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AI at Work: Writing the Team's Rules – obligation and permission for an AI policy

The language of obligation and permission in formal rules is the focus of this C1 English for IT lesson plan.

Grammar
Formal rules for what is required, permitted, prohibited or optional: must, shall, may, are prohibited from + -ing, need not, subject to + noun and passive rules (must be reviewed).
Topic
Rules for AI coding assistants at a fictional payments startup, with words such as shadow IT, red line, carve-out and redact.
Activities
A draft policy to read, a negotiation between security and finance to hear, self-checking drills, a Slack chat about a stack trace and a wheel, then policy clauses to write and a recording.

What's inside

  1. Chapter 1Warm-up: AI at Your Desk

    • PictureUnlock
    • Open a box and answerOpen the boxUnlock
    • Study the words: rules, risks and red linesVocabularyTry it
    • Match the expressions to the situationsMatchUnlock

  2. Chapter 2Reading: The Fine Print, v0.3

    • Read the draft policy: Kestrel AI Assistant Policy v0.3ArticleUnlock
    • True or false? Check the draft policyTrue or falseUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer: what does the policy say?QuizUnlock

  3. Chapter 3Listening: Security vs. Finance

    • Listen to Lena and Graham negotiate the policyListeningTry it
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer: who agreed to what?QuizUnlock

  4. Chapter 4Grammar: Must, May, Need Not

    • Study the scheme: the language of rulesGrammar schemeTry it
    • Choose the correct option: policy clausesChoose the optionUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps with the correct form of the word in bracketsFill in the gapsTry it
    • Fill in the table: turn active rules into passive rulesFill in the tableUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer: what does the rule mean?QuizUnlock

  5. Chapter 5Speaking: Can I Paste This?

    • Choose the best replies: Rui's question on SlackChatTry it
    • Spin the wheel and answerSpin the wheelUnlock

  6. Chapter 6Homework: Your Team's Rulebook

    • Choose the correct option: Kestrel's on-call policyChoose the optionUnlock
    • Match each Slack message to its policy clauseMatchUnlock
    • Drag the words into the gaps: Lena's meeting notesDrag and dropUnlock
    • Write six clauses of a team policyWriting, checked by the teacherUnlock
    • Record your answer: explain a policy to a new joinerSpeaking, checked by the teacherUnlock

22 exercises in 6 chapters. Start a 7-day free trial to open all of them, copy any part into your own lessons, and teach the lesson live.

Vocabulary

10 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+7 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

  • throwaway
  • shadow IT
  • secrets
  • redact
  • audit trail
  • provenance
  • hallucinate

Grammar: obligation and permission in formal rules

Every rule in a policy falls into one of six groups: required, expected, permitted, prohibited, not required, or allowed only on a condition. Each group has a formal phrase and an everyday one, so writers of rules need both registers of these modal verbs and phrases: are permitted to in the policy, are allowed to on Slack.

The language of rules: required, permitted, prohibited, optional

A policy sorts every action into a few boxes. Each box has a formal phrase and an everyday one.

Six kinds of rule, two registers

In a policy, must, shall and are required to make something mandatory, are expected to sets the normal standard, and may or are permitted to gives permission. May not takes the permission away. On Slack, the same rules become have to, should, can and aren't allowed to.

One meaning, two registers

MeaningIn a policy (formal)On Slack (neutral)
Requiredmust · shall · are required to · it is mandatory tohave to · need to
Strongly expectedare expected toshould · are supposed to
Permittedmay · are permitted tocan · are allowed to
Prohibitedmust not · shall not · may not · are not permitted to · are prohibited from + -ing · it is forbidden tocan't · mustn't · aren't allowed to
Not requiredneed not · do not have to · are not required todon't have to · don't need to
Only on a conditionsubject to + noun (approval, review)only if … approves

may, are expected to, are required to

In a rule, may gives permission and may not takes it away. are expected to sets the normal professional standard. are required to is strict: it is mandatory.

Must not or do not have to?

