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FULL Prompt Engineering guide for beginners

This article was written by Udemy instructor Emilie Schrevens-Wester


Would you prefer watching a video instead? We also made this guide in video format! Click here to access it.



1) Important lingo


ChatGPT has two very important settings you should know of:


The temperature: This setting determines the “seriousness” of GPT. If you set the temperature higher, it is most likely to provide random or creative answers. The normal temperature would simply act this way: “I’m building sentences, what next word would make sense the most?”. When you change the temperature, it allows GPT to ignore the word that makes sense and choose something less likely to make sense in a sentence.


The Top_p: This controls how the model generates a response and how exact and factual it is. A low value means you want to have realistic replies. If you increase it, it will allow more diverse answers.



2) Types of prompts


Just like real life, there’s different ways to ask questions to ChatGPT. If you understand them all and are able to decide which type suits your needs the most, you will be able to get EXACTLY what you want from ChatGPT.



Dual prompt


The concept here is to use two different prompts to get what we want. Example: I want to write a decent description for my book on Amazon.


First prompt: I ask GPT to analyze descriptions of other books that I paste in the chat box. I ask GPT to give me a list of keywords based on the book descriptions.


GPT gives me a list of keywords.


Second prompt: I take the list from the first prompt and ask GPT to produce a product description for my book based on the list of keywords.



Zero-shot, one-shot and few-shot prompts


Zero-shot is pretty straightforward, you simply ask something to ChatGPT without giving a single example of what you expect.


Example:


Prompt: What is the capital of England?

GPT: London


Example of a single shot prompt:


Prompt: The capital of Belgium is Brussels. I will ask you for capitals and you need to answer in the same format. Germany?

GPT: The capital of Germany is Berlin.


Example of a few-shot prompt:


Prompt: In (provided text), the important keywords are “engineer”, “teacher”, and “waiter”. In (second provided text), the important keywords are “plumber”, “scientist” and “doctor”. I will give you a text and you need to find the keywords in the same way.



Chain-of-Thought prompt


CoT prompting is a way to get the output you need by helping GPT create and navigate reasoning steps.


Example of a CoT prompt:


Prompt: I bought 5 oranges for $1, then I bought two more at the same unit price. How many oranges do I have and how much did I pay?

GPT: You initially bought 5 oranges for $1, which means the unit price of each orange was $1/5 = $0.20.


Then you bought two more oranges at the same unit price. Therefore, you now have a total of 5 + 2 = 7 oranges.


To calculate the total amount you paid, you can multiply the unit price by the total number of oranges:


$0.20/orange * 7 oranges = $1.40


So, you have a total of 7 oranges and you paid $1.40 for them.


Prompt: How much more oranges can I buy if I had $5 before buying any orange today?


GPT: If you had $5 before buying any oranges today, and the unit price of each orange is $0.20, we can calculate how many oranges you can buy by dividing the total amount of money you have by the unit price of each orange.


$5 / $0.20/orange = 25 oranges


Since you bought 7 oranges already, you can buy 18 more oranges.


Role prompt


You start your discussion with GPT by giving it a role that will affect how it replies, the tone/format of the answer, and the language complexity level. Giving a role to ChatGPT gives it context and helps get the answer you want.


Prompt: You are a rocket scientist. Explain to a 10 year old kid how we can send rockets to space.


GPT: To send rockets to space, we use a big rocket with a special engine. The engine burns rocket fuel, creating hot gas that shoots out the back, pushing the rocket up. Even in space, the rocket keeps going because of the action and reaction of the gas pushing the rocket forward. The rocket is strong and has a pointy shape to move through the air easily. Once in space, the rocket can launch satellites and astronauts to explore and learn more about space!


Prompt: You are a 16th century English man, explain rocket science to an adult.


GPT: Rocket science is the art of propelling objects into space using powerful engines. By igniting rocket fuel, hot gases are produced, creating a force called thrust that pushes the rocket upward. The rocket's shape is designed to minimise air resistance, and precise timing and speed are required to enter orbits around celestial bodies. Through rocket science, mankind explores the wonders of space beyond our earthly realm.



