Everyday Work and Learning

Writing First Drafts

Learn to turn a brief into an editable draft and produce a useful starting point in this beginner-friendly ChatGPT lesson.

Learning outcomes

  • Explain how to turn a brief into an editable draft.
  • Complete the guided activity safely.
  • Check that you can produce a useful starting point.

Before you begin

Prepare a short sample document or fictional scenario. Keep responsibility for checking facts, tone, calculations and decisions.

Open official OpenAI guidance ↗

Step-by-step instructions

  1. Open a new practice chat with a clearly defined outcome and confirm you are using the intended account or workspace.
  2. Create a short fictional business update from supplied facts.
  3. Pause and check privacy, permissions, source material, feature availability and any instruction that affects the task.
  4. Review the result carefully and confirm that you can produce a useful starting point.
  5. Save only the useful, verified output and record one improvement for your next prompt.
Ian's practical tip: Start with fictional or non-sensitive information. Treat the first response as a draft, then verify facts, sources, calculations and permissions before using it.

Practical activity

Create a short fictional business update from supplied facts. Your expected result is to produce a useful starting point.

Good-practice checklist