Prompt Workshop

Now let's practise. In this workshop, you will see three real tasks, an email, a study plan, and a data summary. For each, we start with a weak prompt, and improve it, step by step. Watch how small changes create big improvements.

• Three real tasks
• From weak to strong prompts
• Small changes, big improvements

Task one: a difficult email

Task one, an email to a customer, whose order is late. The weak prompt says, write an email about a late order. The strong prompt says, you are a polite customer support agent. Write a short email, to a customer, whose order is three days late. Apologise sincerely, explain the courier delayed it, offer ten percent off, and keep it under one hundred words. The second prompt gives a result you can send, nearly unchanged.

Task two: a study plan

Task two, a study plan. Weak, make me a study plan. Strong, you are a patient tutor. I have four weeks to learn the basics of statistics, one hour on weekdays. Create a weekly plan, with a topic for each week, three small exercises, and a short quiz at the end. Ask me first, if you need to know anything about my background. The second one, personalises the result, and even invites a conversation.

Task three: summarising data

Task three, summarising a report. Weak, summarise this. Strong, summarise the report between the triple quotes, for a busy manager. Give three bullet points of key findings, one risk, and one recommended action. Use plain language, and no jargon. Notice how the strong prompt names the audience, the structure, and the style. That is the whole secret, in one example.

Your prompt checklist

Here is a checklist to keep. Did I give a role? Did I say exactly what I want? Did I add the background that matters? Did I describe the format? Did I mention length, and tone? Did I give an example, if the task is unusual? And am I ready to iterate? If you can answer yes to most of these, your prompt is strong.

Summary