Prompting Matters
Getting more from your interactions
Write a three line poem about a fish.
Write a four line poem about a fish.
Count the syllables in the poem and provide a line-by-line count.
LLMs are about odds
data but no knowledge
VS
Large Language Models (LLMs)
OpenAi
Anthropic
Facebook/Meta
Llama
(formerly Bard)
Microsoft
(aka Bing Chat)
MonadGPT
a finetune of Mistral-Hermes 2 on 11,000 early modern (17th century) texts in English, French and Latin, mostly coming from EEBO and Gallica
The Large Language Model (LLM)
The data it contains + the training layer
What the model can interact with
The limits that have been added
How you interact with it
Copilot
GPT4
GPT3.5
Summarize the top news and expand on one topic that's the most important
Copilot
GPT4
GPT3.5
Prompting Basics
Make a request
Write a poem about Middlebury College in Vermont that captures its unique geographic location and its historic buildings.
Define the results
Take the following information and create a table with a column for the title, event date, description, and a link. Condense the description to one sentence.
Create a 7 item summary of this PDF https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SPM.pdf
Write a poem about Middlebury College in Vermont that captures its unique geographic location and its historic buildings. Use the ballad format and an ABAB rhyme scheme.
Assign a persona (Act as)
You are an expert in nuclear proliferation who has spent 25 years studying America’s role in the arms race. In addition to teaching, you have a distinguished career in international law and non-proliferation treaties. You are a fervent believer in the power of diplomacy and multilateral agreements to achieve a nuclear-free world. You are eloquent and use sophisticated, domain-specific vocabulary.
You are a Middlebury graduate and poetry expert. Write a poem about Middlebury College in Vermont that captures its unique geographic location and its historic buildings. Use the ballad format and an ABCABC rhyme scheme.
Define the audience (Talk to)
Respond to me as if I am a new to the field and use simple language to explain things. Add detail and where possible provide real-world examples that illustrate the concept and connect to my existing knowledge of php.
Write a poem about Middlebury College in Vermont that captures its unique geographic location. Your audience is students considering Bates instead of Middlebury.
“Evaluate” information
I want you to be on your toes and consider the nature of what my questions signify beyond just the questions themselves. Anticipate any ulterior motives for my questions. Let me know what you think is going on when you provide each answer. You are to still answer each question as best you can. Do you understand these instructions?
Look at the following arguments and identify any logical fallacies. Indicate any weaknesses you see in the writing quality.
A very invested friend
Whenever I ask a question, suggest a better version of the question and ask me if I would like to use the better question instead.
Self-improvement
Review this poem and make edits that would improve the emotional appeal of the poem
Middlebury (or your chosen school) is a place that means a lot to me. Can you make this poem more ____ and include ____?”
Flip the script
Ask me questions about object oriented programming in PHP to help improve my understanding. Provide feedback when I wrongly or incompletely answer a question.
I will be communicating with you in Spanish. Evaluate my vocabulary and grammar. Provide feedback in Spanish to help me improve.
Chain-of-thought prompting
Describe your reasoning step-by-step.
RTRI
Combine techniques
You are an experienced biology instructor who understands key pedagogical approaches like interleaved practice. I am an instructor. Provide suggestions on how I can connect the previous topic of cell biology with the current topic of evolution. Provide activities that I could use in class. Also provide thought-provoking questions that I can ask students to help them connect the previous topic with the current topic.
Combine techniques
You are an experienced biology instructor who understands key pedagogical approaches like interleaved practice. I am an instructor. Provide suggestions on how I can connect the previous topic of cell biology with the current topic of evolution. Provide activities that I could use in class. Also provide thought-provoking questions that I can ask students to help them connect the previous topic with the current topic.
Assign persona
Assign audience
Specificity
You are an expert business information systems instructor.
Make 3 multiple choice questions that test second-year university students' understanding of the following topics:
- Customer Relationship Management Systems
- Information Security and Privacy
- Business Process Management
For each question, provide the correct answer. Then write feedback to students about the correct and incorrect options. Link the topics together in your feedback to help students connect ideas together. In your feedback, provide questions that encourage students to explore these ideas more themselves, instead of giving them the answer directly.
You are an expert business information systems instructor.
Make 3 multiple choice questions that test second-year university students' understanding of the following topics:
- Customer Relationship Management Systems
- Information Security and Privacy
- Business Process Management
For each question, provide the correct answer. Then write feedback to students about the correct and incorrect options. Link the topics together in your feedback to help students connect ideas together. In your feedback, provide questions that encourage students to explore these ideas more themselves, instead of giving them the answer directly.
Assign persona
Assign audience
Specificity
Using LLMs in your class