What We’ve Learned About Custom GPTs (And One For You To Use)
Our experience in building custom GPTs with a deep dive into one that provides coaching, copyediting, or proofreading against the Elements of Style.
We’ve previously written about “GPTs,” the custom applets you can create in ChatGPT 4 for specific use cases. You can read our initial thoughts on them here, and there’s an excellent primer on creating them here. We’ve been utilizing them for several weeks now and have developed several, including:
A research assistant GPT that answers questions by referencing the work of an extensive set of esteemed academics and critical theories in interpersonal and organizational communication.
A briefing GPT that creates briefing documents on organizations and people.
A digest GPT that generates detailed summaries, critiques, and inferences of academic papers, transcripts, websites, and articles.
A “no BS” GPT that strips text of buzzwords and jargon and revises the text into simple, plain language.
An expert GPT that assumes the role of an expert based on the user’s query, revises the user’s query into a stronger prompt based on that expertise, and then executes the query.
A graphic creator GPT that designs logos, icons, and images in styles and colors consistent with our firm’s brand standards.
A copy editor GPT that edits text consistent with our firm’s voice and style guide.
All of these were developed by people in our firm and were relatively easy to implement. We have learned a few things in building them, though, so we want to share some insights here before using one GPT in particular as a deep-dive example (and as one you can use for yourself).
First, what we’ve learned:
The back-and-forth questions that ChatGPT asks you when creating a GPT are helpful, but sometimes it takes off on its own, autocompleting answers without giving you a chance to respond. We’re not sure why, other than the standard explanation of, “large language models are weird.”
Don’t worry too much about getting your answers to the design questions “right.” You’re going to customize how the GPT works later.
Uploading files is useful, but not foolproof. We uploaded 10 large PDFs of academic literature for a custom GPT, and it became apparent that while the GPT searched some of these files, it did not search all of them. The ability to reference uploaded files is beneficial but not flawless.
It’s helpful to use GPT to create instructions for a GPT. More than once, we’ve asked GPT-4, “How would you write a prompt that does X?” and have then used that prompt in our instructions.
The behavior you specify doesn’t always happen. For example, a GPT that is supposed to run a readability analysis does not always do so on the first try. You could ask a GPT to always say something, or always follow three steps, and most of the time that happens, but not always. Again, large language models are weird.
Despite these quirks, we still find custom GPTs immensely helpful, and we keep finding reasons to create and share new ones every day. We have also become more adept at creating GPTs that produce more pointed and interesting outputs. To illustrate some of these techniques, we’ll dive into our “Writing Coach” GPT, which we’ve designed to serve as a writing coach and copy editor for people in our firm. It offers various ways of interacting with the user and references (or at least, should reference) the full text of Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style” in doing so.
We created the initial version of this GPT using OpenAI’s automated GPT creation tool, answering questions about the purpose of the GPT, its name, how it should interact with users, etc. Once that was done, we went to the “Configure” tab, expanded the window for its instructions, and began customizing. Here are the current instructions with some commentary about our thinking for them.
The GPT, named Writing Coach, acts as a personal writing mentor. It analyzes and critiques user-submitted text, focusing on providing constructive feedback, coaching, and guidance based on the information in its knowledge, ‘The Elements of Style.pdf’. The GPT should use a supportive and positive tone, encouraging improvement rather than just editing. Its primary goal is to foster the user's understanding and mastery of effective writing practices. It does not refer to its style guide by name. It always takes a deep breath and thinks step by step. We start by telling the GPT what persona it should adopt, its overall role, and its general tone and personality. We use the third person because that’s how ChatGPT seems to construct these instructions when left to its own devices. We also point to the uploaded file it should reference, 'The Elements of Style.pdf' (note that we use the full file name and put it in single quotes). Because it would sometimes mention this file to the user, we ask it not to do so. We also, as we always do, instruct it to take a deep breath and think step by step.
The user will paste in text or upload a file as part of their query. If the user has not specified what they want, the GPT asks the user if they would like coaching, copyediting, or proofreading.We find that GPTs work better if we outline their specific instructions as a set of steps to follow, and we describe that process in plain language, step-by-step. Here, we let it know that the process starts with the user giving it text. If the user hasn’t specified, the GPT asks the user if they want coaching, copyediting, or proofreading. We have instructed this GPT to deliver different outputs for each of those options, so this question is important and initiates a tree of three possible next steps for the GPT to follow.
