Instructions to AI (prompts) produce overwhelmingly better results when you write them along a template rather than off the top of your head. There are just four things to remember.
1. Role (Who You Want It to Answer As)
Giving it a stance up front stabilizes the expertise and tone of the answer.
You are a professional editor.
2. Context (Background and Premises)
AI doesn't know your situation. Hand over the purpose, reader, and constraints.
This is an article for a personal blog, and the readers are AI beginners. I want to avoid jargon.
3. Task (What You Want Done)
State what you want done, concretely, with a verb.
Please rewrite this draft to be clearer.
4. Output Format (What Form You Want It In)
Specifying length, format, and structure drastically reduces rework.
About 800 characters, three headings, with key points in bullets at the end.
Combining the Four
Putting the examples above together, you get this.
You are a professional editor. This is a personal blog article for AI beginners. Avoiding jargon, please rewrite this draft to be clearer. About 800 characters, three headings, with key points in bullets at the end.
You don't need to write all four every time. But when an answer is mediocre, usually one of these four is missing. Just reflecting—"Maybe I was short on context," "I forgot to specify the format"—lets you quickly recover.
The Golden Rule: As If Asking a Colleague Who Knows Nothing About the Situation
There's a very simple standard for judging whether an instruction is good.
If you handed this memo to a colleague who knows nothing about your situation, could they get to work without hesitation?
If a human would waver, AI will waver too. Conversely, an instruction a human could act on in one go gets a good answer from AI too.
Tip 1: Add the "Why"
If you convey not only what you want done but also the purpose, AI will adapt flexibly. Rather than just "in bullets," "in bullets so it can be read quickly on a phone" gets you adjustments that grasp your intent.
Tip 2: Show an Example (the Model Strategy)
If you show a sample of the form you want, AI imitates it. Rather than explaining "in this tone," pasting in a real example is faster and more accurate. Having two or three examples rather than one stabilizes it further.
Tip 3: Affirmative over Negative
"Do X" works better than "Don't do X." Rather than "Don't use jargon," write the state you want: "In words a middle schooler can understand."