Fix a Vague AI Prompt: A Before-and-After Walkthrough

An AI answer can sound sensible and still be too vague to use. Give the tool the facts, the audience and a clear job, and you have a better starting point.

Here you will turn a vague request into an event announcement. Use any text chatbot. Allow about 15 minutes; no upload, automation or paid feature is needed.

See the finished example

Open the complete example

1. Start with a deliberately weak request

Write something about our school event.

The assistant does not know the event, its location or what readers should do. It may ask questions, offer placeholders or guess. Those are different outcomes; record what your chosen tool actually does.

For our worked example, use these fictional facts:

• Event: school book swap.
• Date: Friday 12 June, 15:30–17:00; no year is specified.
• Location: school library.
• Audience: families at the school.
• Rule: bring up to five gently used children's books; participation is free.
• Contact: ask the school office. No contact address has been supplied.

2. Give the task a useful shape

Write a short announcement for families about a school book swap.

Use only these facts:
- Friday 12 June, 15:30–17:00, school library.
- Families can bring up to five gently used children's books.
- Participation is free.
- Questions go to the school office.

Output: one headline and a 60–90 word announcement.
Tone: warm, clear and practical.
End by telling families what to bring.
Do not invent a year, contact address, registration requirement or refreshments.
List missing essential details separately instead of guessing them.

Notice the separation between source facts and writing instructions. A role such as “expert marketer” would not supply the missing venue or rules.

3. Check the answer against your list

An editor-written possible announcement is:

Bring a Book, Find a New Favourite

Join our school book swap on Friday 12 June, from 15:30 to 17:00 in the school library. Families can bring up to five gently used children's books to swap. Participation is free, so come along and explore something new to read together. If you have questions, please ask the school office. Bring your books and enjoy choosing your next read.

This is an illustrative answer, not a captured model result. Check your actual answer for all six source facts, the requested structure and invented details. The absent year should still be resolved before a real announcement is distributed.

4. Revise the weakest part

If the output is too promotional, ask for a targeted change:

Keep every supplied fact. Replace promotional phrases with plain language.
Do not add new details. Keep the headline and stay within 60–90 words.
Then identify any factual information I should confirm before using it.

If a date is wrong, correct the date explicitly. Asking for a completely different answer can introduce new mistakes and makes comparison harder.

5. Test the method on another task

Try a second announcement with different facts. If the prompt only works for the original example, separate its fixed rules from the event-specific inputs. Keep a small checklist: facts preserved, unknowns flagged, audience appropriate, format correct, action clear.

Troubleshooting

It keeps making assumptions. Label the facts as the only source, name likely invented details and check the output yourself. Instructions reduce ambiguity; they do not guarantee accuracy.

It asks too many questions. Tell it which fields are required before drafting and which can remain marked as unknown.

The answer is correct but unhelpful. Define what the reader should be able to do after reading it. A usable format is part of the task.

Clear success criteria and ways to check them are also the starting point in Anthropic's prompting guidance. Product interfaces differ; this example uses ordinary text instructions only.