Overview
Claude can help at every stage of producing written content: finding ideas, drafting, editing, summarising and adapting a piece for different channels. This course shows content creators, writers and marketers how to use it as a tireless writing partner, while keeping your own voice, quality standards and judgement.
Day 1 is about creating and polishing: the role of AI in writing, ethics and originality, brainstorming, structured drafts, tone and style, and editing and proofreading. Day 2 covers summarising long material, marketing content for different platforms, repurposing, content workflows, and how to get the best from AI-human collaboration.
Who it's for
Anyone who writes or manages written content and wants to work faster without losing quality. It is especially suited to:
- Content creators and bloggers
- Writers and editors
- Marketing and social media professionals
- Communications and PR teams
Prerequisites
- Basic writing and editing skills
- Familiarity with digital content creation
- No prior experience of AI tools is needed
By the end of this course you will be able to
- Use Claude to generate ideas and develop content concepts into structured drafts
- Match tone and style to the audience and channel, using Claude's styles and a Project with your style guide
- Edit and proofread with Claude for grammar, clarity and concision, and refine drafts using its feedback
- Create accurate summaries, executive summaries and key takeaways from long documents and reports
- Produce marketing content for different platforms, including ad copy, social posts, email and SEO-aware text
- Build repeatable content workflows and apply good practice on originality, disclosure and human review
Course outline
Times show the standard running order and can be adjusted when we tailor the course to your team. The trainer stays available during breaks to help anyone finish an exercise.
Welcome & orientation 10 min
How the two days run and the content each person will work on.
Claude's role in writing, editing and content workflows 35 min
Where Claude helps in the writing process, from idea to published piece, and where a person must decide. A tour of AI-assisted content workflows you can build.
Try it: Map your own content process in six steps and mark where Claude could help.
Ethics, originality and disclosure 30 min
Ethical considerations for AI-generated content: accuracy, originality and copyright, bias, whether and how to disclose AI help, and the editorial responsibility that stays with you.
Try it: Draft a short AI-use policy for your content team.
Prompting for content 40 min
The GCES method (Goal, Context, Expectations, Source) applied to writing: audience and purpose, the voice and format you expect, and the material Claude should draw on. Asking for options, then refining.
Try it: Turn a vague content request into a GCES prompt and compare the two drafts.
Brainstorming and developing concepts 40 min
Generating ideas, angles and headlines, then expanding promising ones into outlines. Asking Claude to challenge your idea, and narrowing a long list to the best few.
Try it: Generate twenty ideas for a campaign or series, shortlist three and expand one into an outline.
Drafting blog posts, articles and reports 55 min
Building a structured draft section by section: a clear outline, a strong opening, evidence and examples, and a conclusion. Providing your own sources and notes so the content stays accurate, and drafting longer pieces in stages.
Try it: Draft a blog post or short report from an outline and your own notes.
Tone and style 40 min
Adapting content to different tones and styles: using Claude's built-in styles, creating a custom style from your own writing sample, and keeping a style guide in a Project so every draft sounds like you.
Try it: Create a custom style from a sample of your writing and rewrite one draft in three different tones.
Grammar and style corrections 30 min
Using Claude to proofread and correct grammar, spelling, punctuation and style, and asking it to explain its changes so you learn from them. Setting British English and house conventions as the standard.
Try it: Proofread a draft, accept or reject each correction, and note any you disagreed with.
Clarity and concision 30 min
Tightening wording, cutting repetition and simplifying structure while keeping your meaning. Setting reading-level and length targets.
Try it: Shorten a long paragraph by a third without losing any key point.
Refining drafts with AI-assisted feedback 25 min
Asking Claude to critique a draft as an editor would: structure, argument, tone and gaps. Turning the feedback into revisions and deciding which to ignore.
Try it: Ask for editorial feedback on your draft, choose what to act on and revise.
Close 10 min
Recap of Day 1 and what to bring tomorrow.
Welcome back 10 min
Questions from Day 1 and today's plan.
Extracting key insights from long material 35 min
Pulling the main points, arguments and evidence out of lengthy articles and reports, asking for supporting quotations and checking them against the text.
Try it: Extract the key insights from a long report and verify three quoted passages.
Executive summaries and key takeaways 30 min
Writing executive summaries and takeaways for different readers, with the right length, order and level of detail.
Try it: Write a one-paragraph executive summary and five takeaways for two different readers.
Academic and business summarisation 25 min
Summarising academic papers and business documents, noting methods, findings and limits, and keeping citations accurate.
Try it: Summarise a paper and a business report and compare what each summary has to include.
Ad copy, social posts and email campaigns 40 min
Creating ad copy, social media posts and email campaigns for different platforms, with variants to test. Checking claims for accuracy and against the advertising rules that apply to you.
Try it: Write three variants of an ad, a social post and an email subject line for the same offer.
SEO and engagement 30 min
Writing for search and for readers: search intent, headings, titles, meta descriptions and readability. Claude has no live keyword data of its own, so combine it with your SEO tools and web search to check what you use.
Try it: Optimise a draft for a chosen keyword, then review it for readability and natural phrasing.
Repurposing long-form content 35 min
Turning one long piece into a thread, a newsletter, a short video script and social posts, adapting format and tone for each platform.
Try it: Repurpose one long article into three formats for different platforms.
Claude alongside your content tools 30 min
Working with Claude next to the tools you already use: Claude in Word, connectors to document and note tools where your administrator allows them, and copy-and-paste workflows with a content management system. What to check before anything is published.
Try it: Design a workflow for one piece of content, from brief to published, marking where Claude is used.
Automating repetitive writing tasks 30 min
Saving repeated writing jobs as Projects and Skills, with your style guide, templates and checks built in, so common outputs such as product descriptions or newsletters come out consistently.
Try it: Build a Project or Skill for one repetitive writing task and test it on two examples.
AI-human collaboration: best practices 25 min
Who does what: where Claude drafts, where you decide, how to review, and how to keep a consistent voice across a team.
Try it: Write a short checklist of review steps for AI-assisted content.
Writing for specific audiences 25 min
Adapting the same message for different readers: level of knowledge, interests, culture and channel.
Try it: Rewrite one message for two audiences and explain the differences.
Future applications and next steps 20 min
Where AI in writing and editing is heading, and a personal plan for what to practise next.
Try it: Write your three next steps for mastering AI-assisted content creation.
Close: summary & next steps 10 min
Recap of the two days.
What you'll need
Claude
- A Claude account. A paid plan is recommended: custom styles, Projects, Skills and some features used on Day 2 depend on your plan.
- Connectors are enabled by your administrator where your organisation allows them. If they are unavailable, that part of the session is a demonstration.
Preparation
- A laptop with a current browser.
- Examples of your own writing or content, such as past articles, newsletters or posts, to use for tone and style.
Practice files are provided for every exercise. You are welcome to use your own everyday documents where your organisation's policy allows.