Prompt Ensembling


Prompt ensembling means you are using multiple different prompts to get an answer from GPT. ChatGPT will then take multiple reasoning paths and agree on an output that is correct (based on what you requested)



3) Prompt engineering


To write the best prompt, you need to make sure you know exactly what you want.

For example, you want GPT to make you a list of the best software to handle your relationships with customers and you own a small business. For the sake of the example, let’s pretend you don’t know that the term for this is “CRM”. ChatGPT will generate a list of tools, some of them will be CRM tools but some will not really meet your needs.


Let’s try again:

Prompt: What are the best CRM tools for small businesses?

ChatGPT: “Here are some of the best CRM tools specifically suited for small businesses:

HubSpot CRM: (...)

Zoho CRM: (...)

Insightly: (...)

Pipedrive: (...)

Freshsales: (...)

Agile CRM: (...)


These CRM tools offer a range of features and pricing options, so it's important to evaluate your specific business needs before making a decision.”

You knew what you wanted and got better results.


Let ChatGPT ask questions

In the prompt, conclude your request with “Feel free to ask questions if you need before giving the final answer”. You can also ask ChatGPT if everything is clear or if you need to clarify something or add information.


Give ChatGPT a role

Help ChatGPT understand what it’s supposed to be, in which tone it’s supposed to write back, and more.


Provide relevant details and context

By adding context and relevant details, you will help ChatGPT to understand exactly what you want. This can take many forms:

  • Explaining who is your target audience

  • Explaining who you are and what your goals are

  • Explaining what you have tried before and want to implement in the future

  • Etc


Avoid saturating the prompt

Details have to be relevant, do not add details that are useless to ChatGPT. Let’s look at some examples:


“I paid a social media manager before and they sucked” is useless to ChatGPT, but saying “Hiring a freelancer doing traditional social media marketing was not good enough” will help ChatGPT understand your goals.

“I study 4 hours a day but I always get distracted” is useless, but saying “I have enough time to study daily but cannot focus enough” will help ChatGPT provide suggestions.



Prompt structure

  1. Introduce yourself and your goal

  2. Explain the purpose/problem to solve

  3. Explain what worked/didn’t work before

  4. Explain your vision for the future (if applicable)

  5. Give examples and ask for specific keywords (if applicable)

  6. Describe your product/service (if applicable)

  7. Define the length of the reply

  8. Explain the tone/voice of the expected output

  9. Define the expected format (a list? Blog article? HTML5 optimized text? SEO friendly? With headings and subheadings? etc)

  10. Define the style/target audience

  11. Let GPT ask questions


Examples:


Prompt: “I’m Emilie and I teach French online. I’m working on a French advanced course and I need to make sure more students sign up. I only promote my course on social media (in coupon groups). I need a better strategy to make sure my course sells more. Can you establish a step by step plan to help me? Let me know if you have questions.”


ChatGPT replied with a list of 12 elements to implement in my strategy, detailed the steps for each of the 12 bullet points and added “Remember that building a successful course promotion strategy takes time and consistency. By implementing these steps and continuously refining your approach, you'll increase your chances of attracting more students to your advanced French course.” The list provided was extremely valuable.


Prompt: “I’m a social media manager starting a freelance business. I want to have clients coming from Fiverr and Upwork. I post my services in social media groups but it’s not enough. Can you suggest to me how to increase visibility on freelance websites and how to get more clients?”


ChatGPT replied with a list of 12 valuable pieces of advice, including focusing on customer service, networking with other freelancers, optimizing my freelancer profiles, leveraging existing contacts, offering competitive pricing, etc.


If your goals is to use GPT to help you study, you can try the following prompt format:


  1. Present theory/raw text to be remembered

  2. Specify which parts you’re supposed to know

  3. Specify if rewording is accepted

  4. Specify the style of questions

  5. Specify the numbers of questions

  6. Ask to stop asking questions that were correctly answered and to insist on wrong answers.


Adapt prompts


Tell ChatGPT to keep going

Sometimes, ChatGPT will interrupt itself due to an error or because you reached the output character limit. In order to receive the rest of the answer, ask GPT to continue where it left off or add the missing part of the answer.


