AI PromptsFollow-up prompts: improving an answer step by step
People often judge an AI assistant by its first answer and give up if that answer is poor. The better way is to treat the first answer as a draft and steer it. A conversation of three or four short messages usually produces something far better than any single prompt, however carefully written.
Why follow-ups work
Within one conversation the assistant keeps your earlier messages and its own answers in view. So you do not need to repeat the facts. You only say what to change. This is quick, and it is also how you would work with a human assistant: "Good, but shorter, and drop the second point."
Follow-ups for length and clarity
Cut this to half the length. Keep all facts, dates and numbers.
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Rewrite it in simple words for someone whose first language is not English. Short sentences. No idioms.
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Put the main request in the first sentence and move the background to the end.
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Follow-ups for tone and style
Less formal. Write it the way I would say it to a regular customer at my shop.
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This sounds like an advertisement. Make it plain and factual.
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Remove the flattery and the filler. No "I hope this message finds you well".
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If you have a sample of your own writing, paste a few lines and add: "Match this style."
Follow-ups for correcting mistakes
Be specific about what is wrong. "This is wrong" gives the assistant nothing to work with.
You wrote that the meeting is on Monday. My notes say Tuesday. Correct that and check the rest of the answer against my notes for similar slips.
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You added details that I did not give: [NAME THEM]. Remove them and do not add anything else that is not in my notes.
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Follow-ups for format
Show this as a table with these columns: [COLUMN NAMES].
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Give it as plain paragraphs with no headings, no bullet points and no bold text. I will paste it into a WhatsApp message.
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Number the steps, one action in each step.
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Follow-ups that make it think again
What are the weak points of this answer? What would a critic say?
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Give me two other ways to do this, quite different from the first, and say when each would be better.
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What did you assume that I did not tell you? List the assumptions.
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What would you need to know from me to make this answer better? Ask your questions.
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The last one is especially useful. It turns the assistant from a guesser into an interviewer, and its questions often show you what your prompt left out.
Keeping the good parts
When part of the answer is right, say so, or it may be changed along with the rest.
Keep the first paragraph exactly as it is. Rewrite only the second paragraph, making it shorter and firmer.
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One change at a time
If you ask for five changes in one message, some may be missed or may pull against each other. Ask for the biggest change first, look at the result, and then ask for the next. Structure before wording, wording before polish.
When to start a new conversation
Follow-ups are not always the answer. Start afresh when:
- The conversation has become long. In very long conversations an assistant can lose track of early instructions.
- It keeps returning to a mistake. Once a wrong idea is in the conversation, it tends to come back. A clean start with a better first prompt is faster.
- You are changing topic. Leftover context from the old task can colour the new one.
- You now know what you should have said. Take what you learnt, write a fuller first prompt and begin again.
When you restart, paste in the facts and the best version so far, so that you do not lose your progress.
Do not argue with it
If an assistant insists on something you know to be false, repeating yourself rarely helps, and it may eventually agree only to be agreeable, which proves nothing. State the correct fact once, as a fact: "The date is 14 March. Use that." If it matters, check the fact from a proper source yourself.
A simple routine
- Send a clear first prompt.
- Read the whole answer.
- Fix the biggest problem with one short follow-up.
- Repeat once or twice.
- Check the facts yourself, then make the last edits by hand.
The final step matters. The result should sound like you, and the last ten per cent is usually quicker to do yourself than to describe.
This is an independent site. It is not connected with any company that makes AI assistants. The prompts are plain text and can be used in any AI chat assistant. An AI assistant can give wrong or made-up answers: check anything important before you rely on it, and do not paste private details into a prompt.