ChatGPT is like a vast digital repository of knowledge, that knows basically everything… but there is a big catch! ChatGPT cannot (yet) read minds. While this AI system is incredibly knowledgeable, it relies heavily on the clarity and precision of your questions. It can’t guess or intuit your intentions; it responds based on how you phrase your inquiry. Effective communication with ChatGPT is not just about asking, but asking in the right way. Crafting a clear and concise prompt is essential to harnessing the full potential of this digital knowledge base. This is why we will discuss the art of effective querying with ChatGPT. Dive in and learn how to guide the conversation to get the answers you seek.
What is a prompt?
Before we delve into crafting effective prompts, let’s clarify what we mean by “prompts” in relation to ChatGPT. Prompts are the instructions you provide to ChatGPT, guiding the kind of answer you’re seeking. Think of it this way: ChatGPT is like someone unaware of your specific needs or queries. Much like interacting with a person, it’s crucial to clearly convey your intentions or questions. A poorly structured prompt can result in undesirable responses from ChatGPT. This is why it is important to clearly convey your needs to ChatGPT through writing effective prompts.
Building the perfect prompt layout
The next part is based on the video ‘Master the Perfect ChatGPT Prompt Formula (in just 8 minutes)!‘ by Jeff Su. He explains very clearly what the basic structure of a perfect prompt should look like. There are six important basic parts that needs to be included in a good prompt, which can be divided into ‘Mandatory’, ‘Important’ and ‘Optional’. We can go through them one by one:
- Task (Mandatory)
In this part, you explain what the primary goal is of the prompt. The task is always an action verb you want ChatGPT to perform. - Context (Important)
The context is a descriptive part that describes important information about the environment and background information of the user. With the provided context ChatGPT can alter the response based on these nuances and details. - Expert person (Optional)
You can get into role-playing with ChatGPT by asking ChatGPT to take on the persona of a certain profession. This way, ChatGPT knows how to behave when giving responses. - Format (Optional)
This refers to the specific layout you want the output to be or the specified length of the output. This can be as detailed as you want. Examples are ‘a paragraph of 200 words’, ‘a bullet point list’, ‘step by step instructions’. - Tone (Optional)
Specifying the tone of the output can be handy when you want a response for a certain situation or for a specific target group. Tones can for example be ‘professional’, ‘informative’, ‘inspirational’. - Example (Optional)
Including examples of a desired (or undesired) output can guide ChatGPT in what you expect to get as an answer. ChatGPT can then try to follow the given example and adjust it based on your specific needs.
We can collect all these good practices and put it all in one prompt. The standard prompt will then look like:
You are a [expert person]. [context]. [task (action verbs)]. Please use a [tone] writing style. The output should be [format]. It should look like the following example: [example].
An example would be:
You are a positive, motivating tutor. The student is preparing for their final exams in mathematics. Explain the key concepts of algebra. Please use an encouraging and clear writing style. The output should be a structured lesson plan. It should look like the following example: [give an example].
Other useful tips
- Give as much information as possible
This feels like stating the obvious, especially considering what already has been told, but it still remains the most vital part of writing good prompts. ChatGPT is unaware of your specific needs or queries, so it’s crucial to clearly convey your intentions or questions. This can only be done by giving ChatGPT as much information as you have when asking a question on something.
- Follow-up corrections/prompt chaining
ChatGPT will remember the environment it is in, namely the current chat you have with ChatGPT. When you have written your first prompt and generated your first answer, you can easily adjust the way in which the conversation is going by leveraging the context of the previous questions and answers. You can adjust and refine your questions based on the AI’s previous responses. If the AI misunderstands you, you can simply point out the error and proceed. This is something called prompt chaining, as you chain the prompts in a conversation. - Start a new chat when necessary
As stated in the previous point, ChatGPT will always keep track of it’s environment, the environment being the current chat it is in. Even though you can thus use this to your advantage, sometimes the chat is steering in an undesirable direction and you may want ChatGPT to forget about the past information all together. It can then be a good practice to start a new chat, resulting in ChatGPT forgetting any context of your current chat.
Example with output
You are a career coach. I am currently writing my resume and I am struggling with writing a short personal profile text. I want to write that I am a motivated student, that I already have finished my bachelor in Physics and now following my masters in Applied Physics. Please write a short, but good text for my personal profile that would grab the attention of employees. The output should be a small text of approximately 100 words.
