ChatGPT Prompts for Essay Feedback: 12 Tutor-Style Prompts

ChatGPT prompts for essay feedback turn the chatbot into a writing tutor that reads your own draft against the rubric and tells you what to fix first. Paste your assignment, rubric, and draft, ask for feedback with quotes from your essay, and keep the rewriting for yourself. The 12 prompts below cover the thesis, evidence, structure, style, and a revision plan.

Use AI for feedback and planning, not ghostwriting. Verify every citation yourself and follow your school's academic integrity and AI-use rules.

Check the argument

1. Thesis test

Here is my assignment [paste] and my thesis [paste]. Does the thesis answer the assignment, is it arguable, and can it be proven in [word count] words? Ask me two questions that would make it sharper. Do not rewrite it.

2. Claim and evidence map

Read my draft [paste]. List each main claim, the evidence I give for it, and whether that evidence is a source, an example, or my opinion. Mark claims that have no evidence.

3. Counterargument check

What is the strongest objection a reader would raise to my argument in [paste draft]? Tell me whether my draft answers it and where a response would fit best.

Grade against the rubric

4. Rubric table

Using this rubric [paste], rate my draft [paste] on each criterion, quote one short line from my draft as evidence for each rating, and say what would move it up one level.

5. Biggest gain first

Based on the rubric weights [paste] and your ratings, rank the three changes that would raise my grade the most for the time I have, which is [hours].

Fix structure and flow

6. Paragraph map

Give each paragraph of my essay [paste] a one-line summary of its job. Flag paragraphs that repeat, drift from the thesis, or would work better in another order.

7. Topic sentence check

Quote the first sentence of each body paragraph in my draft [paste] and tell me whether it states the paragraph's point and links back to the thesis. Explain the problem; do not write new sentences.

8. Conclusion review

Does my conclusion [paste] only repeat the introduction, or does it show what the essay proved and why it matters? Give me three questions to think about while I rewrite it.

Polish style and sources

9. Sentence-level patterns

Find up to three habits that weaken my writing in [paste], such as vague words, long sentences, or passive voice. Quote one example of each and explain the fix in words.

10. Citation check

List every place in my draft [paste] where I state a fact, a number, or a quote, and mark whether I cite a source there using [citation style]. Do not add or guess any sources.

Plan the revision

11. Revision plan

From this feedback [paste], build a revision plan for [hours] hours over [days]: what to do first, how long each step takes, and how to check each change against the rubric.

12. Before and after check

Here is my first draft [paste] and my revised draft [paste]. For each rubric criterion [paste], tell me whether the revision improved, stayed the same, or got worse, with a quote from each version.

Get full essay feedback in one prompt

The flagship Essay Feedback Prompt: Rubric Check and Revision Plan takes your assignment, rubric, draft, feedback focus, revision time, and course AI rule, and returns a thesis check, a rubric table with quotes, a paragraph map, three priorities, sentence-level patterns, questions, and a timed revision plan. Its example reviews an argumentative essay on car free downtowns with 3 hours to revise.

Use AI feedback honestly

Ask for feedback, not a rewritten essay, and follow your instructor's policy on AI help. Check that every quote in the feedback really appears in your draft, and never let the chatbot add sources you have not read.

Related prompts

For admissions essays, use the college application essay coach. For longer projects, see the thesis writing prompt and ChatGPT prompts for thesis writing. Teachers giving feedback on a whole class can start with the essay set feedback prompt for English teachers.

For longer projects see ChatGPT prompts for academic writing.

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