20 practical, difficulty-rated ways Writing and Rhetoric students at Hobart and William Smith Colleges can use AI — each naming the exact tutorial it links to and what you’ll take away. Click any card to watch it.
Before you use these on graded work: check your professor’s policy on AI.
It differs by course, and these examples are study aids — not permission.
Easy
Brainstorm angles for a persuasive or personal essay
Test each angle against who your reader is and what would change their mind. The linked tutorial covers three brainstorming methods in ChatGPT — a reusable custom-instructions 'brainstorm paradigm', an AI-diagram tree that fans one topic into dozens of branches, and a SWOT prompt to pressure-test an idea.
What you'll take awayThree prompt patterns you can reuse to go from a blank page to a categorised list of options, plus a way to stress-test the one you pick.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Brainstorm angles for a persuasive or personal essay — Test each angle against who your reader is and what would change their mind.
Give me 10 options grouped into 3 themes, then mark the 3 most original and explain what makes them stronger.
Clarify ethos, pathos, kairos, and enthymeme. The linked tutorial covers ChatGPT's Study Mode (type /study), an interactive tutor that guides you with questions step by step instead of just handing over the answer.
What you'll take awayHow to switch ChatGPT into tutor mode so it drills you on terms and ideas rather than doing the thinking for you.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Define rhetorical terms — Clarify ethos, pathos, kairos, and enthymeme.
Define each term in one clear sentence, then give a concrete example of each in context. Once I've read them, quiz me on them one at a time and tell me what I got wrong and why.
Receive line-level suggestions on clarity and flow. The linked tutorial covers a 'teacher rubric' prompt that turns ChatGPT into a strict grader — paste your draft and the rubric, and it grades it and lists exactly what to fix before submission.
What you'll take awayA prompt that gives you rubric-based feedback on a draft while you still have time to act on it.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Get feedback on a paragraph — Receive line-level suggestions on clarity and flow.
Act as a strict professor grading this. Score it against a rubric (argument, evidence, structure, style), give a letter grade, and list the 3 highest-impact fixes. Be blunt. Draft below:
[PASTE YOUR DRAFT HERE]
Condense a dense Aristotle or Burke excerpt. The linked tutorial covers MacMost's copy-paste method — pull an article into reader view, paste it into ChatGPT after 'summarize this:', then ask for a set word count or a 10-bullet version; also how to grab a YouTube transcript to summarise a video.
What you'll take awayHow to compress a long reading or video into a summary of the exact length you need, and why pasting the source keeps it accurate.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Summarize a rhetorical theory reading — Condense a dense Aristotle or Burke excerpt.
Give me (1) a three-sentence summary, (2) five bullet-point key claims, and (3) anything the author asserts without supporting evidence. Text below:
[PASTE THE TEXT HERE]
Write a polished message to a professor or editor. The linked tutorial covers drafting an email in ChatGPT and improving it through conversation — the first draft is deliberately generic, then detail is added turn by turn — plus what not to paste in for privacy.
What you'll take awayWhy the first draft always reads like AI, how to iterate it into your own voice, and to keep real names out of the prompt.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Draft a professional email — Write a polished message to a professor or editor.
Keep it under 150 words: polite, specific, with one clear ask. Give me two versions — one formal, one warmer. Don't include real names, ID numbers, or anything private.
Sharpen a vague argument into a focused claim. The linked tutorial covers AI Academy's approach to long-form writing: never ask for the whole essay at once — break it into smaller prompts across two tabs and a document so you keep control of the argument.
What you'll take awayA workflow that automates the writing but not the thinking, so the argument stays yours and the draft stays checkable.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Generate a thesis statement — Sharpen a vague argument into a focused claim.
Help me write this, don't write it for me. First ask me 3 questions about my argument, then propose a thesis and a section plan. Do not draft full paragraphs until I approve the plan.
