Good prompts vs bad
Four real asks, each written badly and then written well. The difference is never the AI.
Most people write poor prompts, and Claude never pushes back. It answers the question you asked, not the one you meant.
The four moves are the ones on my own Prompt Cheat Sheet, and they line up with Anthropic’s own prompt design guidance.
The theory lives on How to Prompt →, where the three steps are. This page is the practice.
Context
Say who you are and what this is for
Write an email chasing an unpaid invoice.
Back comes a template. Stiff, generic, and wrong for a client you want to keep.
Write an email chasing an unpaid invoice. Long-standing client I want to keep, three weeks overdue, first time it has happened. Friendly, one short paragraph.
Back comes something you would actually send.
- Who are you, and who is this going to?
- What has already happened between you?
- What would the wrong tone cost you?
The move: Set the stage. Anthropic’s guidance puts it the same way: write as if to someone with no background knowledge about what you are asking.
Examples
Show it one that already works
Write me a job advert for an office manager.
Back comes something that sounds like every other advert on the board.
Write a job advert for an office manager. Match the two adverts pasted below: same length, same plain tone, no buzzwords. Keep our line about flexible hours.
It copies a pattern instead of guessing at one.
- Do you already have one that worked?
- Can you paste two, so it sees the pattern and not the one-off?
- What must never appear? Name it.
The move: Specify the rules. One or two examples teach the pattern faster than any description of it.
Feel the difference between a weak move and a strong one.
Limits
Name the length, the shape and the tone
Summarise this report.
Back comes something long. You now have two documents to read instead of one.
Summarise the attached report in one page: the three decisions it asks for, the risk against each, and what happens if we do nothing. Bullets, no preamble.
One page you can carry into the meeting.
- How long, in words or in pages?
- What shape: bullets, a table, an email, one page?
- Which sections do you actually need?
The move: Specify the rules. Most of the quality lives here. Say the length, format, sections and tone, and you have pinned down the shape of the answer.
Steps
Number the thinking you want it to do
Help me plan my week.
Back comes a tidy calendar that quietly ignores the part that actually matters.
Plan my week, step by step. First list everything due. Then mark what only I can do. Then block those around the meetings already in the calendar. Then tell me what will not fit.
It does the hard part instead of skipping it.
- What has to happen before the next bit makes sense?
- Which step do you keep redoing by hand afterwards?
- Would you rather see its working?
The move: Define the task. Anthropic’s guidance again agrees: break complex requests down into substeps.
Rewrite one of your own
One real ask, one missing move, ten minutes.
- 1
Find one thing you asked for this week that came back generic.
- 2
Read it back and name the missing move: context, an example, a limit, or steps.
- 3
Add that one move, and nothing else. Same chat, same day, ask again.
- 4
Keep the better version. It is the opening line of the next one.
The moves you end up adding every single time do not belong in every prompt. Put them in your general instructions → once.
Three questions, before you send
Run them on the next prompt you write. A yes is the move you are missing.
Could anyone have sent it?
context- Then it carries none of your situation.
- Add the two lines only you know.
Would any answer do?
limits- Then you have not said what good looks like.
- Give it a length and a shape.
Is it three jobs in one?
steps- Then it will do the easy one well.
- Number them, or split the chat.
- Context: say who you are and what this is for.
- Examples: show one that already works, rather than describing it.
- Limits: name the length, the shape and the tone.
- Steps: number the thinking you want it to do.
- The read-back test: could anyone have sent this, and would any answer do?
This week: rewrite one ask that came back generic. Keep it by you: the one-page Prompt Cheat Sheet →
The three steps behind all four moves: How to Prompt → Too long to type out? Say it instead →
Do it with someone. Everything here is free and you can run it alone. If you would rather work through it with me, one to one, book a free 30-minute chat. No pitch.