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Generative AI Literacy: Creating Effective Prompts

This guide offers resources for beginners looking to understand Generative AI and how to use tools like ChatGPT effectively and ethically.

AI Use

Before using generative AI tools in your classes, review the syllabus for the instructor’s AI policy or consult your instructor directly.

What are Prompts?

Prompts are instructions or questions that you give to an artificial intelligence (AI) model to get a specific response. These prompts can be simple requests, questions, or tasks written in everyday language. They help guide the AI, like ChatGPT or Google Gemini, to create useful and relevant answers based on what it has learned.

What is Prompt Engineering?

Tips for Writing Effective Prompts

The CLEAR Framework for prompt engineering, developed by Leo Lo, a librarian and professor at the University of New Mexico, is a structured approach designed to improve the quality and effectiveness of AI-generated responses. The acronym CLEAR stands for:

Concise: A well-crafted prompt is concise, clear, and specific, helping AI focus on key aspects of the task to generate precise and relevant responses.

Logical: A logically structured prompt improves AI comprehension by ensuring a clear progression of information and evident relationships between concepts, leading to more accurate and coherent responses.

Explicit: Explicit prompts give clear instructions on output format, content, and scope, ensuring the AI produces relevant and expected responses.

Adaptive: Adaptive prompts involve flexibility and customization, allowing for refinement of an initial prompt by experimenting with different formulations and settings to balance creativity and focus, ensuring responses align with specific needs.

Reflective: Reflective prompts help you improve your AI results by regularly reviewing and adjusting your prompts based on feedback. By analyzing how the AI responds, you can make small changes to get more accurate and useful answers over time.

Source: Lo, Leo, S. (2023). The CLEAR path: A Framework for Enhancing Information Literacy through Prompt EngineeringThe Journal of Academic Librarianship49(4).

Self-Paced Learning via O'Reilly Learning

The O'Reilly Learning database curates popular videos into on-demand courses covering in-demand tech skills as well as "Shortcuts"—expert-led micro-lessons under 10 minutes for quick skill-building. Below are a few courses and shortcuts on prompt engineering for beginners:

Books on ChatGPT