ManuAIVI

L007 · Asking well · 2 min · Interactive

The four-part prompt

Good answers come from prompts with four parts: a role, a task, some context, and a format.

01 · The idea

Most bad AI answers come from short, vague prompts. "Write an email" gives the model almost nothing to work with, so it guesses.

Add four parts. Role: who should it act as? Task: what exactly should it do? Context: who is it for, and what does it need to know? Format: how long, what shape, what tone?

You do not need all four every time. But when an answer disappoints, one of them is usually missing. Context is the one people forget most.

Try it below: switch each part on and off and watch the answer improve.

02 · Think of it like this

It is like briefing a new colleague. "Do the report" fails. "You are our finance assistant. Write the monthly sales report for the Jakarta team, using these numbers, one page, bullet points" works.

03 · Try the toy

Try it

Build a better prompt

Start with the vague prompt. Switch on each ingredient and watch the answer change.

Prompt qualityVague
Your prompt

Write about our product launch.

AI answer

Exciting news! We're thrilled to announce the launch of our innovative new product. It's designed to make your life easier and better. Our team has worked incredibly hard to bring you something truly special. Stay tuned for more details, and don't miss out on this game-changing launch!

  • No role: the AI writes in a bland, everyone-and-no-one voice.
  • No task detail: the AI has to guess what the product even is.
  • No context: no date, price or audience, so the post can't say anything real.
  • No format: length and shape are left to chance.

04 · Do it now

05 · Quick check

Which part is missing from: "You are a travel agent. Plan a trip. Use a table."?

Words in this lesson

See also

Play it

Practice · 6 min · runs in browser

Prompt builder

Build a prompt from six blocks for an everyday task, see your score, and compare a weak answer with a strong one.

L007Interactive