By Riccardo Esposito | Published on
A prompt for ChatGPT is text that guides the AI in generating a response. It helps to understand the context of the request: it starts and fuels the conversation. Knowing how to write a prompt on ChatGPT is essential.
We understand now how ChatGPT works and what can we ask of this artificial intelligence model founded by OpenAI. In reality there is still a lot to explore but, as always, everything starts from a prompt. That is, a text command.
We are now used to commanding our personal AI with quick and well-defined texts. A question and ChatGPT answers. But not everyone knows that the quality of the prompts you enter determines the response. Basically, you have to learn to write prompts for ChatGPT.
What are ChatGPT prompts?
Prompts were not born with AI but have always been a constant in IT. In practice they are commands. Translation from English is “required”. So, the prompt on the web might be the search for something on the website with the search field.
I ask on ChatGPT are the requests that are typed in the questions and requests entry field. This is to get the right answer.
We know that ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence model trained on large amounts of data to generate text. Prompts guide the model in generating appropriate responses and save you time if they are written the right way. That is to say? Read on for information on the job of prompt designer.
Must read: how to blog with ChatGPT
What is a prompt on ChatGPT for?
The role of prompts; they provide the instructions that guide the generation of the response. The text generation process begins with an input instance that you provide in textual form, which contains one or more sentences or questions for drive ChatGPT’s response.
The model parses the prompt for understand the context and user intent. But they must be worded carefully, as the model may respond sensitively to keywords or information contained in the prompt itself.
As anticipated, if you want to do copywriting with ChatGPT or work on any other front useful for your purposeyou need to learn how to create quality prompts. How?
Some example prompts for ChatGPT
To start working on your prompt engineering activity – the ability to ask relevant and correct questions to AI – it is right to give some examples of how to write an effective prompt. Here, for example, is a command used for lead nurturing.
Crea un funnel di vendita via email per un'azienda B2B che vende macchine agricole a coltivatori. Genera la struttura dei messaggi. Puoi inviare welcome email, contenuti informativi, follow up, offerete speciali.The text generation phase begins. ChatGPT uses the context provided by the prompt and previous inputs (if any) to predict the next word in the response. This process is based on a combination of language modulation and be careful.
What goal? The ChatGPT model assign weights to different words in the input text to determine which information is most relevant to generating the response.
How to write a prompt on ChatGPT
I’ll summarize the essential points: start with an imperative verb, remove everything that isn’t needed, add fundamental information to contextualize, ask for a specific output with adequate formatting, give concrete examples. Do you want to learn more?
Aim for simplicity
The first tip for write a prompt effective on ChatGPT – the same goes for Google Bard – is that of simplicity. You must add basic information, without frills and unnecessary turns of phrase. There is no point in greeting the AI, entertaining oneself and starting discussions.
For example, for ChatGPT (which is one of the best AI tools for serious writing and copywriting) it makes a difference if you ask to rewrite or simplify a text. I advise you to indicate the instructions to be given to the your ChatGPT account in this way:
- Use simple verbs.
- Choose affirmative sentences.
- Remove any ambiguity.
- Avoid mincing words.
- Remove tweens.
What you need is to start with an imperative verb and continue with an object. But be careful, paraphrasing the words of Italo Calvino, I tell you that lightness does not mean banality. The first piece of advice is to keep the prompt simple. The second one?
Break down complex tasks. Clearly outline each step and if necessary ask ChatGPT to address each point independently. This can help you cope very complex issues and with different facets.
Use delimiters for your prompts
We know you can quote texts and give clear examples at the ChatGPT prompt. But can artificial intelligence distinguish without hesitation between instructions and ancillary texts? The solution: Use delimiters to mark the start and the end of the instructions.
You can include text with triple quotes (""" text """). The same can be done with three quotes or dashes, but also with angle brackets (
Riassumi questo testo semplificandolo: """ testo """
Here is an example of how to use these elements. Delimiters (you can also use ### instead of “””) help separate instructions from the contentreducing confusion.
Give information about the facility
You can give the right instructions to ChatGPT also in this way: suggesting what the result should be in terms of structure and formatting. For example, you can write prompts in which you suggest responding with a bulleted or numbered list.
One more clear example: you can ask ChatGPT to return the data you loaded into the chat in the table. Maybe even in HTML format to simplify embedding. Among the different tricks to use ChatGPT at its best, this is one of my favorites.
Try prompts in English
ChatGPT was trained using multiple idioms, but the percentage of English text in the material used is significantly higher. It may be helpful to type queries in the EN language and translate the output later using Google Translate
Add useful information
This is one of the fundamental aspects for create prompts capable of achieving good results. In summary, you need to allow ChatGPT to contextualize and understand more than your needs. Then you can add some information.
Of course, I said a prompt needs to be concise. But not skinny to the point of penalize the output. What are important directions to give ChatGPT with your prompt? Those that allow you to define the context in which to insert the content:
- Role, who you are and what your characteristics are.
- Previous experience and skills.
- Tone of voice to maintain.
- Goals you want to achieve.
- Times and other necessary limits.
I’ll give you an example. If you want ask ChatGPT how to prepare an editorial plan for a blog you can simply ask to do it with a simple and direct prompt: "create the editorial plan for a company blog". Result? Mediocre.
If, however, you add useful information to contextualize the question, you can aim for a noteworthy answer. Of course, you can’t think of copy and paste the content to complete the work to be exported to the editorial calendar but the difference is clear.
Stay on the same chat
One of the tips for getting the most out of your text commands on ChatGPT: stay on the same dialog if you want consistent responses. every now and then the AI loses the thread of the conversation and if you start from scratch (so if you click on new chat) everything will be forgotten.
But if you stay in the same discussion it is possible to remember what was said. If not, you can ask ChatGPT to review the result. In these cases I advise you to take a look to the next paragraph for more information.
Ask to review the result
Come ask ChatGPT to write a text? One of the key features of this tool is its ability to review the result. If you are not satisfied you can ask to rewrite the output, shorten, synthesize, delve deeper into specific points.
You can also add details. Often this work of re-prompting (i.e. rewriting the prompt with different information) can become a work of linked suggestion.
That is, a concatenation of very simple controls to arrive at complex results1. And which could hardly be achieved with one-shot prompting work.
Provide examples to ChatGPT
You want to write effective prompts on ChatGPT2? To get adequate results you need to ask the AI to follow examples. Which you can provide extensively, for example by creating a source text that will help ChatGPT get inspired, or through concepts.
Like, you sure can ask ChatGPT to generate content following a particular writing style, known to the point of being present on a WikiPedia page like this one. For example, I could ask ChatGPT to run a command like this:
As you can see, ChatGPT grasps the meaning of the suggestion and moves accordingly. If you give more information about what the output should look like you can shape everything as best as possible. You just need to know how to write the prompt on ChatGPT as best you can to optimize the result.
Must read: how to write a blog article
Want to write effective ChatGPT prompts?
Leave a comment and start tackling this topic together with the My Social Web community. I’m sure there are many aspects to look into to get the best out of this powerful tool based on artificial intelligence.
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