Editing ChatGPT content? Here’s what to watch out for

Do any of these opening phrases sound familiar?

“In the fast-paced landscape of…”

“Gone are the days when…”

“In the new digital era…”

To any content specialist, they probably do – because they’re the types of cliché opening phrases we have to edit out of ChatGPT drafts. And that’s just one of the issues to watch out for when editing generative AI content.

That’s not to say that ChatGPT and other generative AI tools are useless. They’re excellent resources for brainstorming, first drafts, and editorial suggestions. But their outputs still need human oversight in order to end up with a compelling finished product.

Here are a few of the specific edits you’ll need to be on the lookout for when editing with ChatGPT.Nominalizations: when action words stand still

Consider this opening line: “In the dynamic world of business, growth and success often come with increased complexity and new challenges.” 

Setting aside the fact that “In the dynamic world of business” is another cliché phrase, there’s a second problem with this sentence: it’s incredibly dull. But why is it so boring? It’s because the main action in the sentence is hidden by a nominalization.

It follows the same pattern of sentences like this:

“The board engaged in discussions about the budget.”

“The sentence had the effect of making its reader feel drowsy.”

When you read these two sentences, ask yourself: what did the board do? They discussed. What did the sentence do? It made the reader feel drowsy. The verbs “engaged” and “had” are unnecessary – and the real action words have been turned into nouns. 

When readers have to struggle to parse complex sentences that actually contain simple concepts, they get bored.

For clarity, they could be rewritten like this:

“The board discussed the budget.”

“The sentence made its reader feel drowsy.”

Going back to our ChatGPT sentence, we could edit it to read: "Business growth and success often increases complexity and new challenges.”

When you’re editing ChatGPT content, keep an eye out for sentences that seem overly wordy. When you spot one, ask yourself: who is the main actor in this sentence? What is the main thing they’re doing? If the main action isn’t the main verb, edit as necessary.

Structural issues: listicles that don’t make sense

There’s a good reason why listicles are popular. These structured blog posts are great for SEO, and they give you a natural place to add some subheaders (and secondary keywords). But ChatGPT tends to want to turn everything into a listicle, even when a different structure would be more logical given the content.

Take these two points from a ChatGPT article about when to hire a new CFO:

1. Rapid Growth: When a business is experiencing rapid growth, it can be challenging to manage the increased complexity and scale. A business consultant can help streamline operations, optimize processes, and develop strategies to sustain and manage growth effectively. Similarly, a CFO can provide financial oversight and ensure that the company's financial structure supports its expansion.
2. Financial Complexity: As a business grows, its financial landscape becomes more complex. If you're finding it difficult to manage your company's finances, or if your financial reports are becoming harder to interpret, it might be time to hire a CFO. A CFO can provide the financial expertise needed to manage budgets, forecast future financial performance, and ensure compliance with financial regulations.

There’s some significant overlap between the two points. In the first point, rapid growth is an important reason to hire a CFO to help manage operational complexity. In the second, a CFO can help manage financial complexity. But the second reason is actually a subset of the first reason, not a separate reason that stands on its own.

Instead of using a listicle to separate out the concepts of rapid growth and financial complexity, it would make much more sense to have a whole section on how rapid growth creates the kind of financial and operational complexity that warrants hiring a CFO. 

Broad arguments: the crux of your article needs to be human

One of the things ChatGPT is great for is helping writers come up with new angles on a topic. But the operative word here is “helping.” 

The argument your article makes is one of the key things that makes it engaging. Coming back to ChatGPT’s article about when to hire a CFO, it gives some pretty standard reasons: business complexity, strategic planning, operational efficiency, etc. 

When you compare its output to something like this article in TechCrunch, you’ll immediately see the difference a more human argument makes. The author draws on his personal experience working with founders and their misconceptions about the financial function of their startup, before diving into the reasons why hiring a CFO makes sense.

It’s a way more compelling read, partially because it’s a fresh take.

ChatGPT is a great tool, but it’s not a panacea for marketing

A lot of companies are rushing to automate content marketing with ChatGPT, but forget that if nobody reads it, it’s not worth much. It also needs to be strategic: content works best when it makes sense given your long-term content marketing strategy. 

That means identifying the right content pillars, adding internal links, getting quotes from your subject matter efforts, and balancing written content with images and video. Should your article really be a video? What past content performed the best? Who is your audience and what do they want to read?

If you want answers to those questions, get in touch with ShoutEx today for a content audit. We’ll help you gauge when you need a human in the loop, and you’ll create content that’s way more readable.