Writing With Value — Finally, A Topic Having Nothing To Do With AI
At KNG, we say, “We consider the value of every word in achieving your writing goals.”
But what does that really mean?
McDonald’s has a Value Menu. We need to know the value of a house to sell it. But how does a word have value?
Words communicate information, and information can be valuable: when it’s new, urgent, or a unique contribution to what was already understood before. Too few valuable words, and the content becomes “fluff.” Readers, gaining nothing for their effort, disengage. The more valuable words in a sentence, the more readers trust they should continue reading.
Our most valuable writing has a purpose – sharing the newness, urgency, or revelation behind our desire to write. The more each word contributes to that author’s purpose, the greater its value, which means a focused and clearly defined author’s purpose makes it easier to write content worth reading.
Every single word in your writing is an opportunity for readers to abandon ship or read on, so make them valuable. Here are 3 ways to consider every word for value, and why AI is unlikely to generate it:
Keep It New
ChatGPT can be useful for pulling together anything ever written before and understanding current conversations around a topic, but not creating something new. Readers disengage when writing is full of ideas they’ve seen before. New information assures them the content is worth reading.
But providing “newness” isn’t limited to paragraphs or sentences. Every word can contribute something new. To prove my point, I asked ChatGPT to come up with a sentence to continue this paragraph. It gave me:
“ ‘Newness’ in writing means delivering fresh insight, perspective, or information that sparks curiosity and adds value, giving readers a clear reason to keep reading.”
I could convey that same meaning in fewer, more valuable words. “Information” includes “insights” and “perspectives,” and knowing their distinct meanings provides no additional degree of reader understanding. Plus, we’ve already established that value keeps readers engaged, so, in this context, none of those words add new value.
In fact, the only words that bring some degree of newness to this section are, “Information that sparks curiosity adds value.” But what sparks curiosity? The promise of learning something new.
Ensure It’s Urgent
Exclamation points and “ALL CAPS SHOUTING!” can make anything sound urgent. Still, writing should actually have some urgency if writers want to motivate readers. Here’s a common example of how ChatGPT misses the mark:
“Your audience doesn’t need another summary of widely known facts—they need perspective they can only get from you.”
ChatGPT loves a good comparison, and usually starts with an obvious opposite. But obvious isn’t necessarily helping readers, and neither is knowing what your point isn’t. Something that isn’t happening isn’t urgent. Obvious isn’t urgent.
Words create urgency by contributing to timeliness, relevance, or the consequences for readers who ignore the message. I could list for days what my audience doesn’t need, so why start with one line among those millions. Readers would surely prefer something more helpful. The last segment’s use of “need” exaggerates urgency, which can prevent trust, but worse still, every word is pure fluff, added irrespective of reader benefit.
To edit ChatGPT’s sentence and inject urgency, we could clarify the connection between a writer and their audience in a modern context: “Summary knowledge can provide support, but writing needs to do more than regurgitate, especially now that we have AI. The addition of your unique perspective is what attracts readers.”
Provide a Unique Contribution
Today, anyone (even AI chatbots) can publish online, which means that your audience has likely read a few other articles on a topic before they find yours. Still, readers value writing when it offers new ways of looking at old conversations: new takes from personal experience or emerging evidence supporting outlier points of view.
The same goes for a word-by-word analysis. A quick review of contemporary conversations on the topic should be enough to introduce your idea, but those words should be strategically limited to keep the focus on your distinct angle. Every word included to elaborate someone else’s insights should ultimately connect back to yours.
In addition to newness and urgency, words provide value if they add emotional depth, advance a story, or clarify a reader’s understanding. In long-form content, this may even include repetition to remind readers and sustain comprehension. Still, the most valuable reminders will be presented in unique ways each time to reveal new context to the story.
The Risks of Turning to ChatGPT
ChatGPT offers shortcuts, but a shortcut isn’t always worth it. Citing Hootsuite Social Trends 2024 survey and SemRush Social Media Trends Report 2024, Agata Kurpiak writes for Medium that a majority of consumers are less likely to engage with and trust content they know to be generated by AI: “They want authenticity, realness, and content that resonates with genuine human experiences.”
In a recent MIT study, researchers found that ChatGPT users had “lowest brain engagement and ‘consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels,’” and their writing “got lazier with each subsequent essay.” Imagine the impact of that kind of writing on the people who have to read it.
Let’s be clear: insights extracted from ChatGPT do have the potential to add value to writing. At KNG Services, we use it all the time to familiarize ourselves with histories or industry topics that connect to client goals. We brainstorm hundreds of blog topics or ways to approach a particular social media post. Then, we ensure the value of each word based on goals: ours or our client’s.
Rather than replacing human writing skills, expect the process of yielding high-value content from ChatGPT’s output to require even deeper know-how.
