The Five Parts
CRAFT, on one page
Name these five things and the output gets dramatically better.
- Context — the situation and your goal. "I run a small clinic launching evening telehealth hours." Leave out anything private.
- Role — tell the AI who to be. "You are a patient-communications writer." The single highest-leverage change you can make.
- Action — one clear, verb-driven task: write, rewrite, summarize, compare, list.
- Format — the shape of the output: "three captions under 30 words," "a 5-row table."
- Tone & examples — how it should sound, plus a sample to match.
Fill-in Template
Copy this, swap the brackets
A reusable skeleton. Replace the highlighted parts and delete anything you don't need.
You are [ROLE].
Context: [the situation and your goal, no private details].
Please [ACTION: write / rewrite / summarize / compare] it as [FORMAT: e.g. 3 bullets, a short email under 90 words, a 5-row table].
Tone: [how it should sound], like this: "[a one-line example to match]".
Common pitfalls
- Starting a brand-new chat to fix a draft — iterate in the same chat instead, so you keep the context.
- Pasting real names, account numbers, or health details into a public/personal AI tool.
- Skipping the Role — "help me with this" gets a shrug; a role reframes the whole answer.
- Giving no Format, then being surprised the output is the wrong length or shape.