Asking well: the five-part ask
Most bad answers come from short questions. Five parts turn a vague request into a useful one.
Your own five-part prompt for a task you do every week, saved where you can find it.
Lesson 2 of 12 · Part 1: Start well
Asking well: the five-part ask
People call this “prompt engineering”, but there is nothing technical about it. It is the same as briefing a new colleague: the more they know about the job, the person it is for and what good looks like, the better the work. Five parts cover nearly everything.
The idea
The five parts
Job — what you want made. For whom — who will read or use it. What it should know — the background only you have. Shape — length, format, language, tone. Check — ask it to flag what it is unsure of, or to ask you questions first.
Background beats cleverness
No magic words are needed. “My class is 32 children, half are weak readers, we have no projector” does more than any clever phrasing.
Show an example
If you have one you like — last year’s notice, a worksheet that worked — paste it and say “in this style”. One example is worth a paragraph of description.
Step by step
- 1
Use the builder below
Fill in the five boxes for a real task. The prompt builds itself as you type; nothing you type leaves this page.
- 2
Paste it into your assistant
Copy the finished prompt and paste it into Gemini, ChatGPT or Claude.
- 3
Compare with the short version
Now ask the same thing in one line — “write a notice about the trip”. Put the two answers side by side. The difference is the lesson.
- 4
Save the good one
Keep prompts that work in a note on your phone. In Lesson 9 you will turn the best one into a helper that remembers it.
The prompt builder
Fill in the five parts for a task of your own. Grey text is an example — type over it.
Your prompt
Fill in the boxes and your prompt appears here. Start with the Job — the rest make it better.
Stays on this page. Nothing is sent or saved.
Prompts to copy
Change the parts in [brackets], and the details to fit your own day.
Teacher
Job: write a one-page worksheet on fractions. For whom: Class 5 children in a government school in Baramulla; many find maths hard. What to know: we have no printer, so it will be copied onto the board; examples should use things they know — rotis, apples, cricket overs. Shape: 8 questions, easiest first, with the answers listed separately for me. Check: before you write it, ask me two questions about my class.
Parent
Job: a weekly timetable for my son’s board exam revision. For whom: a Class 10 student who studies best in the morning and plays cricket at 5pm. What to know: the exams start on 2 March; maths and science are his weakest subjects; there is no internet at home after 9pm. Shape: a table, Monday to Saturday, Sunday off. Check: point out anything in my plan that looks unrealistic.
Shop
Job: a short WhatsApp message announcing new winter stock. For whom: regular customers of a clothes shop in Sopore, most of them older. What to know: pherans, shawls and children’s jackets; open 10 to 7, closed Friday afternoon. Shape: under 60 words, warm and simple, one version in English and one in Urdu. Check: tell me if anything sounds like pressure selling.
Try it
Your task
Take one thing you write every week — a notice, a worksheet, a message, a report — and build its five-part prompt.
When you are done: You have a prompt you will reuse, and you have seen the difference between asking well and asking quickly.
Check yourself
Think of your answer first, then open it. Nothing is marked or saved.
Which of the five parts is the one only you can supply?Show answer
“What it should know” — the background about your class, your shop, your family. The assistant cannot guess it.
Why ask it to ask you questions first?Show answer
It surfaces what you forgot to say, before it writes a long answer built on a wrong guess.
Do you need special words, like “act as an expert”?Show answer
No. They help a little at most. Clear background and a clear shape help far more.
Keep the trust
Brief it with facts, not with people’s private details.
“A Class 5 child who struggles with reading” is all it needs. A child’s name, marks or family situation never needs to go in.