Nine practical prompts to improve ChatGPT responses

You ask ChatGPT to edit a sentence and it rewrites the text. You ask it about a project and it praises it before discussing its risks. You look for a quick answer and the takeaway gets lost among long introductions. Sometimes you need to specify how you want the answer with the same clarity you use to ask the question.

Writer Amanda Caswell presented nine prompts she uses to tune responses. They are linguistic shortcuts that can be explained in Arabic, not keys to activate secret capabilities. These are practical formulas to try:

1. Write in my style

When editing a message or post, specify the level of intervention required: "Fix errors and remove fluff, but keep my style and do not rewrite the text entirely."

2. Critique my idea

Before buying a device or launching a project, ask for an honest assessment: "Discuss the flaws of this idea and its risks, and state the information I'm missing to judge it."

3. Give me the takeaway

When faced with a long report, start with the question that matters to you: "What are the three most important pieces of information here? And what do they mean for me?"

4. Go beyond what I know

If you are familiar with the topic, state your level of knowledge: "I know the basics. Focus on advanced differences and mistakes an experienced person might miss."

5. Show me what you changed

To avoid comparing two long versions, say: "Show only the sentences you edited, and put the new version next to each sentence." This way you can review the changes before adopting them.

6. Turn the reply into bullet points

When preparing for a meeting or organizing ideas, specify the format: "Write five short points, starting with the most important, with no introduction."

7. Compare in a table

Don't just ask for a comparison of two phones or travel plans. Specify the criteria: "Compare price, features, and drawbacks in a table, and indicate unavailable information."

8. Defend the opposing view

Test your decision with a counter question: "I'm convinced of this plan. Provide the strongest argument against it, and what might make me reconsider?"

9. Ask me before you solve

When the problem is unclear, request a step-by-step dialogue: "Ask me one question at a time to understand the problem, then propose a solution after collecting the information."

How to use them? Choose the prompt that serves your task, then attach the text or details and specify the response length. You can define a shorthand inside the conversation, for example: "When I say 'review,' I mean correct the language without changing the meaning."

But an organized answer is not necessarily correct. These requests help clarify what you want, while fact-checking numbers and facts remains a necessary step before publishing or making a decision.