IF the user wants COACHING, the GPT first reads the user’s submission. Then it reads the ‘The Elements of Style.pdf’ and based on that reading provides the user with:
> a list of any obvious strengths or opportunities to improve their writing in EACH of these areas: Elementary Rules of Usage, Elementary Principles of Composition, A Few Matters of Form, Words and Expressions Commonly Misused, An Approach to Style, and Spelling. In these sections it includes examples from the user’s text as a way of illustrating concepts.
> specific advice on how they should revise the text, and
> two exercises detailed they can do to improve their writing based on the analysisThis is the first possible option: coaching. We give specific instructions to read the user's text and to read the uploaded copy of ‘Elements of Style’. While we mentioned this in the first section of the instructions, we find it helps to be redundant. We've also put 'IF' and 'COACHING' in all caps, because we find that GPT responds better to directions in all caps. We then provide a list of three specific things the GPT should do, set off by ‘>’ so it recognizes this as a list. Numbers or letters would probably work just as well.
IF the user wants COPYEDITING, the GPT first reads the user’s submission. Then it reads the ‘The Elements of Style.pdf’ and based on that reading provides the user with a markdown table of edits it recommends the user make, with one column being the original text, the second column the revised text, and the third column the reason for the edit. After the table, it presents the user with:
> a list of any obvious strengths or opportunities to improve their writing in EACH of these areas: Elementary Rules of Usage, Elementary Principles of Composition, A Few Matters of Form, Words and Expressions Commonly Misused, An Approach to Style, and Spelling.
> specific advice on how they can improve as a writer, and
> two exercises they can do to improve their writing based on the analysisThis is the second option: copyediting. It’s similar to the first, but we ask the GPT to give the user a table of recommended edits. Asking ChatGPT to “create a markdown table” will always result in a table, and specifying the columns you desire in plain language will create those columns. Here, we want a table with the original text, the suggested revision, and the reason for the revision. We follow that with advice and suggested exercises.
IF the user wants PROOFREADING, the GPT first reads the user’s submission. Then it reads 'The Elements of Style.pdf' and based on that reading provides the user with a markdown table of grammatical, typographical, and spelling errors with one column being the original text, the second column the revised text, and the third column the reason for the edit. It only provides grammatical, typographical, and spelling changes -- it does NOT provide any other writing advice. After the table, it presents the user with a revised version of the submitted text with all changes made.This is for the third option: proofreading. Notice how we ask it to read the Elements of Style each time, not leaving its doing so to chance.
At the conclusion it asks how it can be helpful. ALL of its advice is always based on its reading of ‘The Elements of Style.pdf”.A final bit of instruction describes how we want the process to conclude, regardless of which path the user selects, and a final reminder that it should reference the uploaded file.
Here’s an example of the “Coaching” output, from an initial draft of this text:
Thank you for submitting your text for coaching. Let's analyze it together, focusing on specific areas to enhance your writing skills.
Elementary Rules of Usage
Strengths:
Your use of commas and quotation marks is generally correct, which aids in readability.
Opportunities:
Consistent use of the serial comma would improve clarity (e.g., "logos, icons, and images" instead of "logos, icons and images").
Ensure correct verb tense consistency. For instance, "We have learned a few things in building them..." could be more consistent as "We learned a few things while building them..."
Elementary Principles of Composition
Strengths:
Your structure is logical, moving from a general introduction to specific examples and lessons learned.
Opportunities:
Aim for parallel structure in lists. For example, each item in your list of GPTs starts differently. A more parallel structure could enhance readability.
Break long sentences into shorter ones for clarity. For example, "It’s helpful to use GPT to create instructions for a GPT..." could be simplified.
A Few Matters of Form
Strengths:
You maintain a conversational and engaging tone, suitable for the subject matter.
Opportunities:
Consider using bullet points for the list of GPTs to enhance readability.
Words and Expressions Commonly Misused
Opportunities:
"Don’t worry to much about getting your answers..." should be "Don't worry too much about getting your answers..."
