Human Error Is Now Encouraged!
Time to start messing up, writers.
I make most of my freelancing money as an editor rather than a writer.
That means I get a lot of varying reports and instructions from my clients regarding how to handle a piece of writing — especially now that A.I. is becoming so popular.
Here are some of those instructions:
- “Report a writer if they even so much as sniff in ChatGPT’s direction!”
- “A.I. writing is okay if it is less than 30% of the article.”
- “Use Grammarly in ALL of your editing sessions.”
- “Only use Grammarly for the punctuation. Don’t let it rewrite sentences, or Google might flag the article as having A.I.!”
I will follow different protocols depending on the client (website, magazine, or blog). Most of the time, the advice overlaps, and I can make it work.
Most recently, though, I’ve been instructed to let some grammatical mistakes slip through, as the writing comes across as more authentic to the great Google Internet God that we all adhere to. Meaning: it won’t get flagged as A.I.
I’m just not sure how I feel about that…
Since most of my clients need edits on technical, informative pieces, leaving the bubbling personality of the author out of them was always part of the job description.
So I know the “don’t let a sentence start with ‘but’ or ‘and’” rule is slightly antiquated, especially in creative writing. But (ha), I was taught that to be “professional” was to begin a sentence with an elegant transitional word. I made sure that sentences started with “however” instead of “but” and “furthermore” instead of “and.”
Yet the clients have spoken: grammar rules can take a hike if it means human error prevents flagging an article as A.I.
So now, I am an editor who lets things slide like never before.
- Getting a little too emotional in your technical article about proper dental hygiene? No worries!
- Did you include yet another small anecdote about your dog? Why not!
I’m not saying that I don’t like having some personality in these somewhat boring articles — I’m just wondering how far we are willing to go to circumvent ChatGPT and Jasper and Koala and everything else that is popping up in the writing industry.
Will every technical listicle and “How-to” and “Why is my refrigerator making that noise?” article be flagged as A.I. because they have little room for personality?
Is Google going to crack down on perfectly well-written articles about mechanical parts or boat engines just because no one mentioned their tragic backstory or misspelled a word?
Is it silly to even care about such a future?
Perhaps I’m biased because, as an editor, I’ve always done things a certain way. Yet now, I am conflicted.
Is it right to let grammatically incorrect or rambling emotional writing slide just so Google can say, “Yep. I bet a human wrote that”?
On the one hand, it opens up the internet to more creativity — more freedom. On the other hand, it bogs down detailed technical articles with useless fluff — and fluff, if you didn’t know, is an editor’s greatest enemy.
Should we let our personalities show to beat the system? Or should we stop worrying about what Google thinks every time we sit down to write?
Are these the only two options?
Sincerely, a disgruntled editor.
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