Prompt Basics · Lesson 1 of 3
How to ask
Tell the AI five things and you get a useful answer.
A clear prompt has five parts. Who you are. What you want. For whom. What good looks like. What to avoid. Skip any of these and the AI fills in the blanks for you — usually wrong.
Imagine asking a colleague to write an email for you. You would not just say “write an email”. You would tell them who it is to, what you want to say, and what tone to strike. AI is the same. It has no context except what you give it.
The good news: the five things are short. Once you have written one good prompt, the pattern is easy to copy. Within a week of doing this on purpose, it stops feeling like work and starts feeling like how you naturally ask.
The five things
- 1
Who you are
Your role, your level, the situation you are in. The AI does not know any of this. Without it, the AI writes for the average reader and the average reader is not you.
Example line:
I am a customer-support team lead at a Bengaluru SaaS company.
- 2
What you want
The task, plainly. One sentence. If you cannot say it in one sentence, the AI cannot either.
Example line:
I need to draft an email to an international client apologising for a missed deadline on their integration.
- 3
For whom
The audience. A senior person? A peer? An angry customer? A nervous junior? The audience changes the tone, the word choice, and the structure.
Example line:
The client is the head of engineering at a US-based fintech. We have worked with them for a year. The relationship is good. They are direct.
- 4
What good looks like
Length, tone, format. If you do not say it, the AI guesses. The AI tends to guess long, formal, and bullet-pointed. If that is not what you want, say so.
Example line:
Keep it under 250 words. Professional but warm. Take responsibility without grovelling. Plain paragraphs, no bullet points.
- 5
What to avoid
The obvious traps. AI has habits. It loves "I hope this email finds you well" and "I am writing to inform you" and "Please do not hesitate to reach out". If you do not want those, name them.
Example line:
Don't open with 'I hope this email finds you well.' Don't use 'I regret to inform you.' Don't end with 'Please do not hesitate to reach out.'
Before and after
Same task. Two prompts. Two very different answers.
Vague prompt
Write an apology email about a missed deadline.
What you get: 400 words. “I hope this email finds you well” opener. Three bullet points about “next steps”. Could be addressed to anyone. Generic enough to be useless.
Clear prompt
I am a customer-support team lead at a Bengaluru SaaS company. I need to draft an email to a client's head of engineering, apologising for missing a deadline on their integration. We have a good year-long relationship. Keep it under 250 words. Professional but warm. Take responsibility without grovelling. Plain paragraphs. Don't open with “I hope this email finds you well” or use “I regret to inform you”.
What you get: A draft you can send after a small edit. Specific. Right length. Right tone. The relationship intact.
Try it yourself
Pick something you actually need to write today. Fill in the five blanks. Paste into ChatGPT, Claude, or any AI. See what comes back.
I am [who you are]. I need to [what you want]. The audience is [for whom]. Good looks like: [length, tone, format]. Don't [obvious traps to avoid].
For English practice, skip the writing
If the task is to practise spoken English, you do not need to write the five things yourself. The Master Prompt Builder asks you the five things as a form, then writes the prompt for you.
Open the Master Prompt Builder →