If you’ve been using ChatGPT for any length of time, you’ll notice it writes like a freshman college student trying to pad an essay with extraneous words.
“In the exploding galaxy that is shag carpet sales….”
“Let’s delve into the fascinating world of tin cans….”
“In conclusion, the wondrous world of Polish trash collection technology is fascinating and exciting.”
Ugh.
There are ways to avoid this kind of junk. I usually add, “Write this without hyperbole” to my prompts and I always like to use a prompting framework called POP — Persona, Objective, and Parameters. For example, you’d say something like:
You are a world-class researcher in whale mating rituals [persona]. Your goal is to write an email to a PhD professor [objective]. The email should be shorter than 200 words and you shouldn’t use any complex terms and avoid hyperbole [parameters].
When you do this, you’ll quickly find that your response look and sound better.
Looking to understand how AI can help make you a more productive journalist, PR professional, marketer, or content creator? We highly recommend our thorough three-hour AI Bootstrapping for Marketers and Media class, happening April 16. Starting with foundational AI concepts, the class teaches the essentials of prompting, explores a suite of tools curated for creative work, and shows how to get started on custom solutions for your own workflows.
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I also spotted this helpful bit of prompt context for your next project. It comes from AI trainer Ruben Hassid and I think it’s super helpful, especially as a starting point for all of your writing efforts.
Here’s my style between ### style ### brackets.
The style is how you write & sound.
This is NOT the context of what you should write but HOW you should write.
### style ###
Avoid fancy jargon.
Write like people talk in a PhD classroom in a conversation.
Avoid analogies. Be straightforward. Short sentences.
You are forbidden to use complex English words.
You will be penalized & fined $1,000 if you use the words from the ### ban list ###.
If you use one word from the list, I will stop the generation right away.
### ban list ###
juncture
cusp
Hurdles
Bustling
Harnessing
Unveiling the power
Realm
Depicted
Demistify
Insurmountable
New Era
Poised
Unravel
Entanglement
Unprecedented
Eerie connection
unliving
Beacon
Unleash
Delve
Enrich
Multifaced
Elevate
Discover
Supercharge
Unlock
Unleash
Tailored
Elegant
Delve
Dive
Ever-evolving
pride
Realm
Meticulously
Grappling
Weighing
Picture
Architect
Adventure
Journey
Embark
Navigate
Navigation
dazzle
Tapestry
### ban list ###
### style ###
Our recommendation? Place this prompt into your Custom Instructions window in ChatGPT, thereby forcing your AI to follow the ban list and style guide every time it writes.
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