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Instead of “Improve this,” ask: “Identify three clarity problems in this paragraph and explain each; do not rewrite yet.”
8 AI Prompt Design for Writers Examples
Use these examples to study structure, specificity, tone, and variation. They are demonstrations—not claims about a real person or organization unless the example itself makes that explicit.
Before you copy
What to notice in the examples
Good prompt design reduces ambiguity without pretending prompts guarantee truth: it asks for bounded work, exposes assumptions, separates source material from instructions, and defines what the writer will verify or decide afterward.
- Define the human objective, source material, audience, and constraints before asking an AI system to contribute.
- Use the model for a bounded transformation or analysis task while preserving this guardrail: the prompt should constrain the task and surface uncertainty, not manufacture confidence.
- Finish with human verification, rewriting, source checks, and accountability for the final wording rather than treating model output as publication-ready.
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For tone: “Give three alternatives that preserve the factual content but sound less defensive to a customer.”
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For structure: “Using only these notes, propose two outlines for a five-section article and show where each source would be used.”
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For critique: “Score the draft against these criteria and quote the exact sentence that triggered each concern.”
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For brainstorming: “Generate ten directions; label obvious/counterintuitive/practical and avoid factual claims.”
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For rewriting: “Preserve names, numbers, commitments, and quoted text exactly; simplify sentence structure only.”
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For uncertainty: “List any assumption you had to make before giving the answer.”
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For source control: “Use only the material between <sources> tags; say ‘not supported’ when the answer is absent.”
Keep the underlying decision or pattern, then replace the subject, evidence, relationship, constraints, and tone with details that belong to your situation. If your final line still works after swapping only one noun, it may be too close to the example.