Which prompt will work better?

“You're a coach. Make a 2-week push-up plan for a beginner, as a table”. It has a role, a task, who it's for and a format. The others don't say what exactly is needed or in what shape.

How do you get the answer in a handy shape right away?

State the format: list, table, under 100 words. With the format in the prompt, the model answers in that shape right away. Caps and repeats add nothing.

The answer came out long and complicated. What now?

Reply in the same chat: “shorter and simpler”. In the same chat the model sees the context and will adjust. A new chat starts from zero and may give you the same thing.

A prompt that works

Lesson 10 of 23 in the course “AI basics”. Free, with animations and a quiz.

Role, task, format, example

A prompt is your message to the model, your request. A good prompt has four parts. Role: who to be (“You are a chemistry tutor”). Task: what to do (“Explain what a mole is”). Format: who it's for and what shape (“for 9th grade, 5 points”). Example: show the style you like. The model can't read your mind, so put everything into words.

Specifics instead of fluff

A vague prompt gets a vague answer. “Tell me about marketing” gets you a lecture about nothing. “Give me 5 TikTok post ideas for a coffee shop near a campus, one line each” gets you something you can actually use. The difference is in the details: how many, for whom, where, in what shape. Spoiler: the model doesn't mind long prompts, they actually help.

Building a full prompt

Example: you need to prep for a test. Weak: “explain the mole”. Strong: “You are a chemistry tutor. Explain what a mole is for a 9th grader. Give 5 short points and one solved problem. Explain it like in this example: …” Role, task, format and example are all there. The answer lands at your level, not at university-textbook level.

Refine instead of starting over

The first answer is rarely perfect, and that's fine. Don't open a new chat, reply in the same one: “shorter”, “simpler”, “add a real-life example”. Within one chat the model sees the whole conversation and takes it into account. Often 2–3 follow-ups are enough to get the answer where you need it. Start a new chat when you switch topics.

Check yourself

Which prompt will work better?
Correct answer: “You're a coach. Make a 2-week push-up plan for a beginner, as a table”. It has a role, a task, who it's for and a format. The others don't say what exactly is needed or in what shape.
How do you get the answer in a handy shape right away?
Correct answer: State the format: list, table, under 100 words. With the format in the prompt, the model answers in that shape right away. Caps and repeats add nothing.
The answer came out long and complicated. What now?
Correct answer: Reply in the same chat: “shorter and simpler”. In the same chat the model sees the context and will adjust. A new chat starts from zero and may give you the same thing.

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