Ourbit Academy

Write and test a stronger prompt in 5 minutes

A clear instruction and a small test showing whether it produces useful work.

Step by step

1. Minute 1 — State the outcome and audience. Replace “write something about AI” with “explain generative AI to a new office employee”.
2. Minute 2 — Supply relevant context and approved source material. Leave out private details the service does not need.
3. Minute 3 — Define the output and constraints: length, format, tone, source limits and how to handle uncertainty. Explain what a good answer must contain.
4. Minute 4 — Run or manually simulate the request. Check the output against your criteria rather than its confident tone.
5. Minute 5 — Change the instruction that caused the largest gap, then test again. Record what changed and whether the result improved.

Worked example

Explain generative AI to a new office employee in 120 words. Include one useful task, one limitation and one verification step. Use plain English. Do not claim that fluent output guarantees truth.

Optional AI prompt

Task: [outcome]. Audience: [who]. Context and sources: [approved material]. Output: [format and length]. Quality criteria: [specific checks]. If essential information is missing, identify the gap instead of inventing it.

Your practice task

Compare a vague prompt with the structured version on the same task. Score relevance, evidence and clarity, and explain one remaining limitation.

Check your work

Does the result meet the actual goal? Is information grounded in the supplied context? Did the revision improve the specific weakness you identified?

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