Anatomy of a prompt

Most prompts are too vague

When people first use AI, they write the way they'd type into a search bar. Short, fragmented, minimal. "Write me a cover letter." "Summarise this." "Give me ideas."

That instinct made sense for Google — keywords work there. But AI isn't retrieving a page. It's constructing a response. The more direction you give it, the more useful that response becomes.

The good news: there's a simple structure behind every strong prompt. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

The four parts of a strong prompt

Not every prompt needs all four. But knowing what they are — and when to use them — is what separates a mediocre result from a great one.

See it in action

Here's what a well-structured prompt actually looks like. Hover over each part to see what role it plays.

Compare that to the vague version most people would write:

You don't need all four every time

A simple question doesn't need a four-part prompt. "What's the capital of Japan?" is fine as-is. The structure is for when the stakes are higher — a piece of writing, a complex analysis, a specific output format.

Think of it less like a formula and more like a checklist. Before you hit send, ask yourself: does the AI have enough to work with? If not — which part is missing?