“I didn’t told you.”
“I don’t understand nothing about you.”
“What does your heart wants to say?”
I spent 10 years teaching English as a foreign language in Japan, Nepal, Australia, and Spain. Sentences like these were daily fodder in my work. My job was to teach why they were wrong and motivate students to say it the correct way next time.
Today my job is different: instead of correcting grammar, I add soul to speaking and writing that is perfect but dead inside.
I scribbled those three lines in my notebook while I was on retreat with my mentor, who has also become a client. She is a non-native English speaker. Her English is not perfect, but she can facilitate a tense verbal fight between a room of Russians and Ukrainians without breaking a sweat. I wanted to help her fix her grammar. Now I miss it as I edit the book she wrote while speaking to ChatGPT.
I pulled the following paragraph from the manuscript my client wrote with ChatGPT:
I questioned, even then: Why had I agreed to this? This family, this body, this world? But I knew, somewhere deep within, I had made a commitment—a soul promise. And yet, how difficult it seemed, to hold onto that force of life within me, when from the moment my soul inhaled its first breath, I knew I wasn’t fully welcomed. In the space between leaving and staying, these thoughts swirled. Yet in that same moment, I remembered my purpose. I came to work on something deeper—to nurture a flame within. But what did that truly mean? I couldn’t yet grasp it.
I find it ironic that now I am using AI to de-AI a client’s writing.
I gave the same paragraph to the Claude skill “Humanizer”. Its objective is to turn AI slop into something that feels more…human. Here’s what came out:
Even then I was asking why I had agreed to this. This family, this body, this world, all of it. But I had agreed. Somewhere I knew that, I had promised to come. And still it was hard to hold the life in me, because from the first breath I knew I wasn’t fully welcomed. So I would think about leaving. Then I would remember I came here for something. To nurture a flame. What that meant, I didn’t know yet.
But what are the rules that Humanizer is following to create this new text? I’ve pulled three that were relevant for this paragraph:
1 – Elegant variation
When AI says the same idea twice and the second time it sounds fancier.
- “Commitment” → “a soul promise.”
- “That force of life within me” → “a flame within.”
Why this doesn’t work: A person who means it says the same word twice. We like to repeat when we’re fired up. But AI has a repetition penalty, so it reaches for a synonym rather than repeating a word.
The fix: repeat yourself for emphasis. The humanized version says “agreed” twice.
2 – Stacked Hedging
- “How difficult it seemed” → “it was hard”
- “I couldn’t yet grasp it” → “I didn’t know yet”
Why this doesn’t work: When you hedge on a hedge, you sound uncertain. You’re not actually saying anything.
The fix: don’t hedge the thing you actually know. Just say the thing.
3 – Rule of three
- “This family, this body, this world.”
Why this doesn’t work: When we were taught to write, we were told that it’s good to follow the rule of three. But real thought is lopsided.
The fix: the triple became “this family, this body, this world, all of it.” Those three words broke the pattern.
What did you write with the help of AI this week? Did anyone reply to it?
What does your heart wants to say?
P.S.
If you’re a founder or executive and sound like a different person when you’re speaking in front of others (on camera or on stage), I can help. Book my Presentation Strategy Session and I’ll review your content and give feedback prior to the call. Then we’ll work together for 90 minutes to refine what to say and how to say it so people listen.
Presentation Strategy Session – $1,500
*Use $500 as credit towards any coaching package if you book within 30 days.
Book a call to get started: https://calendly.com/rebeccawilliams/15-mins-with-rebecca-williams
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