{"id":2799,"date":"2026-05-13T09:36:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shirishranjit.com\/blog1\/?page_id=2799"},"modified":"2026-05-13T09:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:37:11","slug":"2799-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/shirishranjit.com\/blog1\/ai-ml-topics\/2799-2","title":{"rendered":"A simple framework for writing strong prompts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Think of every good prompt as having\u00a0<strong>four ingredients<\/strong>:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1.&nbsp;<strong>Goal<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 What do you want Copilot to do?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Be specific about the task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>? \u201cHelp me with architecture\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>? \u201cCreate a high-level system architecture for a cloud-based order processing system\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2.&nbsp;<strong>Context<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Background Copilot needs to do it well<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Explain&nbsp;<em>why<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>for whom<\/em>&nbsp;this is being done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Audience (execs, developers, customers)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Constraints (time, tech stack, policies)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Your role or situation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Example: \u201cThis is for a design review with senior architects. The system runs on Azure and must support high availability.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3.&nbsp;<strong>Source<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 What should Copilot use or avoid?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Tell Copilot what information to rely on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Documents, standards, frameworks<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Examples to follow<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Things to exclude<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Example: \u201cUse Azure Well-Architected Framework principles. Do not include vendor comparisons.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4.&nbsp;<strong>Expectations<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 How should the output be structured?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This dramatically improves quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Format (bullets, table, diagram description)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Level of detail<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tone<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Example: \u201cReturn a one-page summary with bullet points and a simple ASCII diagram.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Before &amp; after example<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">? Weak prompt<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cDesign a system for processing orders.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Why it struggles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>No goal clarity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No context<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No structure<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No constraints<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">? Strong prompt<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Goal:<\/strong>&nbsp;Design a high-level system architecture for an order processing platform.<br \/><strong>Context:<\/strong>&nbsp;This is for a design review with senior architects. The platform will be cloud-native and run on Azure, supporting ~10k orders per hour with high availability.<br \/><strong>Source:<\/strong>&nbsp;Use Azure Well-Architected Framework principles. Assume microservices and event-driven architecture.<br \/><strong>Expectations:<\/strong>&nbsp;Provide a concise architecture description, a bullet list of key components, and a short section on scalability and failure handling.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Why this works:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Copilot knows&nbsp;<em>what<\/em>&nbsp;to do,&nbsp;<em>why<\/em>&nbsp;it matters, and&nbsp;<em>how<\/em>&nbsp;to respond<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No guessing required<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quick checklist you can reuse<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Before sending a prompt, ask yourself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>? Is the&nbsp;<strong>task<\/strong>&nbsp;clear?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>? Did I explain&nbsp;<strong>why or for whom<\/strong>?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>? Did I mention&nbsp;<strong>inputs, sources, or constraints<\/strong>?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>? Did I specify the&nbsp;<strong>output format<\/strong>?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"twttr_buttons\"><div class=\"twttr_twitter\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?text=A+simple+framework+for+writing+strong+prompts\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-via=\"\" data-hashtags=\"\"  data-size=\"default\" data-url=\"https:\/\/shirishranjit.com\/blog1\/ai-ml-topics\/2799-2\"  data-related=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><div class=\"twttr_followme\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/shiranjit\" class=\"twitter-follow-button\" data-size=\"default\"  data-show-screen-name=\"false\"  target=\"_blank\">Follow me<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Think of every good prompt as having\u00a0four ingredients: 1.&nbsp;Goal&nbsp;\u2013 What do you want Copilot to do? Be specific about the task. 2.&nbsp;Context&nbsp;\u2013 Background Copilot needs to do it well Explain&nbsp;why&nbsp;and&nbsp;for whom&nbsp;this is being done. Example: \u201cThis is for a design &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/shirishranjit.com\/blog1\/ai-ml-topics\/2799-2\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":2794,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2799","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shirishranjit.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shirishranjit.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shirishranjit.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shirishranjit.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shirishranjit.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shirishranjit.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2801,"href":"https:\/\/shirishranjit.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2799\/revisions\/2801"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shirishranjit.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shirishranjit.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}