How to Write a Prompt for ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini (With Examples)

What a prompt is, and why short ones disappoint

A prompt is the text you type into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to ask for something. The AI knows nothing about you or your situation beyond what you put in that text, so the quality of the answer depends heavily on how you phrase it.

A one-line question is fine for a quick fact. For anything with more substance, such as a resume, a study plan or a trip itinerary, a one-liner forces the AI to guess, and guesses come back as generic advice. A complete prompt removes the guesswork.

The five parts of a good prompt

• Role: who the AI should be. 'Act as a career coach who has reviewed hundreds of applications.'
• Task: exactly what it has to do. 'Review my resume for this job posting.'
• Context: the details only you have. Your experience, the posting, your level, your deadline, your constraints.
• Format: how you want the answer. A table, a numbered list of steps, a 200-word email, a day-by-day schedule.
• Limits: what it must not do. 'Don't invent figures', 'avoid jargon', 'ask me if anything is missing.'

Act as [role, e.g. an experienced editor / a patient tutor / a travel planner].
Your task: [what you want done, in one sentence].
Context:
- [fact about you or your situation]
- [goal and deadline]
- [constraints: time, budget, level, audience]
Format: [table / bullet list / email of about X words / step-by-step plan].
Limits: [what to avoid]. Don't make up facts. If you need more information, ask me before answering.

A good prompt doesn't have to be long; it just can't leave out anything important. If one of the five parts doesn't apply, skip it.

Example: from a vague prompt to a complete one

This prompt works, but the AI has to guess almost everything, so you'll get a generic plan:

Make me a study plan for my exam.

With the five parts filled in, the same request gives you something you can start using today:

Act as a study coach for university students.
Create a study plan for my [subject] exam on [date].
Context: the syllabus has these topics: [list of topics]. I can study [2] hours a day on weekdays and [4] hours on Saturdays. I'm confident with [topics you know well] and weak on [topics you struggle with]. The exam is [multiple choice / essay questions / problem solving].
Format: a week-by-week table with the topics for each day, review sessions spaced out over time and a practice exam in the final week.
Limits: keep it realistic for my hours, leave one rest day a week and ask me if anything about the syllabus is unclear before you start.

Two prompts that improve almost any request

If you're not sure what context to give, let the AI ask for it. This is one of the simplest ways to improve any prompt:

Before you answer, ask me whatever questions you need to understand my situation. Ask them one at a time, and once you have enough information, give me the complete answer.

AI assistants also tend to be agreeable: show them an idea and they'll usually highlight what's good about it. If you want honest criticism, ask for it explicitly:

Review this [draft / plan / proposal] as a demanding reader who has no interest in pleasing me. Point out the three weakest parts, explain why they don't work and how you would fix them. Don't agree with me unless I'm actually right.

[paste your text here]

How to write a prompt for Claude or Gemini

The same five parts work in any text-based AI assistant, because they all respond better the clearer your request is. The tone and layout of the answer may differ from one assistant to another, but you don't need to rewrite a well-structured prompt to switch between ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.

What makes the biggest difference is the follow-up. Don't settle for the first answer: reply with specific changes, as you would with a colleague.

Good start. Now: 1) make it about half as long, 2) replace any general advice with a concrete example for my situation, 3) put the steps in a table with a column for how long each one takes. Keep everything else the same.

Common mistakes (and the limits of any prompt)

• Assuming the AI knows your situation: if you don't write it, it doesn't know it.
• Asking for several unrelated things in one message: one task per prompt usually works better.
• Not saying what format you want, then having to reorganise the answer by hand.
• Accepting the first answer instead of asking for specific changes ('shorter', 'with an example', 'more formal').
• Trusting facts, figures, quotes or sources without checking them: AI assistants can state made-up details with confidence.
• Pasting sensitive personal data you don't need to share, such as ID numbers, full addresses or account details.

A great prompt improves the answer, but it can't make the AI right about things it doesn't know. For anything important (dates, rules, prices, requirements) check an official or primary source.

Skip the blank page with a template

Each PromptYa template is a short form that collects the context for you (your goal, your details, the format you want) and turns it into a complete prompt with all five parts. There are templates for tailoring a resume to a job posting, building a study plan and planning a trip, among others.

Once the prompt is generated, you can copy it, open it directly in ChatGPT or Claude with the prompt already filled in, or copy it and open Gemini to paste it there.