A sports commentator can make an unfinished handout sound like the closing minutes of a cup final.
I have a small writing exercise for you. Give an AI one ordinary paragraph and ask for three versions: a sports commentary, a museum label and a conversation over coffee.
Keep the facts fixed. Let the voice move.
For a harmless practice run, use this invented update:
“The workshop is on Friday. The handout is unfinished. It needs to be ready by Thursday.”
The sports version might sound like this:
“We’re approaching Thursday with the handout still unfinished, and Friday’s workshop is coming into view.”
A museum label gives it a very different mood:
“An unfinished handout, awaiting completion by Thursday for a workshop on Friday.”
Over coffee, it becomes:
“The workshop’s Friday. We still need to finish the handout by Thursday.”
All three carry the same information. The first creates movement, the second makes the unfinished object the centre of attention, and the third gets straight to the point.
Try this prompt with your own paragraph:
“Rewrite this in three voices: a sports commentator, a museum guide and a thoughtful friend over coffee. Keep every factual claim unchanged. Do not invent names, dates, numbers or results. Then identify which sentence is clearest and explain why.”
Read the versions against your original. An instruction to preserve facts still needs checking.
Then borrow the clearest sentence and put it back into your normal voice. You can keep the useful discovery without turning the whole email into a football match.
Five minutes, one paragraph. Use something non-sensitive, and see which version makes you want to keep reading.
FELIX