Editing an AI draft: the eight things to cut

The rest of this page is a before and after for each, using a fictional invoicing product at yourproduct.com.

A draft almost always starts one paragraph before the beginning, and ends one section after the end. Both are habits of essay writing and both cost you the reader.

• Before: “In today's business environment, invoicing across borders has become increasingly common. Understanding how to do it correctly is essential for any growing company. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know.”
• After: “An invoice to a client abroad needs the currency on it, the right VAT wording, and a payment route that does not eat the difference. Here is what goes wrong on each.”
• Before, at the end: “In conclusion, invoicing internationally requires attention to currency, tax and payment methods. By following the steps above, you can ensure a smooth process.”
• After, at the end: “Next: set your default currency on /settings/billing, then send yourself a test invoice to see what the client sees.”

These two are the dangerous pair. The hedge wastes the reader's time; the figure can be wrong in a way a customer will quote back at you.

• Before: “Payment terms can vary depending on a number of factors, and it is generally recommended to consider what works best for your business.”
• After: “Use thirty days unless the client asks for more. Shorter terms read as distrust to a first-time client; longer ones make your cash flow their problem.”
• Before: “Studies show that around 30% of international invoices are paid late.”
• After: cut the sentence, or replace it with a figure you own: “Of the last hundred invoices our customers sent abroad, the ones without the currency in the subject line were the ones they chased.”

The rule for figures: put your finger on each number in the draft and name where it came from. If you cannot do it in ten seconds, the number goes. A model produces figures shaped like real ones, with no memory of where they came from, because there was nowhere.

Both come from the same place: a model trained on marketing pages produces marketing prose when the brief does not forbid it. Both are mechanical to fix.

Keep the word list itself somewhere you can paste it into every drafting prompt, with the replacement beside each one.

leverage      -> use
unlock        -> get, or delete the sentence
seamless      -> delete
empower       -> let, help
robust        -> delete
game-changer  -> delete
dive in       -> start
elevate       -> improve

Pasting the list into the prompt reduces the cleanup. It does not remove it, so read for them anyway: a draft that avoided all eight will have found a ninth.

Under a heading like “Choosing the right currency”, a draft will begin: “Choosing the right currency is an important decision when invoicing internationally.” That sentence carries nothing the heading did not.

• Before: “Choosing the right currency is an important decision. There are several factors to consider when making this choice.”
• After: “Invoice in the client's currency if you can absorb the conversion. Invoice in yours if you cannot, and say so in the terms.”

The refrain is the subtler one. A draft finds a phrase it likes and ends every section with it: “and that is what makes the difference”, “which is where the real value lies”. Read only the last sentence of each section, one after another. The repetition becomes obvious in ten seconds.

1. 1

   Cut the opening and the conclusion

   Do this first. It is two deletions and it changes how the rest of the page reads.

2. 2

   Hunt the figures

   Every number, one at a time, sourced or cut. Do it before you fall in love with any sentence.

3. 3

   Kill the hedges

   Search the draft for “can vary”, “may”, “some”, “generally”, “often”. Each one is either a decision you have to make or a sentence to delete.

4. 4

   Run the word list

   The banned register words, mechanically. Replace each with the plain verb.

5. 5

   Read the last sentence of every section

   Catches the refrain and the summary paragraphs at the same time.

6. 6

   Add what only you know

   One paragraph of first-hand material: the mistake customers make, a screenshot, a number from your own data. This is the part that makes the page worth publishing.

7. 7

   Read it aloud

   Assembled sentences are audible before they are visible. If you run out of breath, the sentence is too long.

Do not edit to make the page look human to a detector. Those tools report probabilities from statistical patterns, not proof, and Google has said it does not use AI detection as a ranking signal. Editing for a score makes pages longer and worse.

• Keep the structure, if it is a good one. A clean outline is the thing a model does well.
• Keep the plain sentences. Short and regular is not a fault; it is the house style.
• Keep the lists and tables. They are what a reader scans and what an assistant quotes.
• Stop when every figure is sourced, nothing is hedged, and there is at least one thing on the page that could only have come from you.

If that last condition cannot be met, no amount of editing will save the page. The problem is upstream, in a brief that had nothing of yours in it.