Day 12 of 28 · ChatGPT Course
Writing Like a Pro
⏱ 7 min
📊 Beginner
Writing is the skill most amplified by ChatGPT. Whether you're crafting a cold email, drafting a 3,000-word blog post, or writing social media captions across five platforms, ChatGPT can help you write faster, clearer, and more persuasively.
But here's the thing most people get wrong: ChatGPT isn't a magic "write it for me" button. The best results come from a deliberate workflow — generate, critique, refine. Today you'll learn that workflow and apply it to professional emails, long-form content, and social media.
Professional emails, proposals, and business writing
Business writing is where ChatGPT delivers the most immediate ROI. Most professionals spend 2-3 hours a day on email alone. ChatGPT can cut that time dramatically while improving quality.
Emails that get results:
The secret to great business emails is structure: context, ask, benefit, next step. ChatGPT follows this pattern naturally when you give it enough context.
Key tactics for email prompts:
- Specify the relationship — "Write an email to a potential client I met at a conference" produces very different output than "write an email to my team."
- State the goal — "I want them to book a demo" or "I need to deliver bad news about a timeline delay."
- Set the tone — "Professional but warm" or "Direct and concise — this person values brevity."
- Include context — The more background you provide, the more personalized and effective the email will be.
Beyond emails — proposals and business documents:
ChatGPT excels at structured business writing: project proposals, executive summaries, quarterly reports, standard operating procedures, and strategic plans. The key is to provide an outline of the key points you want to make, then let ChatGPT flesh them out with professional language, data framing, and persuasive structure.
Write a follow-up email to a potential client named Sarah Chen. We had a 30-minute demo call yesterday where I showed our project management tool. She was interested but concerned about the learning curve for her team of 50. I want to address that concern and get her to start a free trial. Keep it under 150 words, warm but professional.
Here's your follow-up email:
**Subject:** Great chatting yesterday, Sarah — and a thought on your team's onboarding
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for taking the time to explore [Product] with me yesterday. I really enjoyed learning about how your team manages cross-department projects.
I've been thinking about your question regarding the learning curve. I wanted to share that our average team of 50 is fully onboarded in under two weeks, and we provide a dedicated onboarding specialist at no extra cost. I've also attached a 5-minute video walkthrough that several teams in your industry have found helpful.
The best way to see how it fits is to try it. I've set up a 14-day free trial for your team — no credit card needed. Here's the link: [trial link]
Happy to jump on a quick call if any questions come up.
Best,
[Your name]
↻ Replay conversation
Knowledge Check
What information should you include in a prompt for a business email to get the best results?
B
Just the recipient's name and subject line
C
The relationship context, your goal, desired tone, and relevant background information
D
A complete draft for ChatGPT to proofread
The more context you provide, the better ChatGPT can tailor the email. Including the relationship (client, colleague, boss), the goal (book a demo, deliver news), the tone (formal, warm, direct), and background details (what happened before, what you know about them) produces emails that feel personal and purposeful rather than generic.
Blog posts, articles, and long-form content
Long-form writing is where most people struggle with ChatGPT. They prompt "write a blog post about X" and get a generic, surface-level article. Here's how to get professional-quality long-form content instead.
The outline-first approach:
Don't ask ChatGPT to write the whole article in one shot. Instead:
1. Brainstorm angles — Ask ChatGPT for 10 unique angles on your topic. Pick the most interesting one.
2. Create an outline — Have ChatGPT generate a detailed outline with sections, sub-points, and key arguments.
3. Write section by section — Prompt each section individually, providing context about the target audience and what came before.
4. Add your voice — Go through the draft and inject your personal experiences, opinions, and unique insights.
5. Polish — Use ChatGPT to tighten prose, improve transitions, and strengthen the opening and closing.
Content types and tips:
How-to guides — Provide the steps you want covered. Ask ChatGPT to add specific examples and common mistakes at each step.
Thought leadership — Share your thesis and supporting arguments. Ask ChatGPT to steelman your position and address likely counterarguments.
Listicles — Give ChatGPT the topic and number of items. Ask for a unique angle or hook for each item, not just descriptions.
Case studies — Provide the data and outcomes. Ask ChatGPT to structure it as a narrative: challenge, approach, results, lessons learned.
I want to write a blog post about why most companies fail at remote work. My audience is startup founders. Give me 5 unique angles I could take.
Here are 5 angles, ranked from most to least contrarian:
**1. "Remote work doesn't fail — your meeting culture does"**
Argues that remote failure is actually a symptom of too many synchronous meetings. Companies that replace meetings with async documents thrive remotely.
**2. "You're hiring for office skills, not remote skills"**
Most interview processes test for in-person collaboration. Remote success requires different competencies: written communication, self-direction, proactive overcommunication.
