Prompting that actually works.
Two people use the same AI. One gets a useless generic answer, the other gets exactly what they need. The difference is the prompt. Today you'll learn a simple formula that makes AI dramatically more useful.
Weak vs strong prompt
Weak: "Write about marketing."
Strong: "You're a digital marketing teacher. Explain the marketing funnel to a first-year BBA student in Hyderabad, using a local biryani restaurant as the example. Use 5 short bullet points and end with one practice question."
The second prompt gives the AI a role, context, a task, and a format.
The RCTF formula
| Part | Question | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Role | Who should the AI act as? | "You're an experienced HR manager…" |
| Context | What's the situation? Who is it for? | "…reviewing a fresher's CV for a data analyst job in Hyderabad…" |
| Task | What exactly should it do? | "…point out the 5 biggest weaknesses and rewrite the summary…" |
| Format | How should the answer look? | "…as a numbered list, then the new summary in under 60 words." |
Power techniques
More useful phrases
- "Explain like I'm 12 years old."
- "Give me 3 options with pros and cons."
- "Put this in a table with columns A, B, C."
- "What's missing from my plan?"
- "Point out any mistakes or weak arguments."
- "If you're not sure about something, say so."
Which prompt will most likely get a useful CV summary?
Specific role, skills, length and what to avoid give a far better result.
Your own prompt library
Save prompts that work well in a note on your phone:
Study: "Explain [topic] simply with an everyday example, then quiz me with 5 questions."
Email: "Rewrite this email to be polite, clear and under 100 words: [paste]"
Ideas: "Give me 10 reel ideas about [topic] for [audience], each with a strong hook."
Review: "Act as a strict reviewer. List the 5 biggest problems in this: [paste]"Not good. Vague, and likely academic dishonesty. Better: "Help me outline an assignment on climate change effects in Telangana: suggest 5 sections and key questions for each. I'll research and write it myself."
Good. Role, context, task and format.
Which of these improves AI answers the most?
Clarity and context matter most. (Politeness is fine, but it's not the magic part.)
Your task (20 min)
Pick 3 real tasks from your life (a study topic, an email, an idea list). Write a weak prompt and an RCTF prompt for each, try both in an AI tool, and compare. Save the best 3 prompts in your phone's notes as your prompt library.
Lesson 5 complete!
You can write strong prompts using the RCTF formula, give examples, ask for formats and improve answers step by step. Next: AI for study and notes.
Next: AI for study and notes →