Course 1 - Module 2 - Lesson 1
Goal, context, constraints, examples, and a friendly review loop
Prompts Are Tiny Briefs
Build a brief with five ingredients
A prompt is a brief describing the help you need. State the goal first: the result you want to achieve. Add context such as the audience and relevant facts. Constraints describe limits, including length, tone, deadline, or things the output must preserve.
An example can show the style or structure you mean. Finally, name the output format: a paragraph, checklist, table, or set of questions. You do not need all five ingredients for every request, but they help diagnose an answer that misses the mark.
Make the brief concrete
Instead of 'write something about our event,' try: 'Draft a welcoming invitation to a free neighborhood book swap. It is Saturday at 14:00 in the library courtyard. Use plain English, keep it under 90 words, and end with what to bring.'
If a fact is unknown, say so. Add 'The rain location is unconfirmed; mark it as a question rather than inventing one.' Supplying that boundary prevents a convenient detail from quietly becoming a false promise in the invitation.
Review one useful change at a time
Read the first draft against the brief. Identify a specific problem such as a missing time or an overly formal sentence. Follow up with a targeted instruction: 'Keep the details, but make the opening friendlier and remove the sales language.'
Do not assume a rewrite preserved everything. Recheck the fixed facts after each revision. Save the version that works together with its brief so you can reuse the structure while replacing the event details next time.
Tiny experiment
Write a five-part brief for a book-swap invitation. Include an unknown detail, then describe exactly how the assistant should handle that gap.
Confidence check
Which part of your usual requests is most often missing: goal, context, constraints, example, or output format?