How to Proofread and Edit Your Writing with AI

Editing has levels. Proofreading fixes spelling, grammar and punctuation. Copyediting adds consistency, clarity and style-guide rules. Line and developmental editing change sentences, structure and argument. If you ask an AI to 'improve this', it will usually do all of them at once, rewriting sentences you liked and changing your tone. So name the level you want. A grammar-only prompt might be: 'Correct only spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Do not change word choice, sentence order or tone. List each change with the reason.' A style prompt is different: 'Suggest edits to make this clearer and more concise. Keep my informal voice. Show changes, do not silently rewrite.' Asking for tracked-change style output, such as a table of edits or strikethrough-and-bold markup, keeps you in control. You can also paste the AI's version into a new document and use Microsoft Word's Compare feature to see every difference as tracked changes. For non-native English writers, AI proofreading can be a strong learning tool if you ask for explanations, specify US or UK English, and say which features to keep. Two cautions apply. AI tends to smooth writing into a generic register, removing voice. And research by Liang and colleagues at Stanford, published in 2023, found that several AI-text detectors frequently misclassified essays by non-native English writers as AI-generated, so a detector flag is not proof that someone used AI, and detector results are weak evidence either way. Common misconceptions: that AI catches every error (it misses some and introduces others), that its changes never alter meaning (they can), and that grammar help is always allowed in school. Many instructors allow it; some do not. Check the policy.