Tips for Writing Prompts

First of all, what is a prompt? Well, simply put, it’s your question or request for the AI. The AI will interpret your prompt, and give you an answer.

Writing prompts is a hot topic in todaystoday's AI-AI age. Many articles are written about it, and probably even more opinions have formed. With all that information available we are not setting out to give you an in-depth guide for writing your prompts. You can find ample information by simply searching for it on the web.

Instead, we will give you a simple tip. Writing a prompt is exactly like asking someone (a real human) a question, or giving someone an assignment. An AI will then interpret this the same as any human would. This means that you have to write your prompt in such a way that the person (or AI) you’re asking has all the information needed to go about and process the task. An AI does not use magic, and can not read minds (surprisingsurprising, huh...) so you’ll have to give it everything needed to complete the task. The best way to write a prompt is to read it before sending it, and ask yourself this question: ‘If somebody wouldwere to ask me this, do I have all the information to answer in the way that is expected?’ If the answer is yes, you’re more likely to get a satisfactory response.

Some practical tips when writing your prompt:

• Be specific about what you want. 

  Vague questions or commands will not give accurate results. Give as much detail as possible about what you expect. For example ‘I need a short text that describes my new product, a new model of cellphone’, will at best give you a vague text. InsteadInstead, ask for : ‘I need a short text, about 50 words, for the product description in my web shop. The product is our new type of cellphone, that features more memory, a better quality screen and free hamburger.’
• Provide context. 

  Make sure that the AI knows what the context is for which you expect an answer. For example, instead of asking “What is a good question to ask when interviewing a new employee?’, ask ‘What is a good question to ask when interviewing a new employee for the position of sales manager for an IT service provider?’. The answer will be more to the point for your specific situation and less vague because the AI now not only knows you are interviewing applicants, but also you are looking for a sales manager and even for what type of company.
• Include all the information needed to reach a conclusion, make a decision, or perform a task.

  This might seem obvious, but it’s easy to overlook a detail, or piece of information that might be crucial, but the AI doesn’t have already. (When in doubt, you can first ask the AI if it has certain information or not.)
• Specify how you want the output.

  If you don’t, the answer will be in whatever form the AI thinks is best suited. If you expect your output in a certain way, specify this. Use examples where possible. If you want structured output (a table, JSON, bullet-list,...) include this in your prompt. For more accurate results add an example of the output format you like. But also when you want text, you might want to include what the tone should be (friendly, formal, funny,...) and who your target audience for the text is (professionals, children aged 9 to 12, politicians,...).