Your prompt library and staying safe
Turn the prompts that worked into reusable templates, decide what you will and won't paste into a chat box, and put the whole course together on one realistic task.
REUSE
A template is a prompt with holes in it
When a prompt works, don't leave it buried in a chat you'll never open again. Copy it out and replace the parts that change with [square brackets]: [the reader], [the pasted document], [length]. The structure you worked out stays; only the specifics move. Next time it's a fill-in exercise instead of a blank page.
A good placeholder says what goes in it. [the reader and what they already know] is far more useful than [context], because in three months you won't remember what you meant.
TEMPLATE - Reply to an unhappy customer
You're replying for [my shop or service]. Our policy on this: [paste the policy].
The customer wrote: [paste their message].
What actually happened: [the facts, including anything that was our fault].
Write a reply that apologises once, explains plainly, and offers [what the policy allows].
Tone: [a shop owner who wants them to come back; no sales language].
Under [120] words. Give me 2 versions.Version 1:
Hello Ms Ahmadi, you're right to be annoyed and I'm sorry. Your order left us on the 3rd and then sat with the courier for six days. Our policy covers a full refund of the delivery fee in a case like this, and I started it this morning...
Version 2:
Hello Ms Ahmadi, thank you for telling us...Every bracket is something you would have forgotten to mention at least once. Keep the "2 versions" line as well: choosing between two is faster than describing what you want (lesson 6).
Check yourself
Sara wants to save her caption prompt as a template. Which version will still work in six months, for a different product?
- "Write a [length]-word caption about [product]. Match the voice of these samples: [paste 3 captions]. End with a question."
- "Write a 30-word caption about our new blue scarf, playful, ending with a question."
- "Write a caption. [Context]."
- "Write a caption about [thing] in our usual style, the same as the ones you wrote for us before. You know our voice by now."
Show the answer
"Write a [length]-word caption about [product]. Match the voice of these samples: [paste 3 captions]. End with a question."
Yes. Everything that changes sits in a clearly named bracket, and the thing that makes it work, her own samples, is carried in rather than assumed.
Building a library you'll actually use
- Notice the good one
The moment an answer is genuinely right, stop. That prompt is worth more than the answer it just produced.
- Strip it to a template
Replace this week's specifics with named brackets. Keep the constraints and the format line: those are the parts you'd forget next time.
- Name it by the job
"Reply to an angry customer", not "prompt 4". You'll look for the job, never for the number.
- Keep it where you write
A note on your phone, a pinned message, a text file on your desktop. Anywhere you can paste from in five seconds. A library you can't reach isn't one.
- Fix it in place
When you improve a prompt during a chat, paste the improvement back into the template. Otherwise you solve the same problem again every month.
Check yourself
The moment to save a prompt as a template is the first time it gives you something you'd actually use, not once it is perfect.
Show the answer
True
A template is a starting point, not a finished object. Save the version that worked and improve it in place each time you use it. Waiting for perfect means writing the same prompt from scratch forever.
BEFORE YOU PASTE
It leaves your screen
Whatever you paste goes to a company's servers. Depending on the product and its settings, it may be stored, reviewed by people, or used to train future models. Treat the chat box like a message to an outside contractor you've never met: fine for most work, wrong for some of it. Never paste passwords, bank or card details, or identity numbers. No task needs them.
Worth five minutes, once: open the product's settings. Many let you turn off training on your chats or delete your history, and a work account often has different rules from a personal one.
| What you want to paste | What to do |
|---|---|
| A public article, your own draft, a textbook chapter | Paste it |
| A client's contract, a colleague's CV, someone's medical note | Take the names and numbers out first, or don't paste it |
| A password, a card number, an ID number | Never |
| Your employer's internal documents | Find out your workplace's rule first |
Check yourself
Reza wants help with each of these. Which can go in as they are, and which need the details taken out first?
- A news article he wants summarised
- A customer list with phone numbers
- His own half-written blog post
- A colleague's medical certificate
- A published government form
- A signed contract with his client's name and prices
Show the answer
Paste as it is: A news article he wants summarised, His own half-written blog post, A published government form
Strip the details first: A customer list with phone numbers, A colleague's medical certificate, A signed contract with his client's name and prices
Check yourself
Match each complaint to the move from this course that fixes it
Show the answer
- "It's generic, it could be for anyone" → Add context: who you are, who it's for, what happened
- "It invented a source" → Open the original yourself, and pass on no citation you haven't read
- "It's correct but doesn't sound like me" → Paste two or three samples of your own writing
- "I got ten thin sections instead of one good one" → Ask for a plan first, then one piece per prompt
- "Its 'friendly' isn't my 'friendly'" → Show an example instead of using an adjective
ROLE: You're an experienced school principal who writes to parents often.
CONTEXT: I run a small language school. A parent complained that her daughter's class changed teacher twice this term. Her message: [paste]. What actually happened: the first teacher moved to another city, the replacement was ill for two weeks. Our policy on class changes: [paste].
EXAMPLES: two letters I sent last year that parents took well: [paste both]. Match this voice, not the topic.
TASK: Write a reply that takes responsibility for the disruption, explains what happened without making excuses, and says what we'll do for the rest of the term.
FORMAT: Under 200 words, no bullet points. Then, separately, list the 3 assumptions you made and any question you'd want answered before I send it.Dear Mrs Sadeghi,
Thank you for writing, and I'm sorry. Two teacher changes in one term is disruptive for any child, and Nasim deserved better...
Assumptions I made:
1. You want to keep this family, so the tone is warm rather than formal.
2. "What we'll do" covers this term only.
3. Nasim is the daughter's name, taken from the parent's message.Every part of this came from a lesson: role and format (4), the pasted message and policy (2), the voice samples (5), the limits (6), the assumptions list (8). Four minutes to write, and the reply needed one small change.
Check yourself
Negar has to write a one-page project update for her manager, who reads the first few lines and distrusts sales language. She has last month's update, which went down well, and this month's raw notes. Which prompt uses the most of this course?
- "Act as a project manager with fifteen years of experience. Write a professional one-page update about my project. Make it clear, concise, well structured and polished from start to finish."
- "Write a project update. Be thorough, professional and persuasive, cover everything important that happened this month, highlight the wins, and make sure whoever reads it comes away confident that the project and the team are both completely on track."
- "Summarise my project notes into an update for my manager. Make it good."
- "Last month's update, which he liked: [paste]. This month's notes: [paste]. He reads the first 5 lines and distrusts sales language. Same voice, answer first, under 400 words. Then list your assumptions and any contradictions in my notes."
Show the answer
"Last month's update, which he liked: [paste]. This month's notes: [paste]. He reads the first 5 lines and distrusts sales language. Same voice, answer first, under 400 words. Then list your assumptions and any contradictions in my notes."
Yes. A proven sample for the voice, the raw material pasted in, a described reader, a stated shape and length, and a request for assumptions and contradictions. Almost nothing important is left to guess.
Lesson recap
- Turn a prompt that worked into a template with clearly named [brackets], and keep the five you'll actually reach for.
- Improve the template in place instead of rebuilding it every month.
- Never paste passwords, card or identity numbers, and take names and figures out of other people's documents.
- You're responsible for what you send, so check what matters and check your workplace's rules.
- The whole course in one line: put what's in your head into the text, then check what comes back.