How to Turn a Contract Clause Screenshot Into Plain English Questions

Anyone staring at a dense contract clause screenshot can turn it into 5–7 plain-English questions in 8 minutes: payment timing, IP ownership, termination, dispute path, and deliverables. Run it in ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini before legalese invents a lecture instead of a short list you can take to counsel or a founder.

Plain-English questions are a reading aid, not legal advice. If the model still answers the clause for you, you never built a question list. Five to seven questions a non-lawyer can ask beat a 40-line paraphrase that sounds like a lawyer costume.

This is not a whiteboard photo into a checklist. A whiteboard checklist is action items from a photo. This skill is questions from one clause. It is not a messy note into a one-page brief. A brief is a send. This is what to ask next. It is not a support ticket into a two-paragraph bug report. A bug report is repro. This names gaps in the clause. Save the question shape as a skill prompt you can rerun.

What you need

One real clause screenshot or photo (phone camera, PDF crop, or Slack image). The clause number or section label if visible. ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini with vision or OCR paste. Eight minutes and one cold read before you send the list to a lawyer, a founder, or yourself.

Banned before you start: this means you must, you should sign, fair and reasonable, standard industry practice, in my legal opinion, you are protected, you are exposed, nothing to worry about, clearly enforceable, void, invalid, and any answer that decides the clause for you.

Turn a contract clause into plain English questions

1. Paste or attach the screenshot. Do not summarize yet

Instruct ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini: "Do not explain the clause yet. Do not give legal advice. Paste back or OCR the text I attach. Circle every date, dollar amount, party name, defined term, and obligation verb. If a word is unreadable, write UNREADABLE. No paraphrase. No opinion."

Attach the phone photo of the PDF page, the cropped Slack screenshot, or paste OCR if vision fails. A model that upgrades "Net 45" into "you get paid fast" is inventing comfort you never owned.

Write five buckets on paper before questions: payment timing, IP or work product, termination or exit, dispute or venue, deliverables or acceptance. If a bucket has no text in the clause, write UNKNOWN for that bucket. Do not invent a payment schedule when the screenshot only shows indemnification.

2. Force 5–7 questions. Ban answers and advice

Instruct: "Output exactly 5 to 7 numbered questions a non-lawyer can ask a lawyer or the other party. Each question must use words from the clause when possible. Prefer who, when, what happens if, who owns, and how we exit. Max 18 words per question. No answers. No you should. No legal opinion. If a topic is missing from the paste, skip it or mark UNKNOWN — do not invent facts."

Good: "When does payment start after we accept the deliverable?" Bad: "You get paid on Net 30 so you are fine." Fine is a costume.

Good: "Who owns the code we write under this statement of work?" Bad: "Standard work-for-hire means they own everything." Standard is a guess.

Good: "What notice do we need before either side can terminate for convenience?" Bad: "Termination is fair and reasonable here." Fair is not a question.

If the screenshot shows only one topic, still aim for 5 questions inside that topic. Do not pad with IP questions the page never named.

3. Cover the five buckets without inventing text

Map questions to buckets only when the clause text supports them: payment (when, how much, what triggers invoice); IP (who owns drafts, deliverables, pre-existing tools); termination (convenience vs cause, notice days); dispute (venue, arbitration, governing law — as questions); deliverables (what counts as done, acceptance window).

Hard ban list: this means, you must, you should sign, fair and reasonable, standard industry practice, in my legal opinion, you are protected, you are exposed, nothing to worry about, clearly enforceable, void, invalid, I recommend, consult me as your lawyer.

Tell the model: "If a banned phrase appears, rewrite that line into a question only. Output questions only. No preamble. No closing comfort paragraph."

ChatGPT will add "you should have counsel review." Claude will hedge into "this language typically means." Gemini will invent Net 30 when the crop never showed payment. Cut all three.

4. Keep UNREADABLE and UNKNOWN honest

Instruct: "If a date, amount, or party name is blurry, write UNREADABLE in the question instead of guessing. If the clause never mentions IP, do not invent an IP question. UNKNOWN is safer than a fake obligation."

Good: "What is the UNREADABLE day notice period before termination?" Bad: inventing "30-day" when the photo was blurry. Do not upgrade Vendor into Client. Do not invent Exhibit B when the crop stopped at Section 4.

This skill pairs well with a feature request into a one-line ticket title when a product clause later becomes a backlog ask — still questions first, ticket titles later.

5. One cold read as the non-lawyer who must send the list

Read the 5–7 questions as if you will paste them into email today with no PDF open beside you.

Check three traps: an answer disguised as a question, a fact not in the screenshot, and a soft phrase like fair or standard that hides the ask. Fix those from the OCR. Then send: "Replace only the words I changed. Do not re-expand. Do not add legal advice."

One pass. Paste into Notes or email. If counsel rewrites a noun, take their noun. If an answer still sits after a question mark, you never wrote plain-English questions. Stop.

What good looks like

Trigger: You are about to paste a clause photo and type "what does this mean" or "explain this contract in plain English."

Input: The screenshot or OCR text, section label if visible, plus the ban list (no advice, no answers, no invented dates).

Output: 5–7 numbered questions covering payment, IP, termination, dispute, and deliverables only where the clause supports them. Max 18 words each. UNKNOWN or UNREADABLE where needed. No answers.

Stop: After one cold read. No paraphrase lecture. No "you should sign." No invented Exhibit.

Common mistakes

Letting the model answer the clause

If the output starts with "This clause means," you asked the wrong job. Delete the answer. Re-prompt for questions only. A reading aid ends with question marks.

Padding buckets the page never named

An IP question on a payment-only crop is fiction. Keep UNKNOWN on missing buckets. Five honest payment questions beat seven mixed with invented ownership.

Takeaways

- 5–7 questions: payment, IP, termination, dispute, deliverables — only where the screenshot supports them. Stop.

- A clause screenshot is source. Plain-English questions are a reading aid. This is not legal advice and not a paraphrase lecture.

- UNREADABLE and UNKNOWN beat invented Net 30, fake notice days, or a tidy Exhibit B.

- Ban answers and "you should." One cold read as the person who must email the list. Then stop.