A simple review routine before you send

The idea

A review routine is the same short set of steps, run in the same order, on every AI draft. A routine saves effort because you don't have to decide each time what to look at. A well-designed checklist can reduce any tendency to avoid, omit or neglect important steps¹. Keep it short: the same source advises only necessary checks, and as short as reasonably practicable¹.

The steps

Step one: know what you asked for. Look back at your request. Did you give the tool the facts, or did it supply them? Facts it supplied get the closest check.

Step two: read the draft once without changing anything. Mark each name, number, date, claim and source. Don't fix yet. Fixing as you read makes it easy to miss a line.

Step three: check each mark. Go to the original, such as your price list, your records, the maker's page or the official government site. The detail for each is on two other pages: one on wrong figures and dates, one on sources and quotes.

Step four: read it aloud. Proofreaders have long used the practice where one reader reads the text aloud literally as it appears while another follows along². On your own, you can record yourself and listen back to the recording while reading the page². Either way, your ear catches gaps and odd phrasing that your eye skips.

Step five: check what's missing. Is there a condition, a warning or a step you'd normally mention? Tools tend to give the general case and leave out your specific rules.

Step six: decide. Send, fix, or pass to a second reader. Which drafts need a second person explains when to choose that last option.

Keeping it quick

The routine shouldn't take all day. Scale it to the draft.

• A two-line reply to a regular customer: steps one, three and six.
• A page for your website, a quote or a notice: all the steps.
• A reworded version of text you already approved: check that nothing was added.

If the tool adds a lot of material you didn't ask for, ask for a shorter draft. There's less to check.

Why people skip checks

Automated aids diminish the likelihood that decision makers will make the cognitive effort to seek other information³. This page's advice is to write the steps down, so you do them because they're on the list, not because the draft looks fine.

Exceptions

• Tax, legal, privacy and employment drafts. Go to the official source for your country, or your accountant or lawyer, before relying on the text.
• Health businesses. Keep AI to front-desk and admin text. Check every line before it's used, and never use it for anything clinical.
• Private information. Check what went into the tool as well as what came out of it. Customers' personal details shouldn't be pasted into a tool unless your business has decided that's allowed. For Australian businesses, the OAIC is the official source on privacy.