Writing good prompts: get better answers from AI
A prompt is whatever you type to an AI. Vague prompts get vague answers. Clear prompts get answers you can actually use. You don’t need special tricks, just the habits you’d use when asking a smart person for help.
The four-part recipe
- Context: who you are and what’s going on.
- Task: exactly what you want done.
- Details: limits, tone, length, things to include or avoid.
- Format: how the answer should look (list, table, email, steps).
Before and after
Before: “Write a leave application.”
After: “I’m a bank clerk in Pune. (context) Write a leave application to my branch manager for 3 days next week for my sister’s wedding. (task) Keep it polite and formal, under 120 words. (details) Format it as a ready-to-send email with a subject line. (format)”
Before: “Plan a diet.”
After: “I’m 45, vegetarian, with mildly high blood sugar. My doctor said to cut refined carbs. Suggest a 7-day breakfast plan using common Indian ingredients, as a table with a day, a dish and a 1-line recipe. Note anything I should check with my doctor.”
Five habits that help
- Talk naturally. Hindi, Hinglish or any language you’re comfortable in works.
- Give an example of what good looks like: “Write it in this style: …”
- Ask for questions first: “Before you answer, ask me anything you need to know.”
- Iterate. The first answer is a draft. Reply with “shorter”, “more formal” or “add an example”.
- Ask it to show its working for anything with steps, numbers or logic.
What prompts can’t fix
A great prompt makes mistakes less likely, but it can’t make AI always right. For health, money and legal questions, use AI to understand your options, then confirm with a qualified person.
Check yourself
Which prompt will probably get the most useful answer?
The AI's first answer is too long. What's the best next step?
Can you write prompts in Hindi or Hinglish?
You wrote a perfect prompt about a medical question. Is the answer guaranteed correct?
Go deeper
- Article Prompt engineering guide ↗ · DAIR.AI
- Article Prompt engineering overview ↗ · Anthropic
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