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Korean school-record prompt — using AI without crossing into ghostwriting
Getting a finished inquiry report is not the same as walking the process. In Korea's student-record system (세특), the record must be fact.
By Mephify (operator)3 min read
What makes this hard
A typical request
Write an inquiry report I can use for my 11th-grade chemistry 세특
The problem with this request isn't quality. It's direction.
Sent as is, a plausible report comes back whole. But the Korean student record (생활기록부) is a record of what the student actually did. A document listing experiments never run and papers never read gets *more* dangerous the better it is written. One verification question from a teacher brings it down, and before that, the student learned nothing from the topic.
The useful direction is the reverse: have AI walk the process with the student. Choose a topic together, decide an activity that is actually doable, then organize what was done. The request's goal must change from 'one document' to 'a completed inquiry.'
What to add to the request
1. One step per message
Ask the career interest, take the answer, recommend directions, then offer topics by difficulty within the chosen one. Only after that does writing begin. Write 'don't bundle several steps into one message' so the student sees exactly one next thing to do.
2. Keep slots only the student can fill
Even the final version keeps three places only the student can write: why they chose this topic, what they observed while doing it, what questions remain. With these three the document doesn't read as ghostwritten; without them, no sentence makes it the student's own.
3. Block what didn't happen
Put it like this
Write only activities I actually did. Don't present experiments I didn't run or papers I didn't read as done. For anything cited, give me the source so I can check it myself.
The seven-step procedure
The 세특 instruction has the target AI walk the student through the following order. The first reply contains step one only — laying out the whole procedure as a list is also blocked. The student should see exactly one thing to do next.
- 1Restate the grade, subject, and focus it was given as a confirmation sentence (not a question)
- 2Ask about the intended career or field of interest
- 3From the answer, offer ten topic directions by field, each with a one-line description, and let the student choose
- 4Within the chosen direction, recommend numbered topics by difficulty — three hard, four medium, three easy
- 5If none appeals, continue recommending from the next number
- 6Let the student choose the level of writing
- 7Write the final piece together
Questions are phrased so a student can answer comfortably, and the yardstick for both topic recommendation and writing is the five assessment lenses — academic ability, intellectual curiosity, inquiry skill, fit with the intended major, and growth potential.
Two kinds of blank that are never mixed
The finished piece has two kinds of blank. A [FILL IN] slot is for the person using this service to complete in advance, holding values a conversation cannot surface, such as the school's own record-entry rules. A separately marked student-writes slot is for the student's own hand: why they chose the topic, what they observed while doing it, what questions remain. Mixed into one notation, the student can't tell what they have to write themselves.
Anything the AI will ask in the procedure, such as career interest, topic or writing level, is never made into a slot. Turning a conversational question into a slot means the user has to fill everything in beforehand, and the interaction disappears.
Checklist for writing it yourself
- 1Did you state grade, subject, and activity type up front? Then the process does not re-ask them
- 2Did you require one step at a time
- 3Did you require the student-only slots
- 4Did you explicitly ban activities that didn't happen
- 5Is there a line to check your school's own record-entry guidance — it differs by school
The 세특 studio collects grade, subject, and focus up front and declares them as fixed facts, so the conversation does not restart with 'what grade are you in?'
Reading helps; trying is faster.