At Write the World, we are stronger together—stronger when we combine our passions, expertise, and perspectives across 125+ countries. Recently, the power of this uniquely global collaboration was demonstrated by over 200 teenagers who piloted and provided feedback on Clara AI, Write the World’s new Socratic AI writing assistant.
As you may know, unlike general AI tools, Clara is designed to meet writers’ unique needs by encouraging reflection, critical thinking, and creativity without compromising originality. Clara does not generate text but instead helps writers brainstorm, draft, research, and refine through dialogue. Thoughtful questions and personalized feedback empower teens to be their best writing self.
Thanks to the insights of teens, teachers, and AI experts across the globe, Clara is now available across all prompts on our writing platform (though, importantly, writers may opt in or out of Clara usage at any time). To kickstart your Clara journey, we’ve worked with teen leaders to compile over 33 sample uses, prompts, and reflection questions to use as a guide.
Sample Ways to Use Clara Across Genres
The following use cases offer starting points for playing, experimenting, and learning with Clara.
- Brainstorm word choices for a poem
- Identify the mood of a scene
- Help match setting details to a particular mood or tone
- Provide feedback on how to make dialogue more natural, funny, formal, etc.
- Share historical context to deepen a historical fiction story
- Provide information about niche genres and trends, like “weirdcore” stories
- Bust through writer’s block
- Prepare a piece for publication
- Prepare a pitch to submit to external publication outlets or editors
- Share advice on academic and professional writing paths
- Brainstorm what type of antagonist might complement your protagonist
- Pose counterarguments to help you strengthen your argument in an op-ed
- Pose clarification questions that will help you hone an informative or educational piece
- Encourage you to consider memories that you might turn into scenes in a personal narrative or reflection
- Invite you to reflect on your thoughts and feelings related to particular life experiences, to translate into writing
- Spark idea generation about characters’ backstories (or your own)
- Provide feedback on grammar and mechanics
- Suggest first and second round revisions
- Help brainstorm or refine the central conflict of your piece and/or the rising and falling actions that surround it
Download the Clara AI Bingo Card as a PDF.
Prompts to Use with Clara
The following prompts—questions that young writers may pose to Clara AI—come from Write the World student leaders ipsibean13, former CA and Clara Pilot Tester; Mahati V., former CA and Clara Pilot Tester; and Sofia G, Clara Pilot Tester. “Here are some questions you may ask Clara during your writing process,” they wrote, “Don’t forget to introduce your topic first!”
Brainstorming
- How can I structure this [poem, essay, paragraph, etc]?
- What are some content ideas to make this piece more interesting?
- What could be worth mentioning?
- What would the ideal outline look like?
Research
- Can you help me collect or organize research notes and sources?
- What does this sentence from this article mean?
- Can you help me organize my following notes [insert research notes] ?
Editing and Feedback
- Can you detect tone, clarity, or style issues in my writing?
- Can you highlight any problems or areas for revision in my piece?
- How can I improve my structure, coherence, and argument strength?
-> Find more AI prompt examples here!
Reflection Questions on Clara Usage
“After having completed your piece,” write AI student leaders, “take the time to add in a small reflection at the end of the written essay/poem/paragraph. Here are some questions that could be addressed.”
Reflection Questions to Think/Write About After Using Clara
- Did you feel as if Clara was “writing for you”?
- What are some other questions you asked, and were the answers helpful?
- Did Clara provide helpful feedback when asked?
- Where would you like to see Clara improve?
We’d love to hear your own ideas for uses, prompts, and reflection questions; as you get started with Clara AI, please feel free to share your or your students’ additions to these lists by reaching out to educators@writetheworld.org
Happy writing!
