome: a memo, brief or client email drafted faster, which you have checked against your own facts and signed.

Do not use it for: an argument where your thinking is the product, legal or contract language, or anything where one invented fact costs more than the time you save.

How strong is the evidence?

The study supports the claim that AI can speed up routine writing. The editing and sign-off steps are our addition, because the study cannot vouch for facts in your draft.

What to bring

• The purpose and the reader.
• The facts you will stand behind, as a short list.
• One past example of good work in your voice.
• A word limit.

Decisions that stay with you

• Who the piece is for.
• Every claim it makes.
• What gets cut.
• Whether it goes out, under your name.

Tools and setup

Any general chat assistant and one saved prompt. Expect about ten minutes to set up the prompt and your example the first time.

Worked example (illustration, not a measured result)

EXAMPLE: A consultant has six bullet facts for a client status memo. She pastes them with last month’s memo as the tone sample and a 300-word limit. The draft comes back with two sentences marked [CHECK]. One needs a date she did not give; she adds it. The other claims a cost saving she cannot support; she deletes it. She cuts the opening paragraph, reads it once aloud and sends it.

Acceptance checks

1. Every claim traces to a fact you supplied.
2. No new number, name or date appears.
3. It reads in your voice and fits the length.
4. Every [CHECK] mark is resolved or the sentence is gone.

Failure cases

• An invented number or quote survives into the sent version.
• Generic filler that says nothing the reader needs.
• The draft was sent unread. That turns this method into auto-send, which the evidence does not cover.

If the same failure repeats, turn the correction into a rule.

Copy this prompt

Draft a [document type] for [reader].
Purpose: [one sentence].
Use only these facts:
[paste facts]
Match the tone of this example, not its content:
[paste example]
Stay under [n] words.
Rules: Add no facts, numbers, names or dates I did not give you.
If a sentence needs a fact I did not supply, keep it short and put [CHECK] at the end.
After the draft, list every [CHECK] item in one line each.

Then run the checks above before anything leaves your hands.

Version and test record

Method version 0.1. Sources checked 2026-10-15. Today’s Worker test: not yet run. When we run one, we will record the task, tool, date, acceptance-check results and any failure here, and change the evidence label to internal test.

This page is one of five graded method pages: draft, then edit and sign, research with a frontier check, learn with a hint-only tutor, visit notes to scope wording and lead reply and quote follow-up drafts. Each one says how strong the evidence is, not only what to do.