Unit II · Prompt Engineering
7. Writing good prompts
What is a prompt?
A prompt is what you type to an AI tool. It is your question or instruction.
Prompt engineering is the skill of writing prompts that give you good answers. It is the most important skill in this course. A good prompt gives a good answer. A lazy prompt gives a lazy answer.
A bad prompt and a good prompt
Bad prompt:
prompt
write about pollution
Good prompt:
prompt
You are a science teacher. Write a 150-word paragraph about air pollution in Visakhapatnam for 10th class students. Use simple English. Mention the steel plant and the port. End with 2 things students can do.
The second prompt tells the AI who it is, what to write, how long, for whom, in what style and what to include. That is why it works.
The five parts of a good prompt
Remember these five questions.
| Part | Question it answers | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Role | Who should the AI be? | "You are a C programming tutor." |
| Task | What should it do? | "Explain pointers." |
| Format | How should the answer look? | "Use 5 bullet points and one code example." |
| Context | What background does it need? | "I am a first year student. I know variables and loops." |
| Example | What does a good answer look like? | "Like this: int *p = &x; means p stores the address of x." |
You do not need all five every time. But the more you give, the better the answer.
Simple tips
- Be specific. "Write a notice" is weak. "Write a 100-word notice about a blood donation camp on 15 March at the GVPIHLR auditorium" is strong.
- Say the length. "In 3 sentences." "Under 200 words." "A one-page report."
- Say the audience. "For a 10-year-old." "For my HOD." "For a farmer."
- Say the format. "As a table." "As a numbered list." "As JSON."
- Give an example. Show the AI the style you want.
- Ask for steps. "Think step by step" helps with maths and logic.
- Ask again. If the answer is not good, say what is wrong. "Make it shorter." "Use simpler words." "Add an example about Araku."
- Break big tasks into small ones. First ask for an outline. Then ask for each section.
Things that do not help
- Being polite does not change much. "Please" is fine, but it does not make the answer better.
- Typing in ALL CAPS does not help.
- Very long prompts with everything mixed up confuse the AI. Keep it clear.
Try it
- Take a bad prompt: "tell me about Vizag". Rewrite it using Role, Task, Format, Context. Compare the two answers.
- Ask: "Explain recursion". Then: "Explain recursion to a first year student using the example of climbing the steps at Simhachalam temple. Use under 100 words." Which is easier to understand?
- Learn more: Google's prompting guide and OpenAI's prompt guide.
New words
- Prompt — the text you give to an AI tool.
- Prompt engineering — the skill of writing prompts that give good results.
- Role — the character or job the AI should act as.
- Task — the job you want done.
- Format — the shape of the answer: list, table, paragraph, code.
- Context — background information that helps the AI understand.
- Audience — the people who will read the answer.
- Specific — clear and exact, not vague.
- Outline — a short list of the main points, made before writing in full.