Have you ever asked ChatGPT a question and gotten a flat, vague, or completely off-topic answer? The problem is probably not the AI\u2014it’s how you talked to it. Welcome to the world of prompt engineering, beginner edition.<\/p>\n
A prompt is simply the command or question you give to AI. “Write me some text” is a prompt. “Write me 300 words about the benefits of composting for a blog aimed at Quebec families” is a better prompt. The second one is more specific.<\/p>\n
Rule 1: Be Specific.<\/strong> Instead of “Explain marketing,” try “Explain the difference between organic social media growth and paid ads in 100 words for someone who’s never done digital marketing.”<\/p>\n Rule 2: Give Context.<\/strong> “Write me a bio” is vague. “Write me a 150-word bio for a LinkedIn profile. I’m a bookkeeper in Quebec who specializes in small e-commerce businesses and uses AI to automate tax filing. I’m friendly and approachable” gives the AI real information to work with.<\/p>\n Rule 3: Specify Format.<\/strong> Do you want bullet points, paragraphs, a table, or code? Say it. “Give me a numbered list of 10 questions I should ask a client about their business expenses.”<\/p>\n Rule 4: Set the Tone.<\/strong> Do you want professional, casual, funny, formal? “Write a casual email to a client explaining why we need their receipt scans\u2014make it friendly, not pushy.”<\/p>\n Vague prompt: “What’s tax planning?” Same AI. Completely different output.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you ever asked ChatGPT a question and gotten a flat, vague, or completely off-topic answer? The problem is probably…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-understanding-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laeka.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laeka.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laeka.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laeka.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laeka.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/laeka.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":930,"href":"https:\/\/laeka.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions\/930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laeka.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laeka.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laeka.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laeka.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Difference It Makes<\/h2>\n
\nBetter prompt: “Explain tax planning to a small business owner who’s made $100,000 in profit this year and doesn’t know where to start. Use simple language and include three concrete examples.”<\/p>\n