[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee] As generative artificial intelligence (AI) becomes mainstream, writers are entering an era in which they must also think about how to avoid making their writing look like AI. How, then, can they write smoothly while still sounding human? On March 20, IT outlet TechRadar introduced writing strategies for the AI era.

AI can produce highly polished sentences in a short time, but the output is not always a cure-all. In fact, even with the same question, if asked to "offer a rebuttal or propose a different value," it points out flaws in its earlier answer and presents a completely different perspective. The problem is that as AI use becomes routine, even well-refined sentences are now more likely to invite suspicion that they "look like AI wrote them." As students as well as media industry workers broadly use tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, avoiding AI-style sentence patterns is also emerging as a new sensibility.

Expressions such as "to be fully transparent" and "no one says this, but" are cited as phrases AI likes to use, but in practice there are not many cases of bringing up topics that are taboo or not widely known. Another repeated pattern in AI-generated sentences is overusing italics to stress specific words. Add in devices meant to forcibly grab the reader's attention, and writing is more likely to leave a contrived impression than a natural one.

Another of the most irritating patterns was identified as the rhetorical question. Sentences such as "And the best part?" do not heighten tension, but instead leave the trace of AI even more clearly. In the end, the issue is not a single expression. It is that repeated similar structures and verbal tics strip away the temperature and individuality of writing.

To preserve a piece's tone and texture, it is necessary to deliberately step away from familiar patterns AI often uses. Sometimes sentences that are not overly smooth, slightly asymmetrical structures, and expressions that are a bit awkward but alive can read as more human.

Writing in the AI era no longer stops at producing smooth sentences. As the saying goes that "typos have now become power," it is becoming increasingly important how much of a person's unique texture can be left in the text. Overly tidy expressions and repetitive sentence patterns may be efficient, but they can also reinforce the impression that AI wrote the text. An assessment is emerging that, beyond clarity and wit, sentences that convey a human rhythm, even if somewhat imperfect, carry greater persuasive force.