AI The AI Explainer

Prompt templates

Prompt patterns you can actually reuse.

Good prompts are not magic words. They give the AI a task, context, audience, output format, and limits. This library gives practical templates that readers can adapt without pasting private information.

Before you use a prompt

Replace private names, account details, addresses, customer records, grades, medical details, and confidential workplace information with placeholders. A prompt should describe the structure of the task without exposing sensitive facts.

Writing and editing

Clearer draft: Rewrite the text below for a general audience. Keep the meaning, remove jargon, and show me three sentences you changed most.

Tone check: Review this message for tone. Tell me if it sounds too harsh, too vague, or too long before rewriting it.

Summary: Summarize the text in five bullets, then list three details that should be checked against the original.

Learning

Explain step by step: Explain this topic to a beginner. Use one simple analogy, then give me three practice questions.

Find gaps: Ask me five questions to test whether I understand this topic. After I answer, point out my weakest area.

Study plan: Build a seven-day study plan for this topic with one reading task, one practice task, and one review task each day.

Research without copying

Question map: Turn this topic into ten research questions. Mark which questions need official sources.

Source review: Compare these source notes. Which claims are well supported, which are weak, and which need another source?

Outline only: Create an outline from my notes, but do not write the final article. Include where evidence is needed.

Work planning

Meeting notes: Turn these notes into decisions, open questions, owners, and next actions. Do not add information that is not in the notes.

Decision table: Compare these options by cost, effort, risk, and reversibility. Ask for missing information before recommending one.

Email reply: Draft a short professional reply. Keep the tone calm, include one clear next step, and avoid promising anything not stated here.

Verification

Assumption check: List the assumptions behind your answer and which ones would change the recommendation.

Evidence check: Separate facts, estimates, opinions, and suggestions in your answer.

Failure mode: Tell me three ways this answer could be wrong and what I should verify manually.

Privacy-safe rewriting

Placeholder rewrite: Replace every private name, address, account number, and company detail with placeholders before improving the structure.

Risk scan: Identify any sensitive details in this draft that should be removed before using an AI tool.

Generic version: Turn this situation into a generic example that keeps the problem structure but removes identifying details.

Decision support

Options map: List the realistic options, the tradeoffs, and what information is missing before recommending a next step.

Reversibility check: Which parts of this decision are easy to reverse, and which parts create long-term risk?

Second view: Give me a cautious version of this recommendation and an optimistic version, then explain what evidence would decide between them.

A simple prompt formula

Use this order: role, task, context, constraints, format, review step. Example: "Act as an editor. Rewrite this explanation for beginners. Keep the meaning, avoid hype, use five bullets, and list anything that needs fact-checking."

How to improve a weak prompt

A weak prompt says, "Explain AI." A stronger prompt says, "Explain generative AI to a beginner who uses email and search but has no technical background. Use one analogy, three practical examples, and two risks to check." The second prompt gives audience, context, format, and limits.

A weak prompt says, "Write my article." A safer prompt says, "Help me build an outline from my notes. Mark where I need sources and do not write the final article." This keeps the thinking and final wording with the writer instead of turning AI into a copying shortcut.

A weak prompt says, "Is this true?" A stronger prompt says, "Separate the claims in this answer into facts, assumptions, and suggestions. Tell me which facts need an official source." That makes the review task visible.

Prompt habits that keep control with the user