Business writing courses – how to make it clear that it was you and not AI
In our business writing courses, we frequently discuss AI. “Do you use it?” people will ask our business writing coach, Simon Brooke. His answer is usually “Yes, but…”.
AI promises to transform written communication in the world of business and yet it has its limitations. There will continue to be things that human beings can do in their business writing that AI will not be capable of doing for many years to come.
As more of us become more familiar with AI we’re increasingly able to sense by its tone, style and formatting when a piece of writing is the result of an AI app rather than a human writer.
Business writing workshops
Based on what we teach in our business writing workshops here are three steps that you can take with your business writing to make it clear that you haven’t just copied and pasted the content from ChatGPT.
1. Think about the audience
Obviously, you can tell AI to write about something for someone, but the output will still be very generic. You might ask “What do lawyers need to know about private equity?” or “What does this regulation mean for architects?” You will, of course, receive some useful information. Although whether it’s correct or not is another matter.
In our business writing workshops we start by stressing the importance of thinking about the audience. The better you know and understand the people that you’re writing for, the more engaging and effective your report, your blog or even your email will be. Focussing on their concerns, their interests, their hopes and fears is essential as is thinking about the language and tone of what you write. We share templates and guides that help the participants on our business writing courses to focus on their audience in a way that engages, persuades and inspires them to take the appropriate action.
2. Include the human element
AI is able to draw on huge amounts of data, and it can summarise reports, but it can’t identify and create case studies. Human stories are the basis of the best of human communication. We relate to people, not concepts and theories, and so finding the stories that illustrate and prove your points and arguments is essential.
In our business writing courses, we look at how to write case studies and human experience in a way that speaks directly to the audience and keeps them reading. With the right techniques you can do this briefly and concisely while including the most important – and memorable – points of the story.
As well as stories, quotes from human beings are also powerful and effective. In our writing workshops for business, we look at how these comments can contrast with what we call the “running copy”, in other words, the main part of the text. If you’re creating a document, you might want to break these sentences out into much larger text, what is known, in the business as “pull quotes.”
Quotes can add that human experience and offer insights into the facts that you’re including in your writing. An expert from you own team or someone outside the organisation can explain why the audience should care about the facts that you’re presenting. Why is this important? What should they do as a result?
3. Vary your style to make it interesting
Related to the above, you can vary the style of your writing. In our presentation writing courses we ask why it is that you’ll sit through a film or a play for a couple of hours, and yet, after just 10 minutes a presentation can have you looking at your watch. What does that piece of fascinating, absorbing fiction have that a business presentation doesn’t have? It has variation. Some parts of a good book, for instance, will be funny, some sad, some scary, some romantic and others mysterious.
Obviously, you can’t include great love stories, fight scenes and killer robots in your memo about a new heating system. However, you can still vary the tone and style of any communication that you’re writing. This will help to drive home individual messages and make it less monotonous and more interesting and engaging to your readers or listeners.
Business writing coach
Does all of this mean that you shouldn’t use AI at all during your writing. Simon Brooke our business writing coach says: “Not at all, I frequently use it just to get started with a piece of content. AI is useful as a very basic, early stage tool to explore an issue. However, I’m soon doing my own research and writing something that will speak directly to my audience in a really human, engaging way. Oh, and I also check my facts!”
Your audiences, whether they’re the teams inside your organisation or your customers, potential customers, suppliers, regulators and other external groups will appreciate that you’ve gone to the trouble of creating something yourself, rather than simply relying on AI to do the whole thing.
Feeling valued and reading something that speaks directly to you, human-to-human is so powerful. As the writer, you’ll get better engagement and tangible results in exchange for the effort that you put in.
Business writing courses
Even better, with the tools and techniques that we provide in our business writing workshops, it doesn’t even have to take you too long to produce great writing. Come and talk to us about how we can help you to deal with AI and business writing. You can follow us on LinkedIn here.
