Scissors and a magnifying glass only on what is already yours
Shorten, expand, explain — three spells that tempt you to paste someone else’s text. Honest use: first your sentences from a paraphrase. Then a move: “shorten to 40 words, keep the content, keep a pupil tone.” Or “expand only point 3 by one analogy, no new facts.” Or “explain a word I used with a bracket, do not rework the sentence otherwise.” When you paste a wiki and let it shorten, it is still a wiki in a mask. Helper lends scissors to you, not to a thief. The length of the task holds. When a teacher wants 150 words, do not let it make 150 from zero. Write 80 and expand yours. Or write 200 and shorten yours. Zero from the window is an author again.
Bára has two sentences about a forest. They are short. She asks expand. The model adds a made-up ranger and a date. Ema crosses out the new facts. She keeps one analogy A. Bára shortens another paragraph of her own that was watery — but the water was hers, about a mood. Shortening helped. A third move explain at the word tree crown. A bracket. A teacher reads Bára, not an encyclopaedia. A ranger from a year that was not went into Detective’s bin. Scissors without Detective would have left the ranger, because he sounded nice in a longer text.
Always add: no new names, dates, studies. Expanding likes to bring carnival.
Three moves, one ban on new made-up
Shorten: it deletes water, it must not delete source meaning. Expand: it adds your explanation or a marked analogy, not a new source from thin air. Explain: a word you already have. When you do not know a word, go to the textbook glossary, not into a new paragraph. After every move green/red again. Helper without Detective expands a lie. With Detective it expands only what a finger can carry. Word counts are format, not a goal to hand in an exact generated number from zero.
Three orders on YOUR paragraph (you paste it, short, with no other people’s names).
- “Shorten to 40 words. No new facts. A pupil tone.”
- “Expand with one kitchen analogy. Mark A. No names and years.”
- “At the word X add a bracket explanation. Do not change the rest.”
After each: hooks, doors. A ranger 1998 dies.
Do not paste a whole foreign article to shorten into school work. That is shortened theft. Same trumpet, a smaller hose.
Why this right now
You are in the course Ask with Martin, level Helper. You work in a chatbot (ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude) — same game, different brand. No code. A parent or the school creates the account. A child’s email does not belong here.
This is not the インベンター level. There you build a chatbot on your own website. Here you are a user: a question, a check, a citation.
You will know this lesson by one sentence: Scissors only on your text. Expanding must not bring new made-up. When you can say it to a parent or a teacher, you have got the core. The rest is practice, not magic.
Tomorrow translation. Same scissors: first your meaning, then a wrap. Without today you would shorten a foreign language blindly.
Four things you will build in this course
The course has four small projects. You do not have to do them all at once. Today you add only what this lesson can do.
🏫 A report with citations
An outline, three sources that exist, and a sentence in your own words. AI must not be the only author.
Report: shorten water, do not expand fake citations.
📝 Test training
Coach role: let it ask, do not let it say the answer. You count / answer yourself.
A coach has no key to shorten. There should be no key.
📅 Family planner
Tasks for the week (not passwords, not marks). A parent sees the plan, not your chat.
Planner: shorten a day to three tasks.
📜 An AI code for the class
Seven short rules on a poster. No horror — a how-to.
Code: “Expanding with no new names.”
Workshop: 80 words of yours, then scissors
Write a short paragraph yourself. Only then three moves. After each a Detective of hooks.
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With no chat: 5–8 sentences on the topic from notes. Yours.
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M1 shorten with a ban on new facts. Compare meaning with a book.
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M2 expand an analogy A. Cross out new names.
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M3 a bracket at one word. Do not change the rest — when it changes, put it back.
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A trail: scissors on my text. A fair copy from what a finger can carry.
Practice: may scissors?
Yes/no. Why.
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Your sentences, shorten the water.
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A wiki article, shorten into a hand-in.
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Expand and a year and a study arrived.
Now you 💪
Go through three checks. At each one tick in your head: can I see it, or not?
- The text for the scissors was yours.
- New facts from expanding went away.
- A bracket did not change the whole paragraph when you banned that.
If something is missing, go back to the steps above. This is not a test for marks. It is a safety net, so you go on sure, not confused.
Check: Scissors ran over your text. A ranger from expanding did not end in the fair copy.
What to take from this lesson
- First your sentences, then moves.
- Shorten water, not meaning.
- Expand an analogy, not a source from thin air.
- Explain a word, not the whole work.
- After scissors, Detective again.
- The names in the examples (Bára, Ema) are made up. Do not put your number, email or photo here.
- Next lesson: When you can do this, go to the next lesson in the same level.
© 2026 Ing. Martin Polak / AlgoRhino · コンテンツ利用規約