Shorter is kinder

AI makes words cheap, but your reader’s time isn’t. Cut to what they need, put the main point first, and tell them what you’re handing over.

Most readers don’t read every word. In 1997 studies of how people read on the web, most participants scanned a page before reading it, and in a test with 51 users, a concise version of a website scored 58 percent higher on measured usability than the original, promotional-style version.¹

Plain writing is old advice with a law behind it. Since 2010, U.S. federal agencies have had to use plain writing in the documents people use to get benefits or services, file taxes or follow federal rules; the law defines it as writing that is “clear, concise, well-organized.”² The government’s own guidelines say to write for your audience, put the most important information first, and keep sentences and paragraphs short.³

Set expectations

An AI tool can make a draft look finished. Tell your reader three things:

• What it is. A first draft, a summary, or a finished piece?
• What was checked. The numbers? The sources? Nothing yet?
• What it doesn’t cover. The question it skips, or the data it didn’t have.