Improve cohesion in a draft with better connective phrasing. The linked tutorial covers three proofreading prompts run over the same document in ChatGPT — 'suggestions for improvement', 'proofread for clarity', then 'proofread for punctuation' — before editing in your own word processor.
What you'll take awayThree targeted passes that catch different problems, and the habit of applying the edits yourself rather than pasting output wholesale.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Suggest transitions between paragraphs — Improve cohesion in a draft with better connective phrasing.
Do three passes: (1) clarity, (2) grammar and punctuation, (3) concision. Show every change as a list with a reason — don't silently rewrite. Text below:
[PASTE YOUR TEXT HERE]
Turn scattered ideas into a structured essay skeleton. The linked tutorial covers using ChatGPT across the research-paper workflow — finding a topic where a genuine gap exists, then structuring the paper around it.
What you'll take awayHow to pick a defensible topic and lay out the sections before you start writing.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Create an outline from notes — Turn scattered ideas into a structured essay skeleton.
Give a topic-sentence outline only — not full prose. For each section, state the argument it makes and the evidence it would need.
Get quick MLA or APA formatting guidance. The linked tutorial covers a 10-step ChatGPT prompt system — standard definition, an explain-it-to-a-10-year-old version, real-life analogies, a simple diagram, then a comparison table — that you aim at any concept you're stuck on.
What you'll take awayA repeatable prompt sequence that turns a confusing idea into a definition, an analogy and a diagram you can check against your course notes.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Explain a citation style — Get quick MLA or APA formatting guidance.
Start with a one-sentence definition, then explain it as if I'm 10, then give a real-world analogy. Finish by flagging anything scholars genuinely disagree about — and tell me what you're unsure of.
Adjust a passage to be more formal or conversational. The linked tutorial covers three proofreading prompts run over the same document in ChatGPT — 'suggestions for improvement', 'proofread for clarity', then 'proofread for punctuation' — before editing in your own word processor.
What you'll take awayThree targeted passes that catch different problems, and the habit of applying the edits yourself rather than pasting output wholesale.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Rewrite a sentence for tone — Adjust a passage to be more formal or conversational.
Do three passes: (1) clarity, (2) grammar and punctuation, (3) concision. Show every change as a list with a reason — don't silently rewrite. Text below:
[PASTE YOUR TEXT HERE]
Examine appeals and strategies across a full political address. The linked tutorial covers ChatGPT's Study Mode (type /study), an interactive tutor that guides you with questions step by step instead of just handing over the answer.
What you'll take awayHow to switch ChatGPT into tutor mode so it drills you on terms and ideas rather than doing the thinking for you.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Analyze a speech rhetorically — Examine appeals and strategies across a full political address.
Define each term in one clear sentence, then give a concrete example of each in context. Once I've read them, quiz me on them one at a time and tell me what I got wrong and why.
Contrast classical and Toulmin models for an argument paper. The linked tutorial covers a compare-and-contrast prompt in ChatGPT (demonstrated on Buddhism vs Hinduism) that asks for similarities and differences, then expands any point you want more depth on.
What you'll take awayA prompt for structured comparisons, and how to push ChatGPT to elaborate on the specific dimension you care about.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Compare rhetorical frameworks — Contrast classical and Toulmin models for an argument paper.
Give me a table of the key similarities and differences, then one short paragraph on which difference matters most and why.
Develop criteria and prompts for evaluating classmates' drafts. The linked tutorial covers a 'teacher rubric' prompt that turns ChatGPT into a strict grader — paste your draft and the rubric, and it grades it and lists exactly what to fix before submission.
What you'll take awayA prompt that gives you rubric-based feedback on a draft while you still have time to act on it.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Build a peer-review feedback guide — Develop criteria and prompts for evaluating classmates' drafts.
Act as a strict professor grading this. Score it against a rubric (argument, evidence, structure, style), give a letter grade, and list the 3 highest-impact fixes. Be blunt. Draft below:
[PASTE YOUR DRAFT HERE]
Outline text, image, and audio elements for a digital essay. The linked tutorial covers ChatGPT Projects as a workspace — turning a rough idea into a full plan with timelines, task assignments and a risk assessment that stays organised across sessions.
