What are Prompts, and How Do I Create Effective Ones

Have you ever wondered why some ChatGPT responses are spot-on while others miss the mark? The answer lies in how you create your prompts!

Before we proceed, let’s address a fundamental question…

“What Are Prompts?”

A prompt is simply a question you issue to ChatGPT to get a response, or a set of instructions to get it to work on a task. A good prompt, correspondingly, gets you results that are as close to your expectations as possible.

(Since we are at it — you may have come across the term “prompt engineering“. This refers to the deliberate effort and practice of crafting effective prompts. There are numerous prompt engineering frameworks commonly used, and what you see in this article is one of them.)

“So what makes a good prompt?” you might ask. This article discusses four elements you need to focus on.

1. Clarity and Specificity

The first and most important element is: Clarity and Specificity. Ensure that your prompt is clear and specific. This means providing enough detail to avoid ambiguity and guide ChatGPT to deliver the exact information you need.

Let’s look at a vague and broad prompt:

Tell me about marketing.

Wouldn’t you agree that this prompt is likely to result in a wide array of possible responses from ChatGPT that are general and not useful?

If you change it to:

Explain three key strategies for digital marketing that can help increase website traffic.

You’ll see this prompt is focused and specific. See how it states the requirements and the output you expect from ChatGPT clearly, and you can expect ChatGPT to be clear and specific with its response too.

2. Role

The second element is the role you want ChatGPT to play when responding to your request. Defining the role frames ChatGPT’s response within a specific context. This not only ensures you get insights that reflect the knowledge and expertise of the specified role but also helps ChatGPT avoid unnecessary or irrelevant details.

An example prompt without defining the role is:

Give me advice on cat's health.

Now, compare it with this one that includes a role definition:

Imagine you are a pet health consultant with 10 years of experience in taking care of cats. Give me 10 best tips on how I can improve my cat's health.

Clearly you’re more likely to get relevant and expert advice with the second prompt.

3. Context

The third element is Context. This involves providing background information to help ChatGPT understand your particular situation.

Here are some examples of the background information a good prompt can have:
“This article is for beginners in C Programming”
“I need this presentation to persuade senior management.”
“Our target audience is young professionals aged 25-35.”
“We have a limited budget for this project.”

Or longer ones, like the following that an iPhone app developer might use:

My target users are young working adults aged 24 to 30, both male and female, with at least a high school education or higher. They are interested in new gadgets and technology. They primarily speak English.

Context gives ChatGPT a direction when it crafts its responses to fit your specific needs.

4. Examples

Finally, incorporate examples. Providing examples clarifies your expectations and guides ChatGPT towards the kind of response you are looking for.

For instance, you can tell ChatGPT:

Here's an example of a speech I found online. Can you create a similar speech focusing on improving cycling skills?

You can provide the example to ChatGPT in text format by simply copying and pasting the text. Alternatively, you can upload images or files directly to ChatGPT, as it now supports these formats.

To sum up, a good prompt is clear, specific, role-defined, context-rich, and includes examples. In the next article, we will discuss common mistakes in creating prompts. Stay tuned!