Lesson 80 · 2 min
Follow up instead of starting over
When an answer is close but wrong, a short follow-up usually fixes it faster than writing a whole new prompt.
Many people get a so-so answer, give up, and start again with a new prompt. That throws away everything the chat already knows about your task.
Instead, say exactly what to change. "Shorter." "Keep paragraph one, redo the rest." "Too formal, this is for my team." "You used the wrong price, it is 450,000 dong."
Point at the part. "The second bullet is wrong because we close on Sundays" works better than "That is not right", which leaves the model guessing what to fix.
There is one time to start fresh: when the chat has gone in circles for a while or is stuck on an old mistake. Then open a new chat and paste a clean summary of what you want, including what you learned.
Do it now
Three quick nudges
- 1. Ask a chatbot for a short message, like a birthday note for a colleague.
- 2. Send three follow-ups, one at a time: one about length, one about tone, one about a specific detail.
- 3. Notice how each small instruction changes the result.
Write a short birthday message for my colleague [NAME], who [ONE DETAIL ABOUT THEM].
Quick check
Keep going
Next →Teach AI your writing voiceWords from this lesson
- Context window
- The maximum amount of text an AI can look at in one go. Anything beyond it is forgotten for that conversation.
- Chatbot
- A program you talk to in everyday language by typing or speaking, which replies in the same way.