Writing specific and clear prompts is key to getting the most in your AI results.

Too vague or general and the AI will give you inconsistent answers that don’t meet your expectations.

Here are 3 examples of how to write clear and specific prompts to get the perfect reply each time.

Example 1: Book Recommendation

Vague prompt: Suggest a good book to read.

This prompt will give you a single book title from a list of thousands of well-reviewed books. The result could be a genre you have no interest in, such as vampire novels.

You can narrow the reply by specifying features such as genre, publication dates or length.

Refined prompt: Recommend three best-selling science fiction novels published in the last five years.

Example 2: Travel Tips

Vague prompt: Tell me about a nice place to visit.

This prompt could give literally anyplace on the planet. Not particularly useful if you’re nowhere near the location and don’t plan to travel there soon.

By focusing on a specific location that describes the type of sights you want to see you’ll generate much more useful replies.

Refined prompt: List three popular tourist attractions in Paris that are suitable for families with young children.

Example 3: Cooking Advice

Vague prompt: How do you cook pasta?

With this prompt you’ll get the “boil your pasta (any type) in water” response. Hardly the instructions you need to impress your date.

Being more specific about the type of pasta you want to cook and the type of instructions you want will yield more refined results.

Refined prompt: Provide a step-by-step recipe for making traditional Italian spaghetti carbonara, including ingredients and cooking times.