Generative AI Prompt Writing
To get the most useful responses from a generative AI tool, it helps to understand how to structure your prompt.
A strong prompt usually includes four key parts: the role (who the AI should act as), the task (what you want it to do), any requirements (specific details or constraints), and the instructions (how you’d like it to respond).
In this section, we’ll break down each part of this prompting structure so you can write clearer prompts to build study guides, get tailored writing feedback, or find better math explanations.
Four Parts of Effective Prompts by Sheridan Learning Services
Effective prompts include four key elements: Role, Task, Requirements, and Instructions.
Click on the boxes below the image to learn more about each element!
Prompts starting with "act as..." or "pretend to be..." will provide responses in a similar style as a person who holds that role. Setting a specific role for a given prompt increases the likelihood you'll get more accurate information (when done appropriately).
For example: Act as an expert in the computer science field.
Picking a role for the AI tool will determine the type of information you'll receive and the way the information is communicated back to you. Roles can also help determine the interactivity of the conversation.
The task is a summary of what you want the prompt to do. There's lots of creativity involved in writing a great task—it can range from generating birthday gift ideas to doing game show questions with the content from your last lecture.
Make sure to outline what you want the AI tool to do. Be specific about the task's objective—an unclear goal or idea will lead to worse outputs.
Writing clear requirements is all about giving as much information as possible to make sure your response doesn't use any incorrect assumptions. AI models make assumptions for any information they don't have in the prompt.
It's helpful to define what an output should look like and list any conditions that might affect the output. For example, do you want information to be presented in a table or listed in bullet points?
Instructions will tell the AI how to complete the task. Instructions can include examples of how you want the AI to do the work, and it can include steps the AI can follow or any other information you think the AI needs to have.
Some areas to consider include:
Let's pull everything together! What would a sample prompt look like if we wanted to create a study guide for a biology class?
Click the button below to see how Microsoft Copilot might answer this prompt!
