The five-part prompt

Why most prompts get weak answers

A vague question gets a vague answer, and it is not really the AI's fault. Ask it to 'write something about our new product' and you have left every real decision up to it: who it is for, what it should say, how long, what tone, what to avoid. So it guesses, and the guess is bland. A good prompt does not have to be long or clever. It just has to tell the AI the few things it cannot know unless you say them. Five of them cover almost everything: who it should be, what to do, what it needs to know, what shape the answer should take, and what to avoid.

See the difference

Same goal, two prompts. The first leaves it all to chance. The second gets a good answer the first time — and if it misses, you can see exactly which part to fix. The little labels on the right just show which of the five parts each line is; they are not part of the prompt, and Copy leaves them out.

Write a product description for our app.

The five parts, in plain terms

Use the ones that fit. The first two alone fix most bad answers.

1. 1Who it should be — 'You are an editor who cuts waffle.' This sets the tone and the standard.
2. 2What to do — the one clear job: 'Rewrite this email to be shorter and warmer.' One thing, clearly said.
3. 3What it needs to know — anything it cannot guess: who it is for, the background, what you are working with.
4. 4What shape — how the answer should look: 'Three bullet points, under 15 words each.'
5. 5What to avoid — the guardrails: what to leave out, what tone to skip, what not to assume.

A template to keep and reuse

Save this somewhere handy. Fill in the brackets and delete any line you do not need. Copy gives you the clean version — the labels stay on the page.

Three you can use today

The template put to work on everyday jobs. Copy one and swap in your own details.

You are an editor who cuts waffle but keeps things warm.
Rewrite the email below to be about half as long.
It is going to a client who is busy but likes a personal touch.
Keep it to two short paragraphs, in plain English.
Do not add anything new, and do not make it sound like a template.

[paste your email here]

You are clear and to the point.
Summarise the notes below for someone who missed the meeting.
They need to know what was decided and what happens next.
Lay it out as: Decisions, Actions (who does what), and Open questions.
Do not make anything up — if something is unclear, put it under Open questions.

[paste your notes here]

You are a patient teacher who never makes people feel silly.
Explain what an API is to me.
I already know my way around a spreadsheet; I am trying to follow what our developers say in meetings.
Use one short paragraph and one everyday comparison.
No jargon, unless you explain it in the same sentence.

If the answer still is not right

Do not start over. Just find the one part that was missing or wrong, and fix that. A vague answer usually means you did not say what shape you wanted. A generic one usually means it did not know enough about your situation. A wrong-tone one usually means you did not tell it who to be, or what to avoid.