When you ask questions of one of the major generative AI tools, you’ll learn how to have conversations similar to human interactions and critique the results carefully. These back-and-forth exchanges will produce the best results.
5 guidelines for a good prompt
- Use correct spelling and grammar. Write complete sentences.
- Be clear, specific and detailed about your request to the AI.
- Provide context and perspective to focus the AI output.
- Break down complex tasks into multiple short prompts.
- Specify the desired format, tone and style of the output.
BASIC PROMPT FORMULA
Declare a [ROLE]. Give [CONTEXT]. Create a [TASK] and specify [FORMAT].
Example
You are a [college student]. You are [taking a political science course and writing a 1,500-word essay] on the topic of disinformation in modern societies. Please [produce a potential outline] for the essay, suggesting [key points to cover and possible sources to research. Cite the sources] for your response.
Detailed prompts produce better results
Poor prompt
Give me an idea for a service project.
Better prompt
Reply as if you’re a student assigned to work with your class members on a community project to help homeless people. What ideas do you have?
Effective prompt
Reply as if you’re a student in a sociology class. You have been assigned to work with your class members on a community project to help homeless people. Suggest three practical projects the group could complete in nine weeks and describe what the group would learn in the process.
Try meta-prompting
You can design higher-level prompts that guide the AI in how it generates answers and meets your needs.
Examples
Suggest some prompts for me to use to ask you about the concepts of misinformation and its impact on society.
I have some questions about cell biology. Please start with a brief, straightforward explanation suitable for beginners. Follow up with a more detailed explanation and provide real-world examples to illustrate key points. Encourage me to ask follow-up questions and challenge me with questions to test my understanding.
I am going to provide a series of scenarios about the ways AI may impact society in the future. For each scenario, please provide three different perspectives: optimistic, pessimistic and neutral.