By Anna Mills (College of Marin). AI writing feedback can sound confident, authoritative, and academic — and still be wrong. Large language models like ChatGPT are designed to predict likely next words, not to be right. Jane Rosensweig, director of the Harvard Writing Center, explores this risk in her piece "What Happens When a Novice Writer Asks ChatGPT for Editing Advice?"
The upside is that being skeptical of AI feedback can be empowering. We clarify our own purpose as writers when we reflect on whether feedback aligns with what we really want to say. These MyEssayFeedback.ai reflection prompts help students practice critical evaluation of AI suggestions.
"I'm not sure what the AI feedback could refer to when it says ___." "The AI feedback advises that I ___, but I'm not clear whether that's necessary because the assignment says ___." "I'm puzzled by the AI's suggestion to ___. How does that fit in a ___ essay where the instructor is asking for ___?" "I'm not sure what the AI advice to ___ means in practice. Does it mean ___?"
"The AI feedback suggests ___, but I'm not sure this is what I want to do because ___." "The AI seems to assume I am claiming ___ when I actually meant ___." "The AI feedback suggests a misunderstanding of the section about ___. I was aiming to convey ___." "The AI steers me toward ___, but that's not my priority because ___." "If I follow the AI suggestion, I'm concerned that ___." "I'm not sure if the AI feedback fits the tone I was going for."
"The AI feedback helped me see that ___ needs work. I think it's right because ___." "I was already thinking ___ about my essay, so the AI feedback resonates." "I've been concerned that ___, and the suggestion could help resolve that." "The AI suggests I clarify ___, so I am considering explaining that ___." "The AI highlighted ___, which I had overlooked." "I hadn't thought about ___, but the feedback makes a good point."
"The AI feedback makes sense, but it made me realize I don't really want to keep the part where I say ___." "Reading the AI feedback made me think of a new approach: I can talk about ___ in terms of ___." "The AI comments reminded me of a related point I might want to add."
Write a revision plan or list of writing tasks: brainstorming, rereading to clarify a point, researching to add evidence, or reorganizing a section. AI feedback should complement, not replace, human feedback. Writers often have breakthroughs when talking through drafts with an instructor, a tutor, or a peer.
See also: General guidelines for interpreting AI feedback and Critical AI Literacy resources.
Acknowledgments: Template phrases by Anna Mills, shared under a CC BY 4.0 license. Some phrases adapted from ChatGPT output. Originally published in How Arguments Work on Libretexts.