Can Artificial Intelligence Replace my Editor for the Devotional I Wrote?

Surprising Result using AI Editing Apps versus General AI Apps

Years ago, I was a corporate newsletter editor. It was easy for me to put together content, but it was tedious to edit grammar. Luckily, I had a part-time copy editor who polished my work. Now that artificial intelligence (AI) is readily available, can it replace an editor? To find out, I tried two AI editing apps and two that are general AI apps. I was pleasantly surprised with the result.

Devotional Based on a Worship Song

Last week I asked the free version of ChatGPT to write a devotional based on Misty Edward’s song called Summer Girl. In the end, I was unsatisfied with the result. This time, I wrote a paragraph myself as shown below:

Many women grew up without their dads. I was one of them. It was only decades later when I found out that my father issues left a hole that generated a lot of romantic pain during my younger years. Believe me, I thought my world would end then. Yet God was with me through all those pain. As Misty crooned: [ song lyrics here ]

Setting Goals with Grammarly

Grammarly’s website claims it is, “Responsible AI that ensures your writing and reputation shine.” I signed up for the free account and was immediately encouraged to download their app for my PC. I installed it in my iMac but uninstalled it after a few minutes because I found it intrusive and wanting me to use it with my browser. After I got rid of the desktop app, I was able to use their website editor as shown in the video below.

Grammarly asked me to set some writing goals. Then it processed my text and gave a few grammatical corrections that I can choose to accept or dismiss. It also gave a writing performance rating.

ProWritingAid has Many Features

Although I have a lifetime subscription with ProWritingAid, I rarely use it. After uploading the devotional text, I remembered why I do not use it: it has too many features and a higher learning curve. It seems contrary but too many options makes me work longer.

In the video I showed only a handful of ProWritingAid’s features. Some of them are:

• grammar check

• rephrase report

• critique report

• writing style check and a lot more

In the end, I showed the ProWritingAid’s Paraphrasing Tool. Sentence by sentence, it paraphrased my text and gave a number of options. However, the paraphrasing of Google’s Gemini was better.

Google’s Gemini Shines

If you have a Gmail account, you have free access to Gemini, Google’s answer to ChatGPT. I asked it to edit the same text and it improved the text and rephrased in a few seconds. It also listed the changes it made, as shown in the video below. It even gave additional tips.

Notion is not only a Planner

I use Notion as my planner and organizer. It also has Notion AI. I plugged in my original text and it gave the best edited version of the text as you will see in the next video.

Below is the edited version of my text with the help of Notion:

Growing up without the presence of a father is a reality for many women, myself included. It was only much later in life that I recognized the void left by my absent father had been a source of significant romantic hardship during my younger years. In those difficult times, I truly believed that my world was ending. Despite the pain, I was never alone - God was always by my side.

Comment and Invitation for Discussion

The AI editing apps, Grammarly and ProWritingAid, gave users a lot of options, especially ProWritingAid. As a result, writers may be overwhelmed with choices. Gemini and Notion, on the other hand, gave limited but great outputs. In the end, the user should choose what fit them. What do you think? Comment below and subscribe.