A checklist for turning a vague instruction into a prompt a reviewer can actually verify.
Make the success condition checkable
A prompt survives review when a second person can tell whether the output
met it. "Write a friendly email" cannot be checked; "under 120 words, one
question, no exclamation marks" can.
$rules = ['max_words' => 120, 'questions' => 1, 'exclamations' => 0];State the format before the content
Models follow structure better than adjectives. Ask for headings, a table,
or a JSON shape first, then fill it in.
Keep one example per rule
Few-shot examples teach better than instructions, but only when each
example demonstrates a single rule. Two rules in one example teach neither.