Must not forbids: Engineers must not paste keys into a prompt. Do not have to and need not leave the choice to you: Engineers do not have to use AI assistants. Mixing them up turns the rule around, so You mustn't use AI can't describe an optional tool.

must not = prohibited

  • Engineers must not paste keys into a prompt.
  • It is forbidden. There is no choice.

do not have to / need not = optional

  • Engineers do not have to use AI assistants.
  • Authors need not disclose autocomplete.
  • It is allowed, but not required. You choose.

Prohibited from, need not, subject to

Three phrases take a fixed pattern: are prohibited from + -ing (are prohibited from connecting AI tools to production), need not + the bare verb, with no to, and subject to + a noun, not a verb: subject to approval by Security.

be prohibited from + -ing

are prohibited fromverb + -ing

Engineers are prohibited from connecting AI tools to production.

Staff are prohibited from sharing card data.

Typical mistakes

  • Engineers are prohibited to share logs.

    Engineers are prohibited from sharing logs.

    prohibited from + -ing, never to + verb

  • Authors need not to disclose autocomplete.

    Authors need not disclose autocomplete.

    need not + base form, no to (but: don't need to)

  • New tools are subject to approve by Security.

    New tools are subject to approval by Security.

    subject to + noun, not + verb

  • You mustn't use AI. It's optional.

    You don't have to use AI. It's optional.

    mustn't = forbidden; don't have to = your choice

Passive rules put the action first

When the action matters more than the person, use the passive: modal + be + past participle. All AI-generated code must be reviewed by a human. Autocomplete suggestions need not be disclosed. The negative goes after the modal: Card data must not be pasted into a prompt.

must (not) / shall (not) / may / need not + bepast participle

All AI-generated code must be reviewed by a human.

Autocomplete suggestions need not be disclosed.

Card data must not be pasted into a prompt.

Shall and permitted to belong in writing

In policies and contracts, shall means must: Changes to the ledger shall be approved by two reviewers. Spoken You shall… sounds archaic, and everyday shall offers or suggests: Shall I send you the draft? Likewise, permitted to fits a policy and allowed to fits a meeting.

shall: policy vs speech

In policies and contracts, shall = must: "Changes to the ledger shall be approved by two reviewers." In speech, "You shall…" sounds archaic. In everyday speech, shall mostly offers or suggests: "Shall I send you the draft?"

allowed to or permitted to?

Same meaning, different register. allowed to fits Slack and meetings: "You're allowed to paste logs once they're redacted." permitted to fits policies: "Engineers are permitted to share redacted logs."

More lessons on this grammar: Modal verbs lessons and exercises

Try the obligation and permission exercises

Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.

More exercises

What's in the lesson

  • 12 auto-checked exercises
  • 2 games
  • 2 teacher-checked tasks
  • 1 article
  • 1 grammar scheme
  • 1 set of word cards
  • 1 audio clip
  • 1 picture
  • 1 transcript

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

  • sort rules into required, permitted, prohibited and optional: Engineers may use only approved assistants. Authors need not disclose autocomplete.
  • tell must not from do not have to: Staff must not paste keys into a prompt. Engineers do not have to use AI assistants.
  • get the tricky patterns right: are prohibited from sharing, subject to approval, must be reviewed by a human
  • write numbered clauses of a team policy, then explain one rule in everyday words: You're allowed to paste logs once they're redacted.

Lesson 15 ends Retros, interviews and AI, and with it English for IT C1 · Across the Company: after a retro and an interview, the unit's last task is a team policy. It builds on the formal register of lesson 9, where an RFC turns verbs into nouns, and on MUST, SHOULD and MAY in specs from lesson 4 of English for IT B2. In a policy, people are held to every word, so must not and need not are two different rules.

Students open boxes of questions about AI at work, learn ten words with pictures and audio, from blanket ban to hallucinate, and match expressions to situations. The reading is draft v0.3 of a policy on AI coding assistants, in seven numbered sections. In the AI-voiced listening, Lena from Security and Graham, the CFO, negotiate the draft point by point, down to the word shall. After the scheme come four self-checking exercises, among them a table that turns active rules into passive ones. For speaking, students answer Rui's Slack question about pasting a stack trace into an AI chat, then spin a wheel of prompts.