**3. "The 9-to-5 killed remote work"**
Companies that go remote but keep fixed hours get the worst of both worlds. True remote work requires outcome-based management, not time-based.
**4. "Remote work failed because managers lost their superpower: hovering"**
A slightly provocative take on how middle management is built around physical proximity and how remote work exposes managers who lead by presence rather than results.
**5. "Your remote culture is just your office culture on Zoom"**
Companies copy-paste their office rituals onto remote tools instead of redesigning workflows for distributed teams.
Which angle resonates? I'll build out a full outline for whichever you choose.
↻ Replay conversation
Knowledge Check
What is the recommended approach for writing a long-form blog post with ChatGPT?
A
Brainstorm angles, create an outline, write section by section, add your voice, then polish
B
Write the article yourself and only use ChatGPT for spell-checking
C
Ask ChatGPT to write the entire article in one prompt
D
Generate 10 different versions and pick the best one
The outline-first, section-by-section approach produces dramatically better content than a single "write me an article" prompt. It gives you control over structure, lets you inject personal voice at each step, and results in content that reads as thoughtful and original rather than generic AI output.
Social media content across platforms
Each social platform has different norms, character limits, and audience expectations. ChatGPT can adapt the same core message to multiple platforms in seconds.
Platform-specific tips:
LinkedIn — Professional tone, story-driven. Open with a hook line that stops the scroll. Use line breaks generously. End with a question or call-to-action. Optimal length: 150-300 words.
X (Twitter) — Punchy, concise, opinionated. Use threads for longer takes. Each tweet should stand on its own. Optimal: under 280 characters per tweet.
Instagram — Visual-first platform, but captions matter. Tell a micro-story. Use strategic hashtags. Include a CTA. Optimal caption: 100-200 words.
TikTok/YouTube Shorts — Script format. Hook in the first 3 seconds. Conversational tone. Pattern interrupts to maintain attention. Optimal: 60-90 second scripts.
Email newsletters — Personal, valuable, consistent. One main idea per issue. End with a clear takeaway. Optimal: 500-800 words.
The multi-platform workflow:
1. Write your core message or insight as a single paragraph
2. Ask ChatGPT to adapt it for each platform you're active on
3. Review and personalize each version
4. Schedule and publish
This turns one idea into five pieces of platform-optimized content.
Knowledge Check
What's the most efficient way to create content for multiple social media platforms?
A
Post the exact same text on every platform
B
Only post on one platform to save time
C
Write completely separate content for each platform from scratch
D
Write one core message, then ask ChatGPT to adapt it to each platform's format and norms
The multi-platform adaptation workflow is the most efficient approach. You develop one strong core message, then let ChatGPT reformat it for each platform — adjusting tone, length, structure, and style to match platform norms. This ensures consistency of message with platform-appropriate delivery.
The revision workflow — generate, critique, refine
This is the most important skill in this entire lesson. The difference between amateur and professional AI-assisted writing is revision.
The three-step revision workflow:
Step 1: Generate — Get a complete first draft. Don't worry about perfection. Just get the ideas on the page.
Step 2: Critique — Ask ChatGPT to critique its own output. Use prompts like:
- "What are the three weakest parts of this draft?"
- "Where does this lose the reader's attention?"
- "What would a skeptical reader push back on?"
- "Rate this on a scale of 1-10 and explain what's missing from a 10."
Step 3: Refine — Use the critique to guide targeted improvements. "Strengthen the opening based on your feedback." "Add a concrete example to the third paragraph." "Cut the fluff from section two."
Why this works: When you ask ChatGPT to generate AND critique, it engages different analytical processes. The generation mode aims to be helpful and complete. The critique mode is more honest about weaknesses. By cycling between the two, you get output that's genuinely polished.
Pro tip: Do 2-3 rounds of critique-refine. Each round produces measurably better output. Most people stop after the first draft and miss the real quality gains.
Final Check
In the "generate, critique, refine" workflow, what happens during the "critique" step?
A
You publish the content and wait for audience feedback
B
You manually proofread for grammar errors
C
You ask ChatGPT to rewrite everything from scratch
D
You ask ChatGPT to identify weaknesses, gaps, and areas for improvement in its own draft
The critique step is where you ask ChatGPT to honestly evaluate its own output — identifying weak arguments, unclear sections, missing examples, and areas where a reader might lose interest. This self-critique creates a roadmap for targeted improvements in the refine step, producing dramatically better final output.
✍️
Day 12 Complete
"Great writing with AI isn't about the first draft. It's about the workflow: generate, critique, refine, repeat."
Tomorrow — Day 13
Code & Data Analysis
Learn to use Code Interpreter to analyze data, generate charts, and turn raw numbers into actionable insights.