On November 20, 2022, ChatGPT surprised the world with its human-like responses, extensive knowledge, and nuanced, contextually relevant conversations, marking a significant leap in artificial intelligence capabilities.

The chatbot immediately positioned itself as a valuable tool for different tasks, drawing the interest of writers seeking user-friendly editing and proofreading options.

Now, more than a year after Chat GPT official release, a question lingers in the minds of writers and editors aiming to enhance their skills: Can ChatGPT proofread?

Can Chat GPT Proofread?

While ChatGPT is not a dedicated proofreading tool, it can indeed be used for proofreading as it offers valuable assistance in identifying and correcting grammar, spelling, and coherence issues in written content.

Currently, two versions of ChatGPT are available: ChatGPT 3.5 (the free-to-use version) and ChatGPT 4 (the faster, premium AI tool).

While ChatGPT 4 is undoubtedly more powerful than its free counterpart, both versions provide a variety of features that can help writers throughout the entire writing process. However, before using ChatGPT for proofreading, it's important to consider the following factors:

• A study by Gitnux revealed that ChatGPT has an approximate accuracy of 85% in its answers. However, it's not bulletproof - as an artificial intelligence tool and advanced language model, ChatGPT's accuracy may vary depending on the complexity and context of the queries it receives.
• A research article posted in Science.org titled "Experimental evidence on the productivity effects of generative artificial intelligence" shows us how the ChatGPT language model can be of great aid to human writers. The study investigated the impact of the advanced language processing algorithms of ChatGPT on midlevel professional writing tasks, revealing a significant increase in productivity, a 40% reduction in average task time, an 18% improvement in output quality, and an increased likelihood of continued usage in real jobs.
• Although ChatGPT is now considered a powerful tool to spot grammar mistakes and incoherences, it still needs a human editor to ensure high quality and avoid generic responses. A survey by The Stanford Daily reveals that most Stanford student respondents believe using ChatGPT for assignment assistance currently violates or should violate the Honor Code.

How to Proofread with Chat GPT

ChatGPT's capabilities and helpful responses can help writers apply improvements to sentence structure, spot grammar issues, and quickly solve punctuation errors.

While the ChatGPT proofreading process can be tailored to the writer's preferences, depending on the type of writing and proofreading goals, there are four key steps for effectively proofreading with ChatGPT.

Step 1: Log into Your ChatGPT Account

Open your web browser, navigate to the ChatGPT homepage, and log into your OpenAI account.

Once logged in, access the ChatGPT interface and move on to the following step.

Step 2: Get Your Text Ready and Define Proofreading Goals

Now, prepare the document or text that you want to proofread. This could be a blog post, an article, an essay, or any written content.

Then, define your proofreading goals - do you want to fix punctuation issues, or would you prefer to completely get rid of grammar errors?

Other common proofreading goals include adjusting voice and tone, fixing spelling mistakes, and simplifying complicated sentences.

Step 3: Use the Correct ChatGPT Writing Prompts

ChatGPT uses prompts, which are instructions or queries, to come back with logical responses based on your requirements.

Prompts can be as simple or as complex as you want. For example, this Redditor claims to use a simple prompt that has helped them proofread reports, cover letters, emails, and chats: "proofread this: [text]."

However, you can tailor the ChatGPT response to meet your specific needs. For instance, some common proofreadingprompts include the following:

• Rewrite this content to enhance sentence structure: [text].
• Solve incorrect punctuation errors in this content: [text].
• Check this article for consistency in formatting and style: [text].

Step 4: Review, Understand, and Apply ChatGPT Suggestions

After submitting the prompt, check out the chatbot's response and analyze the changes.

Proofreading and editing require human oversight; otherwise, factual errors or incoherence might go unnoticed.

Additionally, ensure you assess how well ChatGPT understands your text's context before incorporating any changes.

3 Tips for Proofreading with ChatGPT

The proofreading capabilities of ChatGPT are evident, but even so, it is important to proceed with caution and analyze the responses given by the chatbot before blindly accepting its suggestions.

1. Prioritize ChatGPT Suggestions

Begin by prioritizing ChatGPT's suggestions - read the revised text, compare it with the original, and determine if the changes align with your intended goals.

While ChatGPT can offer valuable insights and corrections, not all suggestions may be applicable or contextually fitting. This creates the need to be discerning in accepting or rejecting suggestions based on the specific nuances of your content.

2. Iterate, Interpret, and Analyze the Context

Proofreading is an iterative process, which emphasizes the importance of interpreting the impact of the edits on the overall meaning and flow of your writing.

Analyze the context to ensure that the changes contribute positively to the coherence of your content, and make further changes if you think the context calls for it.

3. Don't Solely Rely on ChatGPT During the Proofreading Process

Although ChatGPT is a great ally for writers in all industries, it's important to note that it doesn't replace the need for human judgment.

ChatGPT might not capture all intricacies and could generate suggestions that, although grammatically correct, might not align with your writing style.

Therefore, use ChatGPT as a complementary tool to aid your proofreading, but supplement it with your judgment and a final human review.

A Better Way to Proofread Your Writing: EditGPT

Although spotting and fixing grammatical errors with ChatGPT is easy, the tool has limitations that can make proofreading less efficient. For example, you can't see the changes to the text directly in the chatbot's interface.

EditGPT presents itself as a solution to this and many other bottlenecks, as it provides writers with many proofreading options and allows them to view ChatGPT suggestions in real-time before deciding whether to accept them.

By using EditGPT's wide range of proofreading options, it's possible to decide how simple or comprehensive the process will be.

Our tool leverages ChatGPT's capabilities and combines them with a friendly user interface to reject, accept, or modify proofreading suggestions at the writer's will.

By tapping into the capabilities of large language models, artificial intelligence, and offering contextual proofreading suggestions, EditGPT becomes a valuable companion for every writer on their creative journey.

Wrapping Up: Can ChatGPT Proofread?

It's clear that using Chat GPT for proofreading helps writers refine their written content, which means it can indeed be used for proofreading purposes.

However, before leveraging ChatGPT for proofreading purposes, consider the following three key takeaways:

1. ChatGPT offers free and paid grammar-spelling assistance for writers in all industries. However, there's always the potential for inaccurate suggestions, lack of contextual understanding, and general ambiguities.
2. A study conducted by Scribbr compared the proofreading capabilities of ChatGPT and a professional editor(human). While ChatGPT offers quick turnarounds, has a free version, and identifies most grammar errors, the study found out that human editors, despite being slower and costlier, tend to deliver higher-quality texts.
3. ChatGPT's interface comes with several proofreading limitations, such as the inability to track changes to the textdirectly and the inability to edit large texts in one go. These problems are solved by EditGPT, which offers various proofreading options and visual aids during the editing process.