There are a LOT of things to keep in mind while doing an editorial review. Why do you think it takes the brain that many reads to make sure that the t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted?
ChatGPT is no different. You cannot expect every perspective of an editorial review to get solved with one prompt. it will not. This is not code, and even in that – there’s experimentation. ChatGPT also produces wrong code. But the thin line is that there’s is no “fighting” over the languages itself. English is subjective.
I was conducting an editorial review on the article: The appeal of Open-World RPGs: What makes them popular?
I experimented using ChatGPT 4o and 4
Proofreading 4o vs. 4
ChatGPT 4
I started with with ChatGPT 4. I quicky realised that since this was a quicker kind of requirement – albiet the task is extensive, I wanted to test how 4o responded. So here is the half baked 4 version: https://chatgpt.com/share/aa33bf3f-9a38-4ae8-850b-543b4cf7f9ef
But if you have a closer look at the result – you will find that ChatGPT did not conduct a plagiarism check. Weird?
So I went back and tried to re-ask it to do a plagiarism check.
Tough luck.
ChatGPT 4o
I used the same prompt as above, and here’s the first set of dialogue:https://chatgpt.com/share/aa33bf3f-9a38-4ae8-850b-543b4cf7f9ef
Tbh, I did get a little annoyed because it started just retyping the blog back. But I waited.
And that is why you should not take ChatGPT too seriously as well. Make it your partner in research. Do not depend on to make the process of delivering content faster. It needs to make your job easier so you can get the work done in the best possible way knowing you have maintained all the standard practices.
Now, I will not cover everything in this article, but I will finish editing this article. Let’s see how it goes from here.
I am not pasting the response here, but you should go have a look, just to see how abysmal it was. I have done a lot of work using ChatGPT and that was not even 20% of what response it’s capable of giving me.
You see the thing here, is with this article – I already know the quality is upto mark to a great extent. The things I am looking for in itself will be very different, also, correct?
I am not expecting a sentence by sentence feedback and critique. I am asking it to check for hygiene, plagiarism, and fact checks. Let’s try one last time: https://chatgpt.com/share/8ef500c6-abed-41af-8468-4fc51897c2d1
Made little difference. But know I saw some thing about Grammatical errors:
The second bullet is hyper subjective – if you change that, you’re affecting the tone of voice of the writer.
On the other hand, the first bullet point is what caught my attention.
Apart from the SEO part, I am now 90% good with the article. It’s not done yet though.
We need to actually read it, yes the article. It’s the job! I say this because it’s very easy to slip and let AI do the tough work, but if you do not work with it every step of the way, you won’t know when you were being fed the wrong results along the way – also why people get fired.
Back to editing.
If you see something like this, always remember that you are feeding in information as “text” and other formats as uploads. So when you feed in text, it will not be in the format that the AI will comprehend as correct. After all, you have also asked for a proofread. Nonetheless, format is everything.
There were tables and charts in the actual article. But that was not uploaded, hence the review comment below. Also, the first comment has no based because amore than 50% of this blog is just images, which again, has not been uploaded.
I will be running a grammar and plagiarism check, on grammarly before taking it live.
Grammarly Review
This should ideally take lesser time that ChatGPT.
When you are reviewing on grammarly, you tend to be a lot more focused because now with the cooler AI, there is also only so much you can do here. But having said that, this is a really important step in the editorial review process.
You don’t really “have” to set this, but doing it will not harm anything. As long as you’re within the range of knowing what kind of article you’re editing. For example, if I was editing a piece of technical documentation, I would select “Business” “Inform/describe” “expert” and “formal”
Pinch of salt, guys! Let’s see what what Grammarly has to say now
What do we really need to change?
Commas
Commas are a punctuation that are very flexibly used. It’s usually where the writer was to establish pauses or emphasis. Sometimes during a review, if there is trouble comprehending a sentence, or if it’s too long without a break for example, one may suggest adding that as a feedback. Imo, do it when absolutely necessary of it’s breaking the rules of the language.
You will also find the below suggestion. It’s okay to just go ahead with this, to keep that standard. Just make sure that it is consistent.
In the below few screenshots you will see that most of the change suggested are subjective, to a large extent. They may be marked red. But only suggest an editorial change if it really makes sense
If i accept all of these changes, Grammarly will just give me a much better score. This article is already there.
Check for plagiarism next. While it will be a part of the process to do the fact checking and link checking, also make sure to check on grammarly, or a free tool online.
We’re good to go.
I will also check for the SEO, not adding that part here. Read these two articles to know more about how to oprimize for SEO. As an editor, you’re not really thinking about your version of the SEO or what you think is right, you need to do the SEO for what will work for this article.
Keyword Research on Google Trends for Content Writers | MindBrews
Writing for the Internet: An On-Page SEO Guide and Article Format for Content Writers| MindBrews
Here are some editorial best practices you should definitely use as reference or checklists when you’re working on an article: https://mindbrews.in/engage-and-retain-best-practices-for-mindbrews-editors-2/
As AI evolves, so too should our approaches to integrating them into editorial workflows. Continuous learning and adaptation will be key to maximizing the benefits of AI while mitigating its shortcomings
Always remember to take responses with a pinch of salt. no, really – pinch of chilli for all I care. Because not everything will make sense, not everything will be directly applicable, or even be factually accurate. For that friends, we have Google and the power of knowing how to research. So make sure that every thing represented has been validated and cited.
While ChatGPT can greatly accelerate the mechanical aspects of editing, such as grammar checks and initial draft suggestions, it falls short in areas requiring deep understanding and creativity. To best utilize AI in editorial workflows, editors should leverage AI for initial reviews and routine tasks. However, critical tasks, particularly those involving creative content, factual accuracy, and ethical considerations, should be closely reviewed by human editors.
