Getting Writing Help from Copilot Chat

Overview

Writing is one of the most time-consuming parts of knowledge work—drafting from scratch, finding the right tone, reformatting for different audiences, and polishing language. Copilot Chat acts as your writing assistant, helping you get from blank page to polished draft faster without leaving your workflow.

This video covers how to draft content from prompts, rewrite and improve existing text, adjust tone and style, and reformat content into structured formats.

What You’ll Learn

• Drafting: Creating content from scratch with effective prompts
• Rewriting: Improving existing text for clarity, tone, and conciseness
• Formatting: Restructuring content into lists, tables, and outlines
• Workflow: Building writing habits that speed up your daily work

Script

Hook: your writing assistant, always available

Writing is thinking made visible. And sometimes the hardest part isn’t knowing what to say—it’s getting started, finding the right words, or restructuring what you’ve already written.

Copilot Chat acts as your writing assistant. It drafts content from your direction, rewrites text in different tones, suggests improvements for clarity, and reformats content into whatever structure you need. It’s available whenever you are, and it works within your organization’s security boundary.

Let me show you how to use it.

Drafting from scratch

Open Copilot Chat from any Microsoft 365 app or at microsoft365.com/copilot. When you need to create new content, the key is giving Copilot enough information to produce a useful first draft.

Include four elements in your prompt. The goal—what you’re trying to create. “Draft an email,” “Write a three-paragraph overview,” “Create talking points for a presentation.” The audience—who it’s for. “For my team,” “for my director,” “for non-technical stakeholders.” The context—what they need to know. “About our Q2 migration milestones,” “summarizing the new telework policy,” “covering the project’s budget status.” The tone—how it should sound. “Professional,” “friendly but direct,” “formal for an executive audience.”

Here’s a complete example: “Draft an email to my team summarizing this week’s project milestones. The tone should be upbeat but professional. Include three key accomplishments and one upcoming deadline.”

The result won’t be perfect, and it shouldn’t be. Think of Copilot’s output as a first draft—a starting point that’s far faster than writing from scratch. Iterate on it. “Make the second paragraph more concise.” “Add a sentence about the budget status.” “Change the opening to be more direct.” Each refinement improves the draft, and the iterative process is still much faster than writing everything yourself.

For government-specific writing, provide that context explicitly. “Write this for a federal government audience. Use formal language appropriate for official correspondence.” Copilot responds well to explicit context about audience and formality expectations.

Rewriting and improving existing text

Sometimes you don’t need to draft from scratch—you need to improve what you already have. Paste your existing text into Copilot Chat and ask for specific improvements.

For conciseness: “Make this more concise without losing the key points.” Copilot will trim filler words, tighten sentence structure, and reduce length while preserving meaning. This is especially useful for government writing, where documents tend to be longer than they need to be.

For tone adjustments: “Rewrite this in a more formal tone.” Or: “Make this more approachable for a general audience.” Or: “Convert this from passive voice to active voice.” Copilot handles tone shifts well because it understands the registers of professional writing. Going from technical to plain language is one of its strongest capabilities—useful when you need to translate a policy document into guidance that non-specialists can follow.

For clarity: “Simplify this for someone who isn’t familiar with the technical details.” Copilot will replace jargon with plain language, break up complex sentences, and reorganize information for easier comprehension.

A practical workflow: write your first draft quickly without worrying about polish. Then paste it into Copilot Chat and ask for improvements. This separates the creative work of thinking through your message from the editorial work of polishing it. Many people find this faster than trying to write and edit simultaneously.

Compare the original and revised versions side by side. Sometimes Copilot’s revision is better. Sometimes your original is better. Often the best version is a combination. You’re the judge—Copilot suggests, you decide.

Formatting and structuring content

Copilot excels at restructuring information into different formats.

Turn paragraphs into bullets. Paste a dense paragraph and ask: “Turn this into a bulleted list of key points.” Instantly, you have a scannable format for presentations or emails.

Create comparison tables. “Create a table comparing these three options across cost, timeline, and risk.” Copilot generates the table structure and populates it from the information you provided—or asks clarifying questions if it needs more data.

Add structure to unstructured content. “Add section headings to organize this document.” “Break this into an introduction, three main points, and a conclusion.” This is valuable when you have raw notes or a brain dump that needs organizing before sharing with others.

Ensure consistency. “Match the tone of this paragraph to the previous one.” “Make these bullet points parallel in structure.” Copilot catches inconsistencies that are easy to miss when you’re focused on content rather than form.

One particularly useful application: reformat meeting notes into action items. Paste your raw meeting notes and ask: “Extract the action items from these notes with responsible person and due date.” Transform messy notes into a clean, trackable format in seconds.

Close: practical next steps

Start simple today. Draft one email using Copilot Chat. Or take a paragraph you’ve already written and ask Copilot to improve it. See how the output compares to what you’d produce on your own.

Build prompt habits over time. Be specific about what you want. Provide context about audience and purpose. Ask for adjustments until it’s right. Save prompts that work well so you can reuse them.

Remember the fundamental principle: Copilot suggests, you decide. You’re still the writer. Your judgment, your expertise, and your knowledge of your audience are irreplaceable. Copilot just speeds up the process of getting your thinking on the page.

Good writing is good thinking. Copilot Chat gives you a faster way to make that thinking visible.

Sources & References

• Draft content with Microsoft Copilot — Training on drafting with Copilot
• Edit and transform content with Copilot — Rewriting and improving content
• Get started with prompts in Copilot Chat — Crafting effective prompts
• Create content using Copilot Chat — Practical content creation examples