Interrupting GPT

If GPT is starting to go off wrong from the start, interrupt it and explain again, or add information. Correct ChatGPT if needed. Sometimes, 90% of the output is useful and you can simply say “can you write that answer again but add/remove (information)” or “Can you explain this but in a more complex language”. Discuss with GPT until you have the answer you want. To correct your prompt without confusing GPT, say “Okay, let me add more info and let’s try again”

Adding data sets

When GPT seems to give you the answer you’re looking for in the format you asked for, add another data set to make the answer perfect. Example:


“This is a job description, please write a cover letter for it”

(GPT writes the letter)

“This is the company that the job is for, adapt the letter based on the company and their values”

(GPT adapts)

“This is my list of skills, please include it in the cover letter”

(GPT adapts)


Use the relevant keywords

The clearer you are with ChatGPT, the quicker you’ll get the answer you want. Use words that are clear. Here’s a list of commands you can use with GPT:


“Rephrase” “paraphrase” “rewrite in the style of (...)” “rewrite for (target audience)”

“explain in a simpler way” “explain in a more complex way” “simplify” “explain to a (year) old child”

“Solve” “explain” “sort”

“Check for spelling mistakes” “Spell check based on Brisith English” “Spell check based on American English”

“Rewrite this text and add Australian slang”

“Make the output longer” “Make the output shorter”

“Debug” “provide feedback” “generate code” “suggest improvements”


Using precise wording can also help chat GPT, using “4 to 6” is more precise than “a few”.



4) Teaching GPT to write prompts for itself


In three prompts, you can teach ChatGPT to generate prompts for itself that you can use later.


Prompt 1: I need help to write a list of AI prompts. I will teach you how to form a prompt and then ask you to generate prompts. Do you understand?


GPT should reply: Yes, I understand. You would like assistance in generating a list of AI prompts, and you will provide guidance on how to form the prompts. Once you explain the format or criteria for the prompts, I can help generate them accordingly. Please go ahead and provide the instructions for forming the prompts, and I'll be ready to assist you.


Continue with the following prompt:


Prompt 2:

This is the prompt structure:

Introduce yourself and your goal

Explain the purpose/problem to solve

Explain what worked/didn’t work before

Explain your vision for the future (if applicable)

Give examples and ask for specific keywords (if applicable)

Describe your product/service (if applicable)

Define the length of the reply

Explain the tone/voice of the expected output

Define the expected format

Define the style/target audience

Let GPT ask questions


GPT should confirm they understand that this is the prompt structure you expect.


Continue with the following (elements in (bold) have to be changed by you before sending the prompt).


Prompt 3: Create prompts for (insert your task). You can use elements from the structure if you don't have specific life like example to include in the prompt


Example:

Create prompts for data sorting.

Create prompts for article summarizing.

Create prompts for class curriculum outline creation.

Create prompts for SEO research

Create prompts for copywriting for Facebook posts


GPT will give you an output that you can adapt. Make it shorter or longer based on your needs, explain to GPT what to correct and what you expect. It will save you a lot of time.



5) Additional tips and tricks for ChatGPT


Sometimes the servers of ChatGPT are at full capacity, so save your conversations offline for future uses as they may disappear after some time or during rush hour. You can save them locally or use aiarchives.org/.


If ChatGPT is not working for you, try the following:

  • Check websites like “isitdownrightnow” to see if you’re the only having issues or not

  • Clear cache, cookies and try opening an incognito window

  • Check if the issue continues on another WiFi

Ask yourself:

  • Are you using a VPN? Disable it and try again

  • Is GPT known to be banned in your country? You won’t be able to access GPT if it’s banned by your government or internet service provider.

  • Does the issue continue after you clear cache, cookies and try an incognito window?

  • Does the issue continue when you’re on another WiFi? Then your WiFi is not the cause of the issue

  • Does the issue continue on another device? Then your device is not the cause of the issue.


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