AI Style Issues: Creating a personal style guide
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"How lazy are you?"
That’s the first thing most lawyers think when they receive an email that sounds polished but off … because the writer simply copy/pasted the email from AI.
But, here’s the problem. We do the exact same thing. (Don’t tell me that you have fallen into the trap of pasting that beautiful sounding AI text into your emails.)
And, clients notice. It makes them feel that you clearly don’t view them as a priority. And, it makes them wonder about all those hours you are trying to bill them.
If you want to take advantage of the benefits of AI drafting AND avoid sounding like a lazy bastard, you need to build yourself a style guide. Here are three tips.
I. State Your Rules
At the outset, make a list of rules that you would like AI to follow. For example, I created the following types of rules for my AI guide for articles:
Minimize the reading time and effort of my readers.
Avoid using em dashes.
Add substance by using practical examples and stories.
II. Use Your Best Work
Next, go back and pick three best-practice examples of your writing. Don’t skip this step! By seeing your examples, AI is going to draft text that is much closer to your personal style. In other words, you can save a lot of time on making edits.
III. Select Your Favorite Phrases
Every lawyer has a few phrases that they think make them sound really cool and special. For example, I like to be obnoxiously special by ending my emails with “yours truly”, instead of “best regards” or “sincerely”.
In any event, make a list of the annoying lawyer phrases that represent your personal brand. And, if you can’t figure them out, just ask AI to review some of your writing samples and it can tell you about the ridiculous expressions that you prefer.
Final Thoughts
Don’t get distracted by the siren song of AI writing such beautiful emails. Make sure to tell AI to use your style guide. You’ll still be getting miraculously fast text, but now with a style that doesn’t scream “lazy bastard”.