Effective AI Prompting Strategies from the Humanities

Be polite, like in emails. Use correct punctuation, spelling and grammar. Do state facts (don’t ask it to search for facts - it’s not a search engine). Don’t give negative instructions. Use examples. AI is effective at imitation, and if you give it a few examples of what you want, it can copy their form. A useful phrase is to ask it to "think step by step" to make a plan for it to follow. AI needs extreme amounts of scaffolding. Prompts should be longer, rather than shorter. Edit your prompts if errors occur, or start over. At the end of each prompt, end with a single, specific task. Tell the AI who to pretend to be. Give it a role, so it knows what register to use. (The use of words influences its sample and response.) Make sure you know enough to be able to validate the output - the AI might have the wrong idea about what you want, make up facts to please you, or try to repeat an earlier error. Make requirements, instructions and parameters explicit by adding context like audience and output format. Don't be afraid about going back and forth a few times before you get to your answer. Asking it to ask you for clarification highlights blank spots in your thinking. (Also, you can prompt it to help you design prompts...) Good AI prompts are essential to predictably and consistently getting a desired output. There are no single phrases that work across all situations - AI will simply amplify the user’s capabilities, creativity, judgement and discernment. These effective prompting strategies will help develop your own skills and strategies with AI prompting. AI Prompts Developed by Dr Brian Ballsun-Stanton, created by Dr Jodie Torrington. Macquarie University. 2024. CC-BY