Editing Prompt Engineering Basics (section)

== Common mistakes ==

| Mistake || Why it fails || Better approach

| "Write something good about X" || Too vague — "good" means nothing to a model || Specify length, audience, tone, and purpose
| Putting instructions ''after'' the content || AI may lose track of late instructions in long prompts || Instructions first, content second
| Asking for everything at once || Quality drops when the task is too broad || Break complex tasks into smaller prompts, chain the outputs
| No examples for ambiguous tasks || The model interprets differently than you expect || Add 2–3 examples of what you want
| Accepting the first output || First drafts are rarely best || Ask for revisions: "Make this more concise" or "Rewrite focusing on X"