09 — Check Your Work and Choose What Comes Next

The useful result is yours, not the assistant's confidence. You can ask it to critique its work, but you still compare important claims with your notes or other evidence.

You can return to a guided conversation whenever you are stuck: describe the problem, ask for one question or an explanation, consider options and choose a small next step. A reusable prompt is useful when the work repeats; an ordinary conversation is enough to begin something unfamiliar.

Make four concrete checks

For current facts, inspect a reliable current source. For calculations, check the inputs and arithmetic. A citation can be wrong; open it and read the relevant part. For a simple invitation, comparing the supplied facts is enough. You do not need an elaborate review for every sentence.

When an assistant can act

Some assistants can work in connected apps. Say whether you want it to read, draft, or make a change, and identify the intended file or account. Review what a connection allows before enabling it. For a draft, say “make it here; do not send or publish.” If you request an action, reopen the actual saved result and check it. Tool availability differs; ordinary chat practice needs no connection. See official connected-app guidance for a concrete example.

Try a changed case

Open a regular new chat outside your Workshop practice Project or notebook. If your assistant has relevant saved preferences or memory, explicitly say these are the facts for this fictional case. Ask for a fictional workshop invitation using Wednesday, 6 p.m., Room B and “bring a pen.” Give those facts explicitly. Choose your own tone/length. This time, build the request yourself or use lesson 04’s template or lesson 05’s helper. Check that it did not carry Tuesday, Room A or the notebook into the new invitation.

Challenge your result — same chat

Copy this prompt

Check this result against my purpose and the facts I supplied. Identify the important unsupported detail, missing requirement or confusing wording, if any. Explain the correction for my decision. Do not invent flaws or rewrite yet.

Choose a correction, request it, and check any changed facts. If no important issue remains, keep the result. You are ready to try another real task; you do not have to master every feature.

Keep useful work where you can find it

Copy the approved result or prompt into a note/document you control, or deliberately save it in your continuing workspace. Name it for the task. A chat in your history can help you return, but access and retained context can change. Avoid putting private work into the community.

Put the basics to work

Everyday AI — Practical Examples applies this approach to an email or résumé. Exercise Library lets you choose another task. The Project Brain exercise builds a thinking partner around your continuing source materials; it is not required for a single draft.

Optional feedback: tell the community where you got stuck or which instruction helped. Share a redacted example only if you want to. No grade, certificate or private-artifact submission is required.

This is alpha material. Report unclear instructions or errors through a public issue or email help@bigleverinstitute.org. Share only redacted or fictional material.