When thinking about prompt engineering and prompting large language models, it is important to keep in mind how these models work. They are trained on large corpuses of text which includes many examples of how humans interact via text. Because of this, the models often perform best when interacted with as if you are sending another human a request.
For example, if you say "Do this task for me" but don't give a person enough context or details, it is unlikely they will end up doing what you want them to. But if you lay out very detailed instructions in a clear way, the chance of success goes up. This example highlights the important principles of prompt engineering.
Below are a few key approaches that can help you create better prompts:
Write Clear, Specific Prompts To get the best results from ChatGPT, always identify the task clearly, provide necessary context, and set the preferred tone and style. Be specific about what you want - whether it's summarizing marketing trends or drafting a formal email. Clear, detailed prompts help ChatGPT understand your goals faster and produce more relevant and accurate responses.
Right-Size and Prioritize Your Requests If your task is complex, break it into smaller, focused prompts for better outcomes. Specify focus areas, highlight important aspects, etc. If needed, ask ChatGPT to present multiple options to better suit your needs.
Work Iteratively Breaking up complex workflows with multiple tasks into separate, follow-up prompts can lead to better results Treat prompting as a conversation: refine your requests based on initial answers and keep experimenting. As ChatGPT grows more intuitive, you can rely more on natural, goal-driven language and less on perfect phrasing - focus on your objectives and let the AI help you get there.
If you want to see example prompts, you can also refer to our prompt examples page. We also created an official OpenAI prompt engineering guide which covers more specific strategies in detail.
Finally, we encourage you to visit our community forum, where you can ask questions, share tips, and connect with others interested in prompting OpenAI models.