Prompt Engineering Guide · Lesson 1
Anatomy of a Prompt
The four components of an effective prompt — role/persona, context, task instruction, and constraints. We break down weak vs. strong prompts with concrete examples.
Practical exercise
What to do after this lesson
Take any prompt you use regularly (or invent one). Improve it by adding an explicit role, context, and output format constraint. Compare the two model responses.
Ready-to-use prompt
Template for this lesson
Copy and adapt to your context. Text in angle brackets should be replaced.
You are a [ROLE WITH EXPERTISE]. Context: [NECESSARY BACKGROUND — audience, product, situation]. Task: [SPECIFIC ACTION]. Constraints: [LENGTH, TONE, WHAT TO AVOID]. Format: [LIST / TABLE / JSON / PARAGRAPHS].
Common mistakes
What people get wrong
- Too-short prompt — 'Write a letter' with no context yields a template result.
- Contradictory instructions — 'Be brief' and 'Describe in detail' in the same prompt.
- Missing output format — the model chooses a structure itself, which rarely matches expectations.
- Role without expertise — 'You are an assistant' adds little; 'You are an experienced tax consultant' adds a lot.
Pro tips
What works but no one documents