A question, not “write my homework”

You ask for help, not a replacement brain

The fastest prompt in the world is “write it for me”. It is also the worst. A teacher sets the task for you, not for a window. When a chatbot writes a composition, a report or five questions with answers, you are handing in someone else’s work. Even if you “edit it a bit”. Curious starts differently: you want a question, an analogy, an outline, a checklist. You want to be the one who asks. You notice the difference by the verb. Write / do / hand in for me = bad. Explain / ask me / show a sample I will try = good. This lesson is a gate. Without it the rest of the course is decorating a cheat. With it AI is a coach, not an author for the school portal.

Ema has three sentences about photosynthesis for homework. She writes: “Write it nicely for me.” She has a paragraph in eight seconds. Adam looks and says: “That sounds like a textbook, not like you.” Ema takes offence, then tries again: “Ask me three things I must know before I write three sentences. I write the answers.” The chatbot asks about the sun, a leaf and sugar. Ema answers from her head. Only then she writes sentences in the notebook. It takes twenty minutes. The next day the teacher recognises her words. In the neighbour’s work she recognises the model’s words — and sends it back. Ema writes down the verb: ask me, not write.

💡

The verb test. When the prompt has write / do / hand in, cross it out. Put ask me / explain / show a sample there.

Finished text is a product. A question is training.

学校 teaches you to think. A finished paragraph from a model is a product that skips thinking. A question forces you to recall the work. Even a wrong answer from your head is more valuable than a perfect sentence from a window. A teacher often notices: a vocabulary you do not use, sentences with no mistake, an adult tone. Even if they do not notice, you know. Honesty is not about whether they catch you. It is about whose work it is. The exception is not “I have no time”. The exception is when a teacher clearly allows AI for an outline. Even then you write the text. Curious trains the verb. Little bird adds a coach role. Detective sources. The start is always: I do not ask for finished homework.

Two orders. The same topic.

Wrong: “Write my homework: three sentences about photosynthesis, Year 6.”

Better: “I am in Year 6. Photosynthesis. I already know plants need light. Ask me three short questions. I will answer. Then tell me if I am missing the word oxygen. Do not write the homework text.”

A verb table:

Cross out	Put this there
write me a composition	ask me for a five-point outline
calculate it for me	give me a similar example with no answer
make a presentation	suggest 5 slide titles, I will write the text

⚠️

“I will just edit it” after a whole generated text is still not your work. It is a mask. A teacher sometimes pulls the mask off.

Why this right now

You are in the course Ask with Martin, level Curious. 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: You ask for a question and a sample, not finished school homework. When you can say it to a parent or a teacher, you have got the core. The rest is practice, not magic.

The whole of Curious stands on this verb. Context, a shorter prompt, explain like 11 — all of that is useless if you still ask for a product. Today you swap the verb. Tomorrow you add year and subject.

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: an outline and three questions, not “write a report”.

📝 Test training

Coach role: let it ask, do not let it say the answer. You count / answer yourself.

Test: a coach asks, you answer. No “write a test”.

📅 Family planner

Tasks for the week (not passwords, not marks). A parent sees the plan, not your chat.

A planner may write a list of tasks. It must not do the tasks for you.

📜 An AI code for the class

Seven short rules on a poster. No horror — a how-to.

クラスコード: the first sentence can be a ban on the verb write my homework.

Workshop: rewrite the verb

You take one real task from this week. You do not hand it in from the chat. You rewrite the prompt so it asks you.

Find in the diary one short task (three sentences, five questions, an outline). Read the brief out loud. Say whether the teacher wants your words.
On paper write a bad prompt with “write it for me”. Cross it out. Under it write a good one: year, topic, ask me / show a sample, a ban on finished text.
送信 the good prompt in a chatbot on a parent’s account. If the model still dumps the whole task, write: “Stop. I want questions, not text.”
Answer the questions in the notebook yourself. Only then, if there is time, ask for a check whether you are missing a key word — not for a rewrite.
閉じる the chat. The task in the notebook is your handwriting. お名前 and a photo of the brief with the school name do not belong in the chat.

Practice: verbs

Fix three prompts. Keep the topic, swap the verb and add a ban.

“Write me a report about Charles IV.”
“Do five decimal-number questions for me including the answers.”
“Rewrite my composition so it is like a writer.” (Without pasting the whole text — how do you ask differently?)

Now you 💪

Go through three checks. At each one tick in your head: can I see it, or not?

You recognise a verb that asks for a product.
You can swap it for ask me / explain / a sample.
When the model dumps homework, you can say stop.

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: One task from the week you have through questions, not through a finished paragraph from the window.

What to take from this lesson

The verb write my homework is red.
A question trains. A product steals.
Editing someone else’s paragraph is not your work.
Stop sentence: I want questions, not text.
Curious starts with a verb, not a chat brand.
The names in the examples (Ema, Adam) 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.