Research with Generative AI: Prompting

Prompt Engineering

Prompt engineering in AI is using specific techniques in order to be efficiently interpreted by the tool.

• When formatting prompts, be concise, explicit, and logical in your requests.
• Reflect upon the tool's response and adapt your original prompt accordingly. 

Best Practices

When constructing text prompts, be:

• Concise: brevity and clarity in prompts
• Logical: structured and coherent prompts
• Explicit: clear output specifications
• Adaptive: flexibility and customization in prompts
• Reflective: continuous elevation and improvement of prompt

Lo, L. S. (2023). The CLEAR path: A framework for enhancing information literacy through prompt engineering. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(4), 102720-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102720

Improve responses by including:

• Role: Act as a college student 
• Task: Create a cover letter
• Requirements: Include job experience for overseeing a 3-year open source data project
• Context or constraints: For a project manager position
• Goal: For a hiring manager at an analytics firm
• Format of output: One page

Adapted from Academic Success Tip: Working Smarter with ChatGPT

Examples of Prompt Improvements

Example: Create a cover letter for a project manager position.

Effective prompt: Act as a college student. Create a one page cover letter for a project manager position and include job experience for overseeing a 3-year open source data project to be read by a hiring manager at a data analytics firm.

Example: Tell me something about renewable energy. 

Effective prompt: Generate a concise summary of the key advancements in renewable energy technology over the past decade. Define and explain technological terms.

Example: What is generative AI?

Effective prompt: Define generative AI for a first year college student in under 35 words.

Example: Write an outline for a paper about curanderismo.

Effective prompt: Act as a college student in cultural anthropology writing a 8-10 page paper about curanderismo in Mexico. The thesis is about women's roles in folk medicine. Write an outline for the paper that includes an introduction, literature review, ethnographic study, and discussion. Ask me questions to further clarify the outline. Don't create the outline until I've answered all your questions.

Example: Create an outline for a paper on socioeconomic status and public transportation. 

Effective prompt: As a college student, create a list of subtopics for a research paper about the relationship between socioeconomic status and public transportation in the United States. The research question is asking if people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds use transportation more than other groups. I will focus on access and affordability nationwide. My analysis will prioritize quantitative data from the last 30 years.