Prompt Engineering Basics

What is a Prompt?

A Prompt is just the text you send to an AI.
Prompt Engineering is the skill of writing that text in a way that gets you the best possible result.

Think of the AI like a brilliant but very literal intern. It wants to help, but it needs clear instructions.

The 3 Golden Rules

1. Be Specific (The "Pizza" Rule)

If you order "a pizza," you might get anchovies. If you order "a large pepperoni pizza with extra cheese and thin crust," you get exactly what you want.

Bad: "Write a blog post."
Good: "Write a 500-word blog post about the benefits of gardening for mental health. Use a friendly, encouraging tone."

2. Give Context (The "Who Am I?quot; Rule)

Tell the AI who it should be or who the audience is.

Bad: "Explain quantum physics."
Good: "Explain quantum physics to a 5-year-old using analogies about toys."
Good: "Act as a senior physics professor and explain quantum physics to a college student."

3. Provide Examples (The "Show, Don't Just Tell" Rule)

This is the most powerful trick. If you want the AI to follow a specific format, show it an example.

Prompt:

"Convert these movie titles into emojis.
Example: Star Wars -> ⭐️⚔️
Example: Spider-Man -> 🕷️🕸️

Titanic ->"
AI Answer: 🚢🧊

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Being too vague: "Make it better." (Better how? Shorter? Funnier?)
Asking too much at once: If you have a complex task, break it down. Ask for an outline first, then ask for the content.

Conclusion

Prompt Engineering isn't coding. It's communication. The better you get at explaining exactly what you want, the more powerful these AI tools become.