Your first AI wins: 5 everyday tasks

When you finish, you can use AI for background prep, interview questions, document organization, copy checks and plain-language rewrites.

Stuck? Ask the AI tutor

Win one: get up to speed on a topic

Weak prompt: “Tell me about zoning.” Strong prompt: “I cover a small city council. Explain how zoning variances work in general, define five terms I will hear at a meeting, list common misunderstandings, and suggest questions a planner would ask. I will verify with the city's actual rules.” You get orientation, not facts to publish.

Then go to primary sources: the municipal code, meeting minutes, the planning office. Rules differ by country and city, and the assistant cannot know yours. Use the explanation to ask better questions.

Win two: interview preparation

Weak: “Give me questions.” Strong: “I am interviewing a hospital administrator about emergency room wait times for a local news site. Suggest twelve questions from easy background to hard follow-ups, and note which answers I should check against records.” Research the person yourself; do not rely on the tool for biographical facts.

Pick the best five and add your own. Prepare silence and follow-up too, because the best answer often comes after a pause. A prepared list is a map, not a script.

Win three: organize public documents

Imagine forty public budget files. Weak: “Summarize these.” Strong: “Here are the file titles and my notes. Suggest folders by theme and date, a timeline of events to confirm, and gaps where I need more records.” Use only material that is public or that your newsroom has approved for the tool.

Check every date and amount back in the original. A summary can drop a footnote that changes everything. Keep a log that maps each claim in your notes to a page in the source.

Win four: an editor's eye on your draft

Ask: “Read this draft as a skeptical editor. List claims that need a source, missing viewpoints, loaded words, and anything that could mislead. Do not rewrite.” Remove confidential details first. This can catch weak spots before they reach your editor.

Treat the list as prompts. Some points will be wrong, and others will be valuable. You decide which to address. Never let the tool soften a fact or sharpen a charge without your approval.

Win five: a plain-language version

Technical stories can lose readers. Try: “Rewrite this paragraph for a general audience, keeping every fact, name and number unchanged. List any word you changed that might alter the meaning.” The last instruction gives you a short list to check.

Compare the new version with the original line by line. Words like “alleged,” “estimated” and “may” carry legal and factual weight, and simplification can erase them. Put them back if they vanished.

Practice now

Choose a topic you must learn for a story. Ask an AI tool for a short explainer and a glossary, then find the primary source for three of its claims.
Ask an AI tool to review a paragraph of your own draft as a skeptical editor, and mark which of its points were useful.

Use any AI assistant you have. Do not paste private, client or patient information into it.

Check yourself

1. Why verify an AI explainer about local rules with primary sources?

2. When simplifying text, which words need special care?

3. What should you use for organizing documents in an AI tool?

Ask the AI tutor

Ask anything about this lesson, in any language. The tutor is an AI: it can be wrong, and it never needs your personal details.

Next lesson: Guardrails for journalists

AI-drafted. Checked by an automated validator and a separate AI reviewer; a person has not read every lesson. Translations and tutor answers are AI-made. Found a mistake? Tell us. AI can be wrong. General information only, not professional advice. Not affiliated with any AI company named. Current University is not accredited.