Final project

Final Project: From AI Draft to Your Own Writing

2 min read · Updated

You've learned why AI writing sounds the way it does, how to prompt with your own material, how to edit, how to keep your voice and how to stay within the rules. The final project puts all of it together on one real piece of writing. Pick something you actually need to write. It works much better than a practice topic.

Choose your piece

Good choices are between 400 and 1,200 words and matter to you:

  • A blog post or article you plan to publish
  • A report, proposal or long email for work
  • A cover letter or personal statement, if AI use is allowed for it
  • A newsletter issue or a talk you're giving

Before you start, check the rules for where it's going. If it's for school or a client, read lesson 7.1 or lesson 7.2 again.

The steps

  1. Baseline. Write a one-line prompt with just the topic, like most people would. Save the result and score it in the AI detector. This is your "before".
  2. Gather material. Do a five-minute brain-dump or an AI interview. Aim for at least five specific details and one opinion.
  3. Draft with your style sheet. Use your personal style sheet and draft section by section. Score the draft.
  4. Edit. Run the 10-minute edit. Then fix rhythm, climb the specificity ladder on the three weakest claims, and do the read-aloud test. Score it again.
  5. Check. Test the final version on two other detectors and log the results, as in lesson 6.1. Fact-check every number and name.
  6. Disclose if needed. Write a one-line disclosure using lesson 7.4, if the setting calls for one.

Record your results

Fill in a table like this one as you go. It's the clearest way to see what made the biggest difference for your writing.

Stage AI score Words Specific details What changed
1. BaselineTopic-only prompt
3. Style-sheet draft
4. After editing
5. Final

Three questions to finish

  1. Which single step moved the score most? For most people it's adding specifics or the style sheet.
  2. Read the baseline and the final version side by side. Which one would you rather put your name on, and why?
  3. What will you add to your style sheet after this project?
The score isn't the point. The final version should be something you'd happily send, publish or submit, because it says what you think, with your details, in your voice. The low score just shows that readers and detectors can tell.

Where to go from here

Keep your style sheet up to date and come back to the lessons when something isn't working. The ones people return to most are the 10-minute edit, specific details and what to do when you're falsely flagged. Terms you've forgotten are in the glossary.