Before You Begin
This page will walk you through generating a polished first draft of your article using an AI tool and your dissertation. You bring your research; the AI helps you organize and express it. No prior experience with AI tools is required.
Before starting, you will need three things: your dissertation (in PDF or Word format), a working title for your article, and a rough sense of the sections you want to cover.
Download the Detailed AI Instructions for Authors — it includes prompt templates, voice calibration tools, a full outline template, and editorial tips for every step.
Download Full InstructionsTeaching Your AI Platform Your Voice
Before writing a single word of your draft, teach the AI whose voice to use — otherwise it will write in its own generic academic register, not yours.
Before you begin drafting, identify two or three passages from your dissertation that sound most like you at your best. The most reliable places to look are:
- Your dedication and acknowledgments, where your voice is most unguarded and personal
- Your positionality statement or researcher reflexivity section, if your methodology includes one
- Your discussion and conclusion chapters, where you interpret findings rather than report them
- Any section where you explicitly advocate, recommend, or speak directly to practitioners or policymakers
"Before we begin, I want you to understand whose voice this article should be written in. Please read the following passage from my dissertation and describe my writing style in detail — including sentence rhythm, emotional register, use of first person, degree of formality, vocabulary choices, and any other stylistic patterns you notice. Then confirm you will apply this voice profile to everything you write for me in this conversation."
[PASTE YOUR SELECTED PASSAGE HERE]
How to Generate Your Draft — 9 Steps
The following nine steps are the standard process. Work through them in order. For detailed guidance on any step, see the Detailed Instructions download.
Open your AI platform and upload your dissertation file directly into the conversation.
Use a reputable platform that supports document uploads and is appropriate for unpublished academic content. If you are choosing for the first time, we recommend Claude (Anthropic) — a full platform comparison is included in the Detailed Instructions download.
Type or paste your working title. If you don't have a final title yet, a working title is fine — it focuses the AI from the start.
Paste your completed outline into the conversation using the template below.
- [YOUR ARTICLE TITLE] — Article Outline for Drafting
- I. Introduction — What question, tension, or lived reality does this article open with?
- II. [SECTION 2 HEADING] — What does the reader learn here?
- III. [SECTION 3 HEADING] — What theories or mechanisms does this section explain?
- IV. [SECTION 4 HEADING — typically findings or interview themes] — Key findings and themes. Include participant language you want preserved.
- V. [SECTION 5 HEADING] — The central tension or deeper implication of your findings.
- VI. [SECTION 6 HEADING — typically recommendations] — What can practitioners or policymakers do based on your findings?
- VII. Conclusion — What is the final message? What do you want the reader to feel or do differently?
Tip: A few sentences per section is enough — just enough for the AI to understand your intent.
Paste the core prompt below to tell the AI exactly what to produce.
"Using my dissertation and the outline above, please draft a [LENGTH] article titled [TITLE] for [AUDIENCE — e.g., practitioners in educational leadership / scholars in your field]. Write it in my voice, as established in the voice calibration passage above. Use my dissertation as the primary source. Do not add information not present in my dissertation. Do not generate citations from memory — leave a placeholder wherever a citation is needed and I will verify it. Structure the article using the sections in my outline."
Submit the prompt and let the AI produce the full output before you begin reading. If it stops mid-draft, type "Please continue."
Read the draft in full before using any part of it. Flag any factual errors, voice drift, or hallucinated citations.
Treat the draft as a strong starting point. Add your own examples, sharpen your argument, and correct any inaccuracies against your original research.
Record the platform used, the date, the prompt, and which dissertation sections the AI accessed. This is required for all AI-assisted submissions to Undeterred Press.
What You Can Expect
A good AI draft will:
- Follow your outline's structure and cover the sections you specified
- Sound recognizably like you — not generic — if the voice calibration step was done well
- Be approximately the right length but require real revision before it is ready to publish
It will not be perfect. That is normal and expected. Think of it the way you would think of a talented research assistant who has read your dissertation carefully but is writing the first draft for your review.
We Are Here to Help
If you get stuck at any step — with the AI, the outline, or the prompt — reach out. We have worked through this process with authors and we know where it tends to snag.
For complete guidance including the Voice Dimension Reference, editorial tips for each step, platform selection criteria, and the pre-submission checklist.
Download Full Instructions