Section 6: Writing Revision Prompts

If you’ve ever found yourself staring at a ChatGPT response thinking, “Well… that’s not quite what I had in mind,” you’re not alone. Writing with AI isn’t always a one-and-done process—often, it’s about crafting, revising, and refining your prompts until the output hits the mark. The good news? You don’t have to start over each time. A few tweaks to your original prompt can make a big difference.

This section walks you through how (and when) to revise your prompts, how to clarify instructions to get more accurate results, and how to ask ChatGPT to revise its own writing. Whether you’re getting text that’s too vague, too wordy, too generic, or just missing your intended tone, these tips will help you steer the AI back on track.

1. Why and When Should You Revise a Prompt?

Sometimes ChatGPT gives you content that’s almost there—but not quite. Maybe the tone is too formal, the examples are off, or the explanation is overly vague. Rather than starting from scratch, you can revise your prompt to better align the output with your goals.

Common reasons to revise a prompt:

• The response is too general or lacks detail.

• It doesn’t match the intended tone or audience (e.g., too academic for first-year students).

• The examples are irrelevant or culturally narrow.

• It doesn’t follow the structure you need (e.g., no transitions, uneven paragraph lengths).

When to revise:

• After a first draft feels off or incomplete.

• When you’re using the same prompt structure repeatedly and seeing consistent issues.

• When you need to adapt the content for a different course, theme, or student level.

2. How to Add Clarifying Information to a Prompt

If your initial prompt didn’t deliver what you wanted, try adding more specific instructions about tone, audience, structure, or examples.

Original Prompt (Too Vague):

“Explain realism in international relations.”

Revised Prompt (More Effective):

“Explain realism in international relations in one paragraph using clear, accessible language for first-year college students. Include one real-world example and end with a sentence that transitions to liberalism.”

Adding clear expectations helps the AI avoid guesswork and generate a response closer to your vision.

3. Copy/Paste and Rewrite: Let ChatGPT Revise Its Own Work

One of the most efficient strategies is to copy the AI’s original output, paste it back in, and then ask it to revise based on new instructions. This is a great way to avoid starting from scratch while improving content that’s close but not quite right.

Example:

You generated a paragraph on the security dilemma, but it’s too dry and academic for your students.

Prompt 1 (Original):
“Define the security dilemma in international relations.”

ChatGPT Output (Too Formal):
“The security dilemma refers to a situation in which actions taken by a state to increase its security, such as military buildup, lead other states to feel threatened, prompting them to also increase their military capabilities. This can result in an arms race and increased tensions, even if no side desires conflict.”

Now, revise it:

Prompt 2 (Revision Prompt):
“Rewrite the following paragraph to be more engaging and conversational for a college freshman audience. Use an analogy or pop culture reference if appropriate. Keep the definition accurate but more relatable.”

Result:
“Imagine you buy a security system for your house, and your neighbor sees it and thinks, ‘Wait, should I be worried?’ So they buy a bigger one. Then you add cameras. They add guard dogs. Suddenly, neither of you feels safer, even though all you wanted was peace of mind. That’s the security dilemma in international relations—when one state’s attempt to feel safer accidentally makes everyone feel more threatened.”

Much better, right?

4. Layering Instructions: Build Toward Your Ideal Response

Rather than asking for perfection in one prompt, think of your interaction with ChatGPT as a collaborative drafting process. Ask it to:

• Rephrase

• Expand

• Shorten

• Add examples

• Change tone

• Adjust structure

Example prompts for layering revisions:

• “Now expand on this paragraph by adding a historical example.”

• “Rewrite this section to include a reference to the film World War Z.”

• “Change the tone to be more humorous but still informative.”

• “Turn this list into a narrative paragraph with transitions between each point.”

5. Suggestions for Other Helpful Revision Tools

To really make the most of ChatGPT’s editing power, here are a few additional strategies:

• Prompt Templates: Once you have a prompt that works well, save it and reuse it. Small adjustments make it adaptable to different topics.

• Ask for Alternatives: Not loving what it wrote? Say, “Give me two alternative versions with different tones” or “Try explaining this from a different theoretical perspective.”

• Highlight Problem Areas: If a paragraph is too dense or confusing, copy and paste just that part with a prompt like, “Simplify this explanation and break it into two clearer paragraphs.”

• Teach Through Prompts: Ask ChatGPT to pretend it’s teaching a concept to a high school student or someone with no background in the subject. This can force it to clarify muddy ideas.

Conclusion

Writing with ChatGPT is a conversation, not a command. You don’t have to accept the first answer it gives you—in fact, you shouldn’t! Learning how to revise your prompts and guide the AI through clarifying, rewriting, and refining its output is a powerful part of the process. With a few tweaks, a little patience, and some creative prompt engineering, you can turn “meh” drafts into content that actually sings. And remember, you’re the expert here—ChatGPT’s just along for the ride (and it doesn’t even ask for co-author credit).