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Getting Started

A 15-minute exercise you can try right now. No prior experience assumed.

Choose a platform

You need a free account on one of these:

Platform URL Notes
Claude claude.ai Recommended. Strong for analysis and writing.
ChatGPT chatgpt.com Widely used. Good all-round.
Gemini gemini.google.com Google's offering. Good for web-connected tasks.

Any of these will work for this exercise. If you already have an account somewhere, use that.

Don't Panic

You do not need a paid subscription for this exercise. The free tier on any platform is sufficient. You can always upgrade later if you find the tools useful.

The exercise (15 minutes)

Step 1: Upload a text (2 minutes)

Find a short text you know well — a passage from a primary source you teach, a paragraph from something you've written, or an extract from a key secondary source in your field. Copy and paste it into the chat window, or upload a PDF.

Step 2: Ask about it (3 minutes)

Try one of these prompts (adjust to your material):

  • "Summarise the main argument of this text in three sentences, written for an undergraduate audience."
  • "What are the three strongest objections a critical reader might raise against the argument in this text?"
  • "Identify the rhetorical strategies used in this passage and explain how they serve the author's purpose."

Step 3: Evaluate (5 minutes)

Read the response critically. Ask yourself:

  • Is it accurate? Does it correctly represent what the text says?
  • Is it useful? Does it tell you anything you didn't already know, or frame something helpfully?
  • Where does it go wrong? Most responses will contain at least one error, oversimplification, or misjudgement. Finding it is the exercise.

Step 4: Push back (5 minutes)

Now respond to the AI. Try:

  • "That's not quite right about [specific point]. The text actually argues that..."
  • "You've missed the most important aspect, which is..."
  • "Good, but make the tone more formal and add specific textual references."

Notice how the response changes. This iterative refinement is how these tools are actually used — not as one-shot oracles, but as conversational partners that improve with specific feedback.

What you've just learned

Essential

  1. These tools respond to specificity. Vague prompts get vague answers. Detailed prompts get detailed answers.
  2. Your expertise matters. You spotted errors the tool didn't flag. A non-specialist would have missed them.
  3. Iteration is normal. First responses are starting points, not finished products.
  4. Verification is essential. The output sounded confident regardless of whether it was correct.

Basic prompting principles

For any task, specify:

  • Audience — who is this for?
  • Format — prose, bullet points, table, code?
  • Length — how much?
  • Scope — what to include, what to leave out
  • Purpose — why do you need this?

For a full treatment of prompting strategy, see Prompting Principles in Essentials.

What to try next

Leif's Notes

If you tried the exercise and thought "that was underwhelming" — that's a legitimate reaction, and it might mean these tools aren't useful for your particular work. But I'd suggest trying one more thing before deciding: upload a longer document (10+ pages) and ask the tool to identify patterns, inconsistencies, or connections across the whole text. That's where the scale advantage starts to show. The 15-minute exercise above is deliberately modest — it's designed to get you oriented, not to showcase the most impressive capabilities.