Review the email against your facts and intended request. Smooth wording alone is not a reason to check a box.
“Looks good” is a difficult standard to apply to an email. A draft can sound polished while asking the wrong person for the wrong thing. Give your review a more concrete job: for each of five checks, identify what supports the wording, then keep it, change it or leave the email unsent until you can confirm it.
Hypothetical AI-generated draft to review
Subject: Final display plans — action needed
Hi everyone,
Everyone has approved the plan for the volunteer display, and our October 15 session is confirmed with the room booked.
Please send everything over tomorrow so we don’t hold everyone up. This should only take a minute.
Thanks to the whole team for agreeing to help!Hypothetical revised email
Subject: Volunteer display: photo choices due October 8
Hi Maya and Luis,
Please reply to this email with two photo choices each for the volunteer display by October 8, 2026.
Thank you for your help.Start with a small source note
Before editing, write down who should receive the email, what you need from them and which details are confirmed. Keep this note beside the draft. The method is simple: find the relevant wording, compare it with the note, then resolve the mismatch. Check a box only after that comparison.
Hypothetical worked example: You are organizing a volunteer display. Maya and Luis are choosing photographs. You need each person to reply with two photo choices by October 8, 2026. A planning session is proposed for October 15, but neither the session nor the room is confirmed. You do not know whether anyone has approved the display plan.
1. Check who the email addresses
Read the recipient line, greeting and every phrase that assigns responsibility. Do they point to the same people? Replace broad labels when the request belongs to named recipients. Also check whether those readers have enough context to understand why you are writing.
In the fictional draft supplied below, “Hi everyone” and “the whole team” widen a request meant for Maya and Luis. Address them directly and name the volunteer display so the purpose is clear.
2. Extract the request into one sentence
Complete this sentence using only the draft: “Each recipient should do ___ by ___.” If you cannot fill it in, or it differs from your source note, revise the request. Specify the action, amount and reply destination when they matter.
The draft asks the recipients to “send everything over.” The source note calls for two photo choices from each person, sent as a reply. Use: “Please reply to this email with two photo choices each for the volunteer display by October 8, 2026.”
3. Separate dates from their status
Find every date and relative time phrase, including words such as “tomorrow” and “next week.” Check both the date itself and what it represents: a deadline, a proposal or a confirmed event. An accurate date can still appear in an inaccurate sentence.
Replace “tomorrow” with the confirmed October 8 deadline. The October 15 session is only proposed, so it cannot remain a confirmed meeting. Because the immediate request concerns photo choices, the revised email leaves out that unsettled session. If a specific cutoff time matters, confirm it before adding one.
4. Match claims to support
Underline statements about approval, agreement, readiness or completed work. For each, point to supporting information outside the draft. A sentence in the AI-generated email does not support itself. Remove an unnecessary unsupported claim; confirm a necessary one before sending.
“Everyone has approved the plan” has no support in the source note. Neither does the claim that the room is booked. Delete both. Do not soften them into “apparently approved” or “probably booked,” which would still introduce information you do not have.
5. Adjust tone, then read the final request again
Check whether the wording assumes agreement, invents pressure or makes the task sound easier than you know it is. Replace those phrases with a direct request and a courteous close. Here, “This should only take a minute” makes an unsupported assumption, while “so we don’t hold everyone up” adds pressure that the source note does not justify.
Read the revised email once from the recipients’ perspective: can Maya and Luis tell what to send, how much and by when? The copy-ready revision below answers those questions. These five checks give the review a defined scope; they do not establish that every possible error has been caught.
Your checklist
- Audience: Match the recipients, greeting and assigned responsibility to the intended people.
- Request: State exactly what each recipient should do and how to respond.
- Dates: Verify each date and distinguish proposed events from confirmed ones.
- Claims: Match factual statements to support; remove or confirm unsupported wording.
- Tone: Remove assumed agreement, unsupported pressure and guesses about effort.
An unresolved detail belongs in your source note until you confirm it. Keep it out of the email if the recipient can act without it.