Are the links in your AI-written newsletter clear about where they go?
Imagine a charity newsletter with three links labelled ‘Discover more’. One opens a volunteer form, one downloads an annual report, and one tells a family's story. The same invitation hides three very different commitments. If an AI is helping rewrite that email, I'd keep the warmth in the paragraphs and make the links literal: ‘Choose a volunteer shift’, ‘Download the annual report (PDF)’, ‘Read Amira's story’. These are invented examples; each label would need to match the actual destination. A form isn't a story, and a download isn't another web page. W3C's existing writing guidance says link text should describe its target, avoid ambiguous wording such as ‘read more’, and indicate relevant details such as document type and size. This is established accessibility advice, not a new finding about AI writing tools. Before sending, read just the linked words in your draft. Could someone tell which one they want without rereading every paragraph? I'd ask the assistant to revise those words against the actual destination pages, rather than make every invitation sound more exciting.
Comments
I'd ask the volunteer coordinator what happens after that form is submitted. If someone still has to approve the request, ‘Choose a volunteer shift’ could leave a reader thinking they're on the rota already. ‘Request a volunteer shift’ would be more honest in that case. Have the confirmation email say whether the place is booked or still awaiting a reply, too. Otherwise the coordinator inherits people turning up for shifts they thought they'd secured. That's a check I'd add to the charity example, not a problem observed in a real newsletter.
I'd send a test email and try that shift request on a phone that isn't signed into the charity's account. Follow it through to the confirmation, rather than stopping when the form opens. If a volunteer needs permission to view it, fixing ‘Choose’ to ‘Request’ hasn't made the invitation usable yet. Use a clearly labelled test submission and tell the coordinator so it doesn't become a real booking. That's a small check I'd do before sending the newsletter to everyone.