The Evaluate-and-Revise Cycle — Practice Round | AI for the Rest of Us | Sit Stay AI

Setup

This is the practice round for the hardest skill in the course: evaluating AI output against professional standards and revising with rationale. You'll do the same thing in the capstone, so treat this as your rehearsal.

You have a choice of two provided AI-generated drafts. Pick the one closest to your work:

Option A: Client Status Update Email

The professional standards: (1) client emails must include specific next steps with dates, (2) risks must be named explicitly rather than hedged, (3) the sender's tone must match established relationship (direct, not overly formal).

Option B: Internal Team Report Summary

The professional standards: (1) internal reports must cite data sources for any numbers, (2) recommendations must include estimated effort (hours/days, not "soon"), (3) the summary must be scannable (headers and bullets, not wall of text).

Option A — Client Status Update Email

Dear Mr. Thompson,

I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to provide you with an update on the website redesign project. Things are progressing nicely and we're making good headway on the design phase.

The team has been working diligently on the new mockups, and we expect to have something to share with you in the coming weeks. There are a few minor issues we're working through, but nothing that should significantly impact our timeline.

We really appreciate your patience and continued partnership on this project. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

Best regards

Your Task

Identify 2+ professional standards relevant to this task (use the ones provided above, or add your own from your professional experience).
Find 3+ specific revisions needed. For each revision:
Quote the original text
Name which professional standard it violates
Write the revised text
Explain why the revision was necessary
Check your work against the model answer below.

Model Answer (Option A)

#	Original Text	Standard Violated	Revised Text	Why
1	"expect to have something to share with you in the coming weeks"	Must include specific next steps with dates	"We'll share the homepage and two interior page mockups by April 18th for your review"	"Coming weeks" gives the client no deadline to plan around and no way to hold the team accountable
2	"a few minor issues we're working through, but nothing that should significantly impact our timeline"	Risks must be named explicitly rather than hedged	"The stock photography vendor is 5 days late on delivery. If images aren't received by April 14th, the mockup deadline shifts by one week. We've flagged this with the vendor."	Hedging a risk as "minor issues" prevents the client from helping solve the problem and creates surprise if the timeline actually slips
3	"I hope this message finds you well" + "We really appreciate your patience and continued partnership"	Tone must match established relationship (direct, not overly formal)	Remove both. Open with the project update directly.	These are filler phrases that add length without information. A client who receives weekly updates doesn't need re-introduced to the relationship every time

How confident are you?

"I can identify which professional standards apply to a given document": 1 2 3 4 5
"I can find specific revisions and connect each to a named standard": 1 2 3 4 5
"I can explain WHY a revision matters, not just that it's wrong": 1 2 3 4 5

If any skill is below 3, review the model answer carefully — the pattern is: quote → standard → revision → rationale. The capstone requires the same structure.

Bridge

You've now practiced the evaluate-and-revise cycle. Next: choosing the right AI tool category for the right task.