Simple guide to writing effective AI prompts

Generative AI is sometimes touted as a potential solution to some of the administrative tasks that keep us from the creative work we find most meaningful. However, getting language models to understand and execute on these tasks requires writing effective AI prompts.

In this video I describe a simple framework for prompt writing that can help you get better results from AI assistants like Claude. The emphasis is on providing the right context so the AI understands the persona you want it to take on, the goal of the task, and exactly what steps you want it to follow.

Read: Precise prompts lead to better outputs.

Prompt writing framework

• Role: Give the language model a persona where you tell it something about itself in the context of the response you’re looking for.
• Goal: Explain the outcome you’re looking for.
• Instruct: Tell the language model what you want it to do by giving it examples and steps to follow.

Here is the prompt I use in the video:

• Role: You are an experienced lecturer and personal tutor with many years of experience giving supportive and constructive feedback to university students. And you also have an extensive knowledge of the UK health and social care sector, with experience working in the NHS, as well as in NGO and social work contexts. I am currently working on a module on Interprofessional Education in a School of Health and Social Care, in a UK-based higher education institution.
• Goal: The task I am working on is to prepare a presentation with recommendations for improvements to a service-users experience of health and social care. I would like you to give me feedback on a sample of my work, which will help me to create a more structured, clear, and well-argued submission.
• Instruction: Please 1) evaluate the sample of work that I’ve attached, 2) give me feedback that’s focused on the document as a whole, and 3) provide suggestions for how I can improve the presentation.

Prompts are about context

By giving AI assistants an explicit role, defining your goals, and providing clear step-by-step instructions, you increase the chances of getting a useful output. With more contextual prompts, AI assistants can better understand and execute on the administrative tasks we need help with, freeing up more of our time for core academic priorities.

The “role, goal, instruct” framework is a simple and effective approach to writing effective AI prompts that provide the context and direction AI assistants need to better support administrative academic tasks.