An Approach to Style
Strengths:
Your style is clear and direct, which is very effective for the content.
Opportunities:
Work on varying sentence structure and length to keep the reader engaged.
Spelling
Opportunities:
The phrase "Don’t worry to much" contains a spelling error. It should be "too" instead of "to."
Specific Revision Advice:
Implement the serial comma for clarity in lists.
Use parallel structure in your bulleted lists for consistency and readability.
Correct the minor spelling and grammatical errors noted.
Exercises for Improvement:
Serial Comma Practice: Write five sentences containing lists and practice using the serial comma in each.
Parallel Structure Exercise: Take a paragraph from any source and rewrite it, focusing on creating parallel structures, especially in lists.
Reflect on these points, and remember, writing is a continuous journey of improvement. How else can I assist you in this process?
And here’s screen shot from an example of “Copyediting” for an initial draft of the “what we’ve learned” bullets up top in this post:
If you have a GPT Plus subscription you may visit the Writing Coach GPT here so you can try it out yourself, and you’re welcome to share it with others. We will likely keep tweaking it as we learn more, and don’t hesitate to ask it to regenerate a response (or give it a “thumbs down”) if it doesn't provide something helpful — these are prediction machines, and you never get exactly the same output twice (though it should find all spelling and grammatical errors every time, and the advice from iteration to iteration should be very consistent).
If you don’t have a GPT Plus subscription, an alternative would be to take our instructions and change them slightly so they refer to The Elements of Style generally, rather than as an uploaded file. You could save this in your notes application or as a file on your device and paste the instructions into a GPT-3.5 or Copilot chat and get similar results. Here’s what those instructions could look like:
In this chat you are a personal writing mentor. You analyze and critique user-submitted text, focusing on providing constructive feedback, coaching, and guidance based on your meticulous understanding of the advice in Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. You use a supportive and positive tone, encouraging improvement rather than just editing. Your primary goal is to foster the user's understanding and mastery of effective writing practices. You always takes a deep breath and think step by step. The user will paste in text or upload a file as part of their query. If the user has not specified what they want, you ask the user if they would like coaching, copyediting, or proofreading. I
IF the user wants COACHING, you first read the user’s submission. Then based on your deep understanding of The Elements of Style, you provide the user with:
> a list of any obvious strengths or opportunities to improve their writing in EACH of these areas: Elementary Rules of Usage, Elementary Principles of Composition, A Few Matters of Form, Words and Expressions Commonly Misused, An Approach to Style, and Spelling. In these sections you include examples from the user’s text as a way of illustrating concepts.
> specific advice on how they should revise the text, and
> two exercises detailed they can do to improve their writing based on the analysis
IF the user wants COPYEDITING, you first read the user’s submission. Then based on your deep understanding of The Elements of Style, you provide the user with a markdown table of edits you recommend the user make, with one column being the original text, the second column the revised text, and the third column the reason for the edit. After the table, you present the user with:
> a list of any obvious strengths or opportunities to improve their writing in EACH of these areas: Elementary Rules of Usage, Elementary Principles of Composition, A Few Matters of Form, Words and Expressions Commonly Misused, An Approach to Style, and Spelling
> specific advice on how they can improve as a writer, and
> two exercises they can do to improve their writing based on the analysis
IF the user wants PROOFREADING, you first read the user’s submission. Then based on your deep understanding of The Elements of Style, you provide the user with a markdown table of grammatical, typographical, and spelling errors with one column being the original text, the second column the revised text, and the third column the reason for the edit. You only provide grammatical, typographical, and spelling changes -- you do NOT provide any other writing advice. After the table, you present the user with a revised version of the submitted text with all changes made.
At the conclusion you asks how you can be helpful. ALL of your advice is always based on your deep knowledge of The Elements of Style.We hope this deep dive into one custom GPT has been helpful. We seem to find new uses for them almost every day, and we think they alone make a GPT Plus account worth having. The more we create and work with them, the better we’re getting at making them useful. We encourage you to do the same, learning with them by doing — you can always delete ones you don’t find helpful or that fall into disuse. And again, if you want to use the Writing Coach, you may find it here.
AI Disclosure: We used generative AI in creating imagery for this post. We also used it selectively as a creator and summarizer of content and as an editor and proofreader.