You can get ChatGPT to provide you with incredible answers to various questions by giving it a simple request or asking it a question. But if you take the time to write a better prompt, you will get even better results.
What does a prompt engineer do? This is a profession that many didn't see coming. Yet with the rise of AI-powered tools like Midjourney and ChatGPT, it has become a notable profession. People with this job title experiment with AI to find which prompts yield the best results.
Even small changes in your approach to writing a prompt can drastically increase the quality of the generated results. So, how do you write good chat prompts for ChatGPT?
What Is a Prompt?
Let's start with the basics. If you're new to ChatGPT or any other AI-powered tool, you'll be hearing the word 'prompt' a lot.
So, what is a prompt?
We can define a prompt as a set of keywords that you use as input when you want to generate a result from an AI tool. It can be in the form of a question or a request. It can be really short or even a few paragraphs long.
How to Write Good Prompts for ChatGPT
Writing prompts is really intuitive. All you have to do is ask a specific question or say whatever is on your mind for the chatbot to answer. You can start using ChatGPT the same way you use Google search. From there, you can let your imagination run wild and see what the chatbot is capable of.
I also want to mention a great website that I came across that you can explore if you want to learn more about how to make good prompts not only for ChatGPT but other AI-powered tools as well. The website is called Learn Prompting and it represents a completely free and open-source course on communicating with artificial intelligence.
ChatGPT is an incredibly useful tool that can help you boost your income. However, you should take the time to learn how to use it in a way that yields the best results.
Define Your Intent
The first thing you should do whenever you want to write a prompt is define your intent. Think about what you want the result of your question or request to be.
Let's say that I want to write an article about a complex subject like quantum computing. I want ChatGPT to generate a concise explanation of quantum computing that I'll use for inspiration when writing the article. Here's what happens if I ask it to only explain the concept.
Although this is a great explanation, I want it to be simpler so that virtually anyone can understand the concept. This will be possible only if I define my intent and create a more detailed prompt. This time, I'll ask ChatGPT to explain it in layman's terms.
Now you can see that when you make small adjustments to your prompt, you get a better result.
I could've just as easily made a prompt that made the generated response more appealing to people familiar with the subject. If my audience was filled with individuals with an interest in quantum computing, here's what I would've asked ChatGPT to do.
I used content writing as an example here, but you can apply the same type of thinking regardless of what you want the chatbot to do.
Set Your Parameters
To get a more precise result, you should set certain parameters. In this context, parameters are any additional bits of information that will influence the desired outcome. For instance, you can ask ChatGPT to mention certain words, make a joke, use sarcasm, etc.
Let's take the same example as in the section before and set a few parameters to see how they affect the generated response.
This is so much better than any of the responses generated on this topic so far.
With the right parameters, I was able to transform the content from something bland into text with a bit of personality. This makes it much easier for me to further shape the content to my liking.
Define the Role of the Chatbot
You can get good responses if you just flat-out ask ChatGPT a question. But if you take the time to define the role of the chatbot, you can get even better results. If you're wondering how you consistently write good prompts, this is one of the best ways to do it.
I'll explain how you can define the chatbot's role with prompts. In the first prompt, I'll simply ask the chatbot to generate an article on how to boost productivity.
This may be a great response, but we can make it even better with a few tweaks. Now, I'll tell ChatGPT that it is one of the best motivational speakers on the planet and give it the same objective to see what it will come up with.
As you can see, by defining the role of the chatbot you can get a better result. This is because you provided ChatGPT with more context and helped it better understand its objective.
Define the Format
You should always let the chatbot know what you need content for. There's a difference between the content it generates depending on whether you ask it to write a blog post or a LinkedIn post.
You can also give ChatGPT instructions to write Instagram post descriptions, tweets, YouTube video descriptions, and more. Define the format clearly and you'll achieve the desired result. Here's an example.
You can request multiple forms of content to be generated in a single response. This can drastically cut down the amount of time needed to write any type of short-form content.