Homework has three self-checking exercises: rule choices for an on-call policy, Slack messages to match with policy clauses and Lena's meeting notes with the new words to drag in. Students then write six numbered clauses of a team policy and record a spoken explanation of a policy for a new joiner. The teacher reviews the clauses and the recording.

Grammar:
obligation and permission · formal register
Topic:
AI coding assistants · security policy · workplace rules

Teaching tips

  • Translate rules in both directions: read a Slack line such as Nobody's forcing you to use AI, students write the clause (Engineers do not have to use AI assistants), then they turn a clause back into Slack.
  • Use a real workplace policy with in-company groups, with anything confidential removed: learners label each rule required, permitted, prohibited or optional, then rewrite one vague rule with must, may or need not.
  • Split the class for the listening: one half follows security, the other finance, and each lists what its side won before the quiz on who agreed to what.
  • Stage a carve-out request one-to-one: the learner asks for an exception to an AI rule, you agree or refuse and set conditions with subject to, then you swap roles.

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The whole course: English for IT C1 · Across the Company

15 lessons at C1 for people who build software, in American English, with definitions instead of translations. The people of Kestrel Cloud, a fictional payments startup, write updates, reviews, RFCs and postmortems, explain tech to non-tech colleagues and negotiate scope. Real cases include the CrowdStrike outage and the xz backdoor.See the course

  1. Unit 1 Talking to the team

    async updates, code review and plain explanations: the future perfect, hedging, cleft sentences

    1. Lesson 1Async Stand-ups: Status Updates People Can Act OnFuture forms for status updates
    2. Lesson 2Code Review Without the DramaHedging in code review
    3. Lesson 3Explaining Tech to Non-Tech PeopleIt-clefts and wh-clefts

  2. Unit 2 Shipping and incidents

    estimates, releases and outages: conditionals without if, phrasal verbs, modal perfects

    1. Lesson 4Estimates, Deadlines and Saying No (Politely)Conditionals without if and mixed conditionals
    2. Lesson 5Release Day: Rolling Out and Rolling BackPhrasal verbs and their noun forms
    3. Lesson 6Incident! Learning from the CrowdStrike OutageModal perfects and narrative tenses

  3. Unit 3 Security and design

    advisories, trade-offs and RFCs: passive reporting structures, concession and contrast, nominalization

    1. Lesson 7Security Advisory: The xz BackdoorPassive reporting structures
    2. Lesson 8System Design: Every Choice Has a CostConcession, contrast and modified comparatives
    3. Lesson 9Writing an RFC That Gets ApprovedNominalization and formal register

  4. Unit 4 Docs, metrics and meetings

    READMEs, dashboards and follow-ups: participle clauses, describing trends, reporting verbs

    1. Lesson 10Docs People Actually ReadReduced relative clauses and participle clauses
    2. Lesson 11Metrics, Dashboards and SLOsPrepositions with numbers, trends and approximation
    3. Lesson 12Meeting Notes and Follow-upsReporting verbs and their patterns

  5. Unit 5 Retros, interviews and AI

    looking back and ahead: wish and would rather, inversion, formal obligation and permission

    1. Lesson 13The Retro: What Went Wrong This QuarterWish, would rather and it's high time
    2. Lesson 14The Interview: Selling Your AchievementsInversion for emphasis
    3. Lesson 15 · you're hereAI at Work: Writing the Team's RulesObligation and permission in formal rules

