Edit written materials
Most of the output can be produced by software today.
Producing the draft is the single thing current models are best at, and it needs no integration at all: a prompt and a couple of reference documents are enough. A person still edits it and takes responsibility for what goes out.
| How automatable | Mostly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Drafting and content production |
| Jobs that do it | 14 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Generalist agents, Builders |
| O*NET activity | Making Decisions and Solving Problems (4.A.2.b.1) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 14 occupations that perform it.
- Design, evaluate, recommend, and approve changes of forms and reports.
- Edit historical society publications.
- Review manuscripts for professional journals.
- Review manuscripts for publication in professional journals.
- Write or edit copy for clients.
- Write and edit news stories from information collected by reporters and other sources.
- Prepare and deliver news, sports, or weather reports, gathering and rewriting material so that it will convey required information and fit specific time slots.
- Revise work to meet editorial approval or to fit time or space requirements.
- Prepare or edit organizational publications, such as employee newsletters or stockholders' reports, for internal or external audiences.
- Prepare, rewrite and edit copy to improve readability, or supervise others who do this work.
- Organize material and complete writing assignment according to set standards regarding order, clarity, conciseness, style, and terminology.
- Edit or rewrite existing written material as necessary, and submit written material for approval by supervisor, editor, or publisher.
- Revise written material to meet personal standards and to satisfy needs of clients, publishers, directors, or producers.
- Proofread, edit, and revise translated materials.
- Compose and edit scripts or provide screenwriters with story outlines from which scripts can be written.
- Review written, audio, or video copy, and correct errors in content, grammar, or punctuation, following prescribed editorial style and formatting guidelines.
- Read copy or proof to detect and correct errors in spelling, punctuation, and syntax.
- Edit, standardize, or make changes to material prepared by other writers or establishment personnel.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for drafting and content production, and what it costs.
Drafting needs no tools, no integration and no platform. One $20 assistant and two reference documents beat any agent builder here, and every extra thing in this stack is cost with nothing behind it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Generalist agents
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
Step-by-step workflows that name this activity, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Others for drafting and content production
Who does this work
14 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Broadcast Announcers and Radio Disc Jockeys
- Editors
- Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary
- English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
- Graphic Designers
- Historians
- Interpreters and Translators
- Management Analysts
- News Analysts, Reporters, and Journalists
- Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers
- Producers and Directors
- Public Relations Specialists
- Technical Writers
- Writers and Authors
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Edit written materials or documents”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Edit documents | 10 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.