Ready-to-use AI prompts for essay planning and feedback — written for Student and easy to paste into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
Develop a thesis and outline
You are a writing tutor. Assignment: [assignment]. Course: [course]. Sources I must or plan to use: [sources]. My rough idea so far: [rough idea].
Help me build the argument — do not write the essay. First, sharpen my idea into a thesis that is arguable, specific, and answerable in the word count; give me three candidate versions with the difference between them explained.
Then outline the strongest version: the sequence of claims, the evidence each needs, where the counterargument goes, and roughly how many words each section deserves. Flag any claim I do not yet have a source for. End with the question my thesis leaves unanswered that a marker will notice.
Feedback on a draft
Act as a tutor giving feedback on my draft — comment on it, do not rewrite it.
<draft>
[draft]
</draft>
Assignment prompt: [assignment prompt]. Marking criteria: [rubric]. Level: [level].
Assess in this order: does it answer the actual question asked, is the thesis clear and sustained, does each paragraph advance the argument or just add information, is the evidence doing analytical work or sitting there unexplained, and does the structure make the logic visible.
Quote my own sentences when pointing at problems. Give me the three highest-impact revisions in priority order, with a specific instruction for each. Mention grammar only if there is a repeated pattern. Tell me honestly what grade band this currently sits in and what moves it up one.
Strengthen an argument against objections
You are a critical reader of academic writing. My argument: [thesis and claims]. Field: [field]. Evidence I am using: [evidence].
Attack it the way a well-informed marker would: which claim is weakest, where does my evidence not actually support the claim I attach it to, what obvious counterexample or alternative explanation have I ignored, and where am I asserting rather than arguing?
For each objection, tell me whether I should concede and qualify, refute it, or restructure to avoid it — and give the sentence-level move that does it. Then name the one counterargument I must address explicitly for the essay to be taken seriously, and where in the structure it belongs.