Questions about this lesson

How do you express obligation and permission in formal English?
In formal rules, obligation takes must, shall or are required to, and permission takes may or are permitted to: Staff must not include secrets in any prompt. Engineers may use approved assistants for tests. For no obligation, write need not or do not have to; for a condition, subject to + noun. Everyday speech says the same with have to, can and are allowed to.
What does "be required to" mean?
Be required to means to have to do something because a rule says so; it is the strict, formal way to state a duty. Authors are required to state in the pull request when an assistant wrote a significant part of the change. On-call engineers are required to acknowledge a page within fifteen minutes. The negative, are not required to, makes something optional, not forbidden. Are expected to is softer: it sets the normal professional standard.
What does "be permitted to" mean?
Be permitted to means the same as be allowed to, but more formal, so it fits policies: Engineers are permitted to share redacted logs. In a chat: You're allowed to paste logs once they're redacted. The negative forbids: AI agents are not permitted to merge pull requests. Keep the to: are permitted to take, not are permitted take. The C1 lesson AI at Work: Writing the Team's Rules on edio.ai sets the two registers side by side.
What does "shall" mean in a policy?
In policies and contracts, shall states an obligation, like must: Pull requests that change payment flows shall be approved by two reviewers. Requests to add a tool shall be sent to the Security team. In the negative, shall not prohibits, as must not does. In speech, You shall… sounds archaic; everyday shall offers or suggests instead: Shall I send you the next draft on Thursday?
What's the difference between "must not" and "do not have to"?
Must not forbids; do not have to makes something optional: Engineers must not paste keys into a prompt. Engineers do not have to use AI assistants. Need not and are not required to work like do not have to, so You mustn't use AI, it's optional contradicts itself. In the Slack chat on this page, from AI at Work: Writing the Team's Rules on edio.ai, You mustn't delete the whole line is a wrong reply.
Is it "need not" or "need not to"?
It's need not + the bare verb, with no to: Authors need not disclose autocomplete. The passive works the same way: Autocomplete suggestions need not be disclosed. The to belongs only to don't need to: You don't need to delete the whole line. Both mean there is no obligation, and need not is the formal one that policies use.
Is it "prohibited to" or "prohibited from"?
It's prohibited from + -ing: Engineers are prohibited from connecting AI assistants to production systems. Staff are prohibited from sharing card data. Are prohibited to share is a common mistake: are not permitted to and it is forbidden to take to, but prohibited takes from. If the pattern feels heavy, must not share says the same. A gap-fill on this page from AI at Work: Writing the Team's Rules, a C1 lesson on edio.ai, mixes both patterns.
What does "shadow IT" mean?
Shadow IT means tools that staff use for work without the company's approval, such as an AI assistant on a personal account. Policies ban it: Using any other AI tool for company work is prohibited. In conversation it comes up as a risk: Unapproved tools are how customer data ends up where we can't see it. The draft policy in AI at Work: Writing the Team's Rules, a C1 lesson on edio.ai, names it under approved tools.
What is an AI acceptable use policy?
An AI acceptable use policy is a document on how staff may use AI tools: which tools are approved, what must never go into a prompt and who checks the output. Its clauses use formal rule language: Engineers may use only approved assistants. Staff must not include customer data, card data or secrets in any prompt. All AI-generated code must be reviewed by a human before it is merged.
How do you write rules in an AI policy for employees?
Write each rule as one numbered clause with one clear modal: must or are required to for duties, may for permissions, must not or are prohibited from + -ing for bans, and need not for options. Use the passive when the action matters more than the person: Code whose provenance is unclear must not be merged. Students write six such clauses as homework in AI at Work: Writing the Team's Rules, a C1 lesson on edio.ai.
How do I teach modals of obligation to C1 professionals?
Sort the forms by meaning first, then by register: required, permitted, prohibited and optional, each with a policy phrase and a Slack phrase. Learners then rewrite real messages as clauses, from Run the license scanner every time to It is mandatory to run the license scanner on every pull request, and back. Drill the traps on their own: must not vs do not have to, prohibited from + -ing and subject to + noun.
Are there interactive exercises for obligation and permission?
Yes: self-checking gap-fills and chat role-plays show at once whether a rule is worded right. Without signing up, this page plays three parts of AI at Work: Writing the Team's Rules, a C1 English for IT lesson on edio.ai: security and finance negotiating an AI policy, a gap-fill with forms such as prohibited from connecting and subject to authorization, and a Slack chat about pasting a stack trace. The other exercises are locked.
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