What you'll take awayHow to go from a vague goal to a structured plan with milestones and risks, kept in one persistent workspace.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Plan a multimodal composition project — Outline text, image, and audio elements for a digital essay.
Break this into phases with milestones, working backwards from [DUE DATE]. Include the top 3 risks and how I'd mitigate each.
Combine several articles into a coherent position on AI ethics. The linked tutorial covers ResearchRabbit — seed it with one paper, then explore the citation network visually to surface related work and spot gaps.
What you'll take awayA way to map a literature landscape from a single starting paper instead of searching keyword by keyword.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Synthesize sources for an argument — Combine several articles into a coherent position on AI ethics.
Group the sources below into themes, show where they agree and disagree, and name the gap that's left. Do not invent sources.
[PASTE SOURCES OR ABSTRACTS HERE]
Map an existing essay's structure to diagnose organization. The linked tutorial covers using ChatGPT across the research-paper workflow — finding a topic where a genuine gap exists, then structuring the paper around it.
What you'll take awayHow to pick a defensible topic and lay out the sections before you start writing.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Reverse-outline a messy draft — Map an existing essay's structure to diagnose organization.
Give a topic-sentence outline only — not full prose. For each section, state the argument it makes and the evidence it would need.
Create a GPT giving rubric-aligned feedback in your voice. The linked tutorial covers building a Custom GPT from scratch in ChatGPT and feeding it your own past writing so its output sounds like you rather than generic AI.
What you'll take awayHow to set up a reusable assistant with your instructions baked in, so you stop re-explaining context every session.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Build a custom writing-coach GPT — Create a GPT giving rubric-aligned feedback in your voice.
Draft the name, description, instructions and 4 conversation starters for this Custom GPT. The instructions should tell it to ask clarifying questions and to admit when it doesn't know.
Develop methods to study framing across many news articles. The linked tutorial covers pasting a broken snippet into ChatGPT with the prompt 'scan the following code for potential problems' — it finds the bug (a divide-by-zero), explains why it happens and returns a fixed version.
What you'll take awayA debugging prompt formula, plus the habit of re-running the fixed code to confirm the error is actually gone.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Design a rhetorical corpus analysis — Develop methods to study framing across many news articles.
Tell me what's wrong, explain why it happens, then give the corrected version. Walk through the fixed code line by line with a concrete input.
[PASTE YOUR CODE AND THE ERROR HERE]
Use tools to trace metaphor patterns across a text collection. The linked tutorial covers pasting a broken snippet into ChatGPT with the prompt 'scan the following code for potential problems' — it finds the bug (a divide-by-zero), explains why it happens and returns a fixed version.
What you'll take awayA debugging prompt formula, plus the habit of re-running the fixed code to confirm the error is actually gone.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Conduct computational discourse analysis — Use tools to trace metaphor patterns across a text collection.
Tell me what's wrong, explain why it happens, then give the corrected version. Walk through the fixed code line by line with a concrete input.
[PASTE YOUR CODE AND THE ERROR HERE]
Engineer prompts that adapt prose to a target style, then verify. The linked tutorial covers pasting a broken snippet into ChatGPT with the prompt 'scan the following code for potential problems' — it finds the bug (a divide-by-zero), explains why it happens and returns a fixed version.
What you'll take awayA debugging prompt formula, plus the habit of re-running the fixed code to confirm the error is actually gone.
Starter prompt — paste into ChatGPT
I'm a Writing and Rhetoric student at HWS. My task: Develop and test a style-transfer workflow — Engineer prompts that adapt prose to a target style, then verify.
Tell me what's wrong, explain why it happens, then give the corrected version. Walk through the fixed code line by line with a concrete input.
[PASTE YOUR CODE AND THE ERROR HERE]