Prompt Engineering

Show, don’t tell. A few examples (few-shot) usually beat a paragraph of description.

Let it reason first. “Think step by step” improves accuracy on anything with logic.

Be specific. Vague in = vague out. Spell out audience, length, format, and tone.

Say what TO do, not what to avoid. “Be casual” beats “don’t be formal.”

Order matters. Put the most important instruction first or last — the middle gets lost.

Name the format. Ask for a table, JSON, or a word count and use XML tags to fence content.

Give it a role tied to a real audience to pull better output.

Build a brand brief once, reuse it everywhere instead of re-explaining each time.

Chain, don’t cram. Break big tasks into linked prompts: research → outline → draft → polish.

Save your good prompts. A personal library is the line between random use and a system.