PromptBeginnerPrompting

Writing and editing prompts

Prompts for editing your own writing, drafting in a specific voice, and getting criticism that is actually useful.

2 min read

The recurring move in this pack is forbidding the default behaviour. Left to themselves, assistants rewrite when you wanted an edit, praise when you wanted criticism, and add adjectives when you wanted them removed. Most of these prompts are mostly constraints for that reason.

The one that people underuse

The criticism prompt. It is uncomfortable and it is the one that most reliably improves the draft, because "what would a hostile reader challenge" is a question about your argument rather than your prose.

Adapting the voice prompt

The voice sample has to be your writing, and it has to be more than two sentences. A description of your voice ("friendly but professional") does almost nothing; an example does almost everything.

What changes

Nothing model-specific. If a model update makes edits heavier-handed, add the line "return the text with the same paragraph count"; that constraint is usually enough to pull it back.

Copy-ready prompts

4 prompts. Open one to read it, or take the whole pack.

1Line edit without a rewriteThe draft is yours and you want it tightened, not replaced.

Line-edit the draft below. Rules:

- Keep my voice, my structure and my argument. Do not reorganise.
- Cut redundancy, hedging and filler. Prefer the shorter phrasing.
- Do not add new claims, examples or adjectives.
- Return the edited text, then a short list of the changes you made that
  were more than mechanical.

Draft:
"""
<paste here>
"""

2Criticism, not encouragementYou want to know what is wrong with it before someone else tells you.

Critique the draft below as a sceptical reader who is short on time.

Answer these, in order:
1. What is the piece claiming, in one sentence? (If you can't tell, say so, that is the finding.)
2. Where does a reader lose the thread?
3. Which claims would a hostile reader challenge, and what is missing that
   would answer them?
4. What can be deleted entirely without loss?

Do not rewrite anything. Do not tell me what works.

Draft:
"""
<paste here>
"""

3Draft from notes in a voice I supplyYou have raw notes and an example of the tone you want.

Write a <format: email / post / memo> from my notes below.

Match the voice of the sample, not its content. Specifically match:
sentence length, formality, and how direct the opening is.

Constraints:
- <n> words maximum
- Open with the point, not with context
- No headings unless the sample has them

Voice sample:
"""
<paste a piece of your own writing>
"""

Notes:
"""
<paste here>
"""

4Explain a change to three audiencesOne announcement needs to land with people who care about different things.

Below is a description of a change we are making.

Write three versions, each under <n> words:
1. For the people who will use it: what is different for them.
2. For the people who approved it: what it cost and what it achieves.
3. For the people who have to support it: what will break and what to
   watch.

Do not repeat the same sentences across versions. If a fact is missing for
one of the audiences, say what is missing instead of inventing it.

Change:
"""
<paste here>
"""

Last checked against xAI’s own pages on 2026-08-20. Grok changes quickly; anything version-specific should be confirmed upstream before you rely on it.

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