Write Additional Prompts
One of the best things about ChatGPT is that it enables you to conduct research more efficiently than it was possible before. Before we get into the prompting method I'm going to describe in this section, I feel it's my obligation to note that you should take the time to fact-check the information you get from the chatbot.
Although the information ChatGPT provides you will be correct in a lot of cases, it can still be really wrong. One of the main things that the chatbot lacks is the ability to provide you with sources for its claims. But I guess we’ll have to wait on the new Bing search engine to get this feature.
Now that we got that out of the way, let's focus on how you can write chained prompts. I'll once again take the example of quantum computing. In the response I received in my final prompt about quantum computing, I noticed something about trapped ions. I didn't understand what this meant.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, you should ask a follow-up question. This will help you both understand the topic better and help you provide additional context to your readers.
This is an excellent explanation that makes it easier to explain the concept mentioned in the article. If I was writing an article on quantum computing, this response would inspire me to explain what trapped ions are to my readers.
You can ask as many follow-up questions as you want to better understand the topic you're writing about. Here's another example.
I could've guessed what quantum sensing is, but I want all of my content to be based on actual facts. I could also do a Google search, but that would've taken more time. With ChatGPT, I can simply ask an additional question and get a detailed answer.
Use References
If you're a content writer, you surely like reading. In this profession, you quickly learn how styles differ between various news organizations, magazines, and blogs. If you want your content to be similar to that of an established organization, you can simply use them as a reference when writing a ChatGPT prompt.
I asked the chatbot to write a short article of up to 500 words that touches on the topic of why most small businesses fail in the first year. When I thought of this topic, Forbes instantly came to my mind as this is the type of article I expect to read on their website.
By providing ChatGPT with a reference, it does a better job at writing the article in a desired tone.
Refine the Prompt
Whether you give a certain instruction or ask the chatbot a question, you will usually get a pretty good response. But that doesn't mean that you should stop prompting right then and there.
Experiment with your prompts to see how they will affect the outcome. Take time to refine your prompts in order to get exactly what you're looking for.
Take for example the prompt below. I asked ChatGPT to write a short text on the importance of learning how to code.
The response seems perfect at first. I got the answer I was looking for. But although the benefits of learning this skill are clearly listed, it doesn't seem quite inspirational. And when I want to convey a message about the importance of learning a new skill, I want the tone to be inspirational.
If I simply sprinkle a few adjectives in the prompt, I can greatly affect the outcome.
I decided that I was going to use three adjectives to explain to the chatbot what I'm looking for. I used the following adjectives - inspirational, uplifting, and encouraging.
The result was much better. This is the type of content that I would like to see written in an article covering a topic like this. It has personality and makes you want to take a Python course as soon as you finish reading it.
Step-by-Step Prompts
It's often hard to digest information on topics you're not familiar with. Let's say that ChatGPT inspired us to take up learning how to code with the response in the previous section of the article.
We start to ask the chatbot to explain common concepts in programming, but they're not easy to understand. What should you do to better digest the content?
It's easy - ask the chatbot to take a step-by-step approach when explaining something.
When ChatGPT uses a step-by-step approach, it breaks any concept down into several key points to explain how it works. This is an excellent method that you can use whenever you want to learn a new skill with ChatGPT.
Become an Expert at Writing Prompts
You can use the advice provided in this article to become much better at writing ChatGPT prompts. Use the guidance I provided you with today to practice how to get exactly what you want from the chatbot. In summary, you can write good chat prompts for ChatGPT by:
- Thinking about what you want the result of your prompt to be - defining your intent
- Setting the right parameters
- Defining the chatbot's role
- Defining the right format of your prompt
- Writing additional prompts
- Using references
- Refining the prompt until you get it right
- Using step-by-step prompts
It's important to remember that writing prompts is not as straightforward as it sometimes looks. It's actually an activity that requires you to be really creative in order to get the desired result.
Now that you're familiar with the differences between a standard and a good prompt, you just need to inject your creativity to get the most out of any AI-powered tool.
