Using Specific Prompts for AI
Effective use of AI in educational settings greatly depends on how you interact with it, and using specific prompts is a key aspect of this interaction. Specific prompts ensure that the AI understands your needs accurately and provides the most relevant and useful responses.
This is Step 2 on how to use AI for general use. See the rest of the steps.
Importance of Specific Prompts
Clarity and Precision: Specific prompts provide clear and precise instructions to the AI, reducing ambiguity. This clarity helps the AI understand exactly what you are looking for, whether it’s help with a research topic, grammar check, or creating study guides.
Efficiency: By using specific prompts, you save time. Instead of engaging in a lengthy back-and-forth to refine your query, a well-crafted prompt can get you the desired response more quickly.
Relevance: Specific prompts ensure that the AI’s responses are relevant to your needs. For instance, if you need help with a history paper on the Renaissance, a specific prompt will ensure that the AI focuses on that period rather than providing unrelated information.
Steps for Crafting Specific Prompts
Be Clear and Concise: When crafting a prompt, be clear and concise. Instead of asking, “Can you help me with my modern art essay?”, try, “Can you help me create an outline for my essay on the impact of the Renaissance on modern art?”
Provide Context: Giving the AI some context can significantly improve the quality of the response. For example, instead of saying, “Explain photosynthesis,” you could say, “Explain photosynthesis for a biology 101 class, focusing on the light-dependent reactions.” Think of what time, place, or style you would like the AI to approach the topic from.
Ask Specific Questions: Specific questions yield specific answers. Instead of asking, “What is calculus?”, try, “Can you explain the concept of integration in calculus with an example?”
Include Keywords: Keywords are essential in guiding the AI. For instance, if you are looking for information on a particular theory, include the name of the theory and any related terms in your prompt. Example: “Describe Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and its stages.” instead of "Describe cognitive development.
Ask for a Structured Format: If you need a structure to the AI's output, add it to the prompt. This could be bulleted lists, compare and contrast two ideas, or a step by step guide.
Add in Explicit Constraints: Ask the AI to restrict an output. Examples would be a word limit, ask it to give you a summary, or ask it to give you the answer at a specific learning level.
Things to avoid:
Vagueness: The AI has the entire internet to work with. If you are too vague, it will pick things out, and make things that sound the same as everything else you find. It will also hallucinate more.
Over-complication: If you give the AI too many constraints, it will overload or misunderstand them. Keep things to no more than 3 descriptors per main idea. Then use Step 3(Iteration) to get a more focused answer.
Assuming Knowledge: The AI can not read your mind. It can and will assume things that you did not want it to give. Specify what subject, topic, or idea you want it to follow.
Leading Questions: This will give skewed results. If you state "Why is X better than Y?" you are loading the question with the assumption that X is better than Y, and the AI will follow that line of thought. A better question would be "Which is better, X or Y, and are there more options?"
Avoid Jargon and Acronyms: AIs may or may not understand what you are saying, and make up a meaning instead of what you meant. This will give off what looks like a good answer, but in reality the answer is completely incorrect.
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Click here for VCSU's Faculty guide on using AI wisely.
Click here for student uses of AI.
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References:
Bowen, J. A., & Watson, C. E. (2024). Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press
Gates, M. (n.d.). How to write AI prompts: AI Prompting Cheat Sheet. Retrieved from Power to Fly: https://powertofly.com/up/how-to-write-ai-prompts-ai-prompting-cheat-sheet
Mollick, E., & Mollick, L. (2023). Assigning AI: Seven Approaches for Students with Prompts. Wharton Interactive.
Created with assistance from ChatGPT. (used to generate ideas and editing)
OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT-4o (June 2024 version). [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat