The Prompt Engineering Guide by DAIR. AI has many more techniques and guidelines for prompt engineering (see some sample links below). DAIR. AI refers to the Distributed Artificial Research Institute, which is an independent, community-rooted AI research institute founded by Timnit Gebru, aiming to counter Big Tech's influence on AI research and development.
Prompt engineering is the process of designing and refining the inputs given to language models, like those in AI, to achieve desired outputs more effectively. It involves creatively crafting prompts that guide the model in generating responses that are accurate, relevant, and aligned with the user's intentions.
For students and researchers in higher education, mastering prompt engineering is essential for leveraging the full potential of AI in research, development, and practical applications.
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The CLEAR Framework for Prompt Engineering |
Good |
Needs Improvement |
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CONCISE – (also Clear) – focus on the key words for the AI tool to analyze. Try to omit as many needless words as possible |
Identify the top reasons undergraduate students attend Defiance College. |
I am trying to figure out if I should be applying to Defiance and if I would like it there.
(The AI doesn't know you or your preferences and are you applying to high school? Undergrad? Grad school?) |
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LOGICAL - Most AI tools look for relationships between words and concepts, so make sure your query presents concepts accurately and in their natural or logical order.
If your question doesn’t make sense to you (or to someone else), it probably won’t make sense to the AI! |
Summarize the most promising vaccine candidates that protect against multiple strains of influenza. |
Can we make a flu vaccine organically?
(Are you asking about a vaccine made with eggs obtained through organic farming? A vaccine developed through "organic" research? Something else?) |
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EXPLICIT - Be clear in what you want from the AI. Giving the AI tool clear output directions can help the AI produce an answer that is useful to you |
Give me a concise summary of the major strengths and weaknesses of Defiance College. |
What’s Defiance College like?
(What's your comparison for Defiance? Do you want a short answer or a long one?) |
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Note: Even the best prompts may need improvement! The last two components address what to do after you’ve examined the AI’s answer to your initial prompt. |
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ADAPTIVE- Try a second prompt with keywords or topics suggested by the AI in its answer. If the AI tool has seeding or guidance settings, investigate different settings - do you get better results? If the tool allows you to specify words/concepts to exclude or ignore, can you refine your prompt by excluding concepts? |
Prompt 1: Why doesn’t the city of Defiance, Ohio have more bridges?
Answer: (includes "geological obstacles")
Prompt 2: What are the engineering challenges and geological obstacles to constructing additional bridges in Defiance, Ohio? |
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REFLECTIVE - Always take a moment to reflect on the AI’s answer. Does it make intuitive sense to you? Does the answer refer to current research (if important for your query), or does it seem based on older research? Has the AI “hallucinated” or returned inaccurate information? Is the answer complete, or are there perspectives or voices unrepresented in the answer?
You may need to craft additional prompts that specifically target gaps in the initial answer. |
Prompt 1: Give me a concise summary of the major strengths and weaknesses of Defiance College.
Prompt 2: Give me a concise summary of the major strengths and weaknesses of Defiance College, from the perspective of a first-generation college student.
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Read more about the CLEAR framework in 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