Which one was written by ChatGPT?
Once we are in receipt of the above documents, a full file review is then undertaken by a Building Officer in order for the officer to approve the issuing of a Code Compliance Certificate.
Upon receipt of the aforementioned documents, a comprehensive file review will be conducted by a Building Officer. The objective is to facilitate the approval process for issuing the Code Compliance Certificate.
When we receive your documents, a building officer will review your file. When the officer is satisfied all your documents meet the requirements of the Building Act 2004, they will issue a Code Compliance Certificate.
Who wrote what?
1. The original written by a building services administrator in local government
2. ChatGPT’s rewrite
3. My rewrite
Really? Number 2: I hear you cry. Surely, ‘Upon receipt of the aforementioned documents…’ is over the top for a letter from your local council’s building inspector? And yes, I’d agree with you. A quick online check on a Flesch Kincaid Calculator gives number 2 a Flesch Reading Ease Score of 35.2 – ‘'Very difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates.’ So how did ChatGPT get my prompt to, ‘rewrite this sentence’ so wrong?
ChatGPT is not an intelligent superhuman
To get the most benefit out of ChatGPT, you need to understand its limitations. Chat GPT is a LLM – large language model. ChatGPT was ‘trained’ on mammoth amounts of data from the internet – currently up to January 2022. ChatGPT’s rewrite of number 1, was simply a repeat of the most common sequence of words it found as it scraped the internet. I know, what does that say about we human workplace writers. Are we that bad?
ChatGPT can only imitate
ChatGPT is not conscious. It cannot determine what is true, and it cannot create. It has no memory. It’s up to you, the human in the room to provide ChatGPT with specific, detailed contextual prompts.
'ChatGPT maintains no persistent state, no model of its surroundings that it modifies with new information, no memory of past conversations. It just cranks out words one at a time, in response to whatever input it’s provided.'
Cal Newport - associate professor of computer science, Georgetown University.
ChatGPT is exceptional at predicting the next word in a sequence
ChatGPT doesn’t understand English. Instead, it pattern matches the most probable word to come next in a sequence based on what if found from billions of web pages. But trawling through mind-bogglingly vast amounts of data in nanoseconds to provide a pattern match to your already badly written sentence should not be conflated with true flexible intelligence.
Garbage in, garbage out - use specific, detailed, contextual prompts to get results
ChatGPT works best with specific, detailed prompts. So, I prompted with more detail, 'rewrite for a reader with English as their second language.' My prompting wasn’t detailed enough.
ChatGPT gave me: 'After we get the papers I mentioned, a Building Officer will carefully check everything in the file. This is to help make it easier for the approval process of the Code Compliance Certificate.'
Sigh, really?! Rather than make the reading simpler and plainer, ChatGPT has added potentially confusing details for a reader whose first language is not English: ‘I mentioned,' 'carefully check', 'for the approval process’. Why did it give me more words than necessary? Because ChatGPT is designed to predict the next word or phrase in a sequence, it will often provide you with more verbiage than you need.
So, I prompted again with more detail. ‘Rewrite from a building officer to a homeowner who has English as a 2nd or 3rd language.’
ChatGPT gave me: 'Once we receive these documents, our team will review them thoroughly to expedite the approval process for the Code Compliance Certificate.'
Huh? Why use the words ‘expedite’ and ‘approval'’? Was it the term ‘building officer’ that made it all officious?
Finally, I asked it to, 'rewrite into Plain English from a building officer to a homeowner who speaks English as a second language.'
ChatGPT gave me: 'Once we have the documents mentioned, our Building Officer will thoroughly check everything to make sure everything is in order for the approval of the Code Compliance Certificate.'
Hmm – well, it’s better, but to my mind it’s still too wordy. The things I know about humans that ChatGPT doesn’t are: we’re busy, we hate having our time wasted, we hate reading wordy, fluffy padded stuff, and we want to know the ‘thing’, or the ‘answer’ right now!
Effective writing boils down to two things: audience and purpose
Before you write your prompt, ask yourself: what do I know about my reader and what is my purpose? If you're unsure about either, find out.
In your prompt, tell ChatGPT:
Who your reader is – give as much detail as you can here.
What your purpose is. What do you want your writing to achieve?
About you – in what capacity are you writing? What is your role?
What tone you want to adopt – authoritative/persuasive/apologetic?
What style you want to adopt – academic/informal/chatty? Remember, the accepted standard for workplace and business writing in Aotearoa is Plain English.
Finally, ask ChatGPT 'what percentage of this prompt do you understand?' ChatGPT will tell you. If it replies, 'I understand 57% of the content of this prompt.' You need to work harder.
'Don’t expect a good first answer. Think of ChatGPT as a dance…the 4th, 5th, or 6th dance is where you’ll find the quality.' David Perell
Expect to edit, refine and fact-check everything ChatGPT writes for you
Sorry folks, ChatGPT is not going to climb inside your head and magically solve all your workplace writing woes. In fact, ChatGPT may make things a whole lot worse for you. Like all tools, you first need to learn how to wield it – and ChatGPT is a very powerful tool. If you’re already an accomplished writer – journalist, copywriter, publicist, screenwriter, technical writer – then ChatGPT has the power to transform your working life. You already have a body of knowledge about what makes a piece of writing effective and why some drafts might miss the mark.
If writing is not your strongest suit, don’t take the first iteration as the only iteration. Fact-check it. ChatGPT doesn’t know what’s true and what’s rubbish, but you do; you’re the expert in your area.
If you’re a business or workplace writer in N.Z., take the time to find out about Plain Language. Read your organisation's style guide, and if your document is high stakes and your organisation big enough, ask a colleague, manager or someone from the comms team to review your work.
“Right now, ChatGPT is like a very eager teenager with an internet connection. I’m better than a teenager at most intellectual things but not everything and not at the things I’ve never done before.” Nat Ellison
ChatGPT can do so much more for you than write your emails
We’ll leave the last laugh to ChatGPT itself. Here’s what it gave me from the prompt, ‘What is ChatGPT most useful for?’
'ChatGPT is versatile and can be useful in various contexts. Some common use cases include:
Content Generation: Creating written content, including articles, blog posts, or creative writing.
Drafting Emails: Assisting with the composition of emails, including drafting, refining, and structuring the content.
Learning and Research: Seeking information on a wide range of topics, getting explanations, or learning new concepts.
Programming Help: Receiving assistance with coding, debugging, or understanding programming concepts.
Language Translation: Providing translation assistance for phrases or sentences between languages.
Creative Writing: Generating ideas, prompts, or content for creative writing projects, such as stories or poetry.
Conversation and Companionship: Engaging in chat for entertainment, casual conversation, or companionship.
Problem Solving: Offering solutions or ideas for problem-solving in various domains
Remember that while ChatGPT is powerful and versatile, it has limitations. It doesn't have real-time awareness, and its responses are based on patterns learned from diverse internet data. It's important to use your judgment and verify information, especially in critical or sensitive situations.'
Nicely said ChatGPT, thanks!