Leveraging AI Wisely: 7 Editorial Techniques for Authors

Despite all the buzz around AI writing tools and chatbots, content writers can’t solely rely on them. Doing so is irresponsible. AI scrapes the web for information—it doesn’t double-check facts or filter plagiarized content. Publishing AI-generated pieces as is only hurts your reputation.

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With that said, AI can still help you churn out content. We’ll discuss seven responsible, ethical ways to use AI technologies as a content writer or editor.

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1. Detecting Plagiarized Text

Although free plagiarism checkers are widely accessible, they don’t always yield accurate results. Traditional platforms have a limited scope. They might not detect discrete forms of plagiarism, like copy-pasting translated text, duplicating article structures, and publishing AI-generated pieces as is.

Meanwhile, advanced checkers with self-learning AI technologies perform more in-depth analyses. Some even boast specialized features. You can explore various checkers that suit your needs, whether you regularly write online content or edit academic papers.

For instance, with the sophistication of AI chatbots like ChatGPT , many are worried that they can’t detect AI pieces anymore. Coincidentally, you can use AI to spot AI. Developers have been recently developing plagiarism checkers built to flag AI content.

A promising option is GPTZero . It runs a bit slow, but you’ll see in the below photo that it successfully detected a passage that I copied from ChatGPT.

2. Generating Content Ideas

Don’t feel bad if you struggle with writer’s block . Even the most well-read, disciplined writers find themselves staring at a blank canvas now and then. Regularly churning out interesting articles is exhausting.

While you can’t force creativity, you can stimulate it. Use AI technologies to pull engaging, top-ranking topics within your preferred niche or industry. Most tools generate dozens of ideas within seconds.

Let’s take OpenAI’s Playground as an example. In the above photo, you’ll see that it pulled 10 relevant, timely blog topics—which all show potential. Modify the prompt based on your needs. Playground scrapes from billions of web pages, so it can churn out endless ideas on almost any niche.

Don’t publish topics as is; they come from third parties. You can draw inspiration from them, but make sure to scour other sources before writing. Strive to produce unique, original ideas.

3. Researching Various Topics

Research is a time-consuming process. Google indexes hundreds of billions of pages comprising every subject imaginable. Searching for a single keyword like “AI” already produces more than nine trillion relevant results. You can research anything online nowadays.

Although Google’s massive database makes global resources accessible, it also causes information overload. You might not even know where to begin your research. Going through multiple SERPs takes too much time, and relying on featured snippets gives you minimal information.

To simplify the process, use AI chatbots. They give brief, consolidated answers to search queries by scraping millions of web pages. For instance, you’ll get 32.3 million results if you Google “Are AI-generated pieces plagiarized?”.

Meanwhile, if you ask ChatGPT the same question, it will give you a concise 100-word explanation—which you can see in the above photo. Granted, AI doesn’t provide sufficient information. But it gives you a solid starting point and helps get ideas flowing as you dive deeper into various sources.

4. Generating SEO-Driven Outlines

Blog outline serves several functions. Not only do they guide readers, but they also help Google assess your articles’ relevance to different keywords and niches. Poorly made structures hurt SERP visibility. To ensure that your article structure passes readability and SEO guidelines, use AI tools like SurferSEO and Frase .

They provide detailed outlines based on top-ranking sites. If Google sees that your article provides better overall value, you could outperform your competitors in specific keywords. However, don’t blindly copy AI-generated structures. To maintain originality, adjust the headers to suit your brand’s voice and rearrange them for coherence.

5. Analyzing SEO Insights

Through competitor research, you can minimize the trial and error involved with boosting SERP visibility. Find out what methods work and what don’t work. Otherwise, you’ll waste time and money incorporating different SEO strategies into your web pages.

For accurate insights, use SEO tools. Platforms like SEMRush and CanIRank collate data from several sites within input niches and lay them out on easy-to-read charts. Even beginners can quickly understand them. Just avoid overloading pages with SEO elements. Google might categorize your site as spam if you bombard it with hyperlinks and forced keyword usage.

6. Editing Drafts

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No one can write publishable, grammatically correct pieces in one sitting. You’ll need to revisit your drafts with a fresh perspective to spot typos, incoherent phrases, run-on sentences, and factual errors, among other mistakes.

While editing is crucial, it’s also time-consuming. Writers often spend hours revising paragraphs, rearranging sentences, and double-checking information—even then, some typos still fall through the cracks.

Instead of manually editing articles, use accurate grammar checkers . They scan input text for writing errors. After running and editing them through these platforms, you just have to refine the final output.

No checker is 100% accurate. You should still use your best judgment before following your AI editor’s suggestions.

7. Building Simple Websites

Website builders streamline site development. Even someone with zero coding experience can launch a personal website in less than a day. They simply have to drag and drop page elements into these editors. Although convenient, their templates feel generic.

Millions of web admins use these builders; your website will neither look eye-catching nor professional if you only copy their layouts. Visitors might even ignore your pages altogether.

To get unique, no-code web pages, use AI-powered site builders like Wix ADI . Unlike standard site builders, it doesn’t just offer customizable templates. Its AI system automatically generates variations of the color schemes, page elements, themes, and page layouts you input. That way, Wix ADI sites won’t look similar anymore.

Use AI to Automate Different Areas of the Writing Process

Again, AI technologies only scrape information from third parties. They don’t produce unique, innovative ideas, so it would make more sense to use them for shallow work tasks. Automate different areas of the writing process. Just remember that you should write your pieces yourself—don’t copy-paste information.

To further boost your productivity, consider offloading other non-writing-related tasks to AI. Find software programs that automate tedious yet critical tasks like scheduling appointments, generating leads, managing emails, and tracking finances. That way, you can devote much of your time to deep work.

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