ChatGPT - Prompt Engineering Tips

Prompt engineering means writing clear, structured instructions so ChatGPT gives you the response you want. You don't need a technical background. This article covers the basics, techniques for shaping a response, and a checklist for important prompts in University of Maine System (UMS) ChatGPT Edu.

The short version: be specific, give context, describe the task clearly, and say what kind of output you want. The more precise your input, the more useful the result.

The fundamentals

Be specific

Vague prompts usually get vague results.

Vague:

Tell me about enrollment.

Specific:

Summarize fall 2025 enrollment trends, broken down by college. Focus on year-over-year changes and highlight any colleges with enrollment growth or decline greater than 5%.

The second prompt sets the scope (fall 2025), the structure (by college), the focus (year-over-year change), and a threshold (more than 5%).

Assign a role

Telling ChatGPT what role to take shapes the tone, depth, and perspective of the response. It's especially useful when you need subject expertise or a particular communication style.

Examples:

• "You are an experienced academic advisor. A first-generation college student asks you how to choose a major. Explain the factors they should consider and the questions they should ask themselves."
• "You are a technical writer. Rewrite the following error message so that a non-technical user can understand it."
• "You are a grant reviewer for the NSF. Evaluate the following abstract and identify its strengths and weaknesses."

Define the output format

If you have a format in mind, say so. Otherwise ChatGPT picks its own structure, which may not be what you need.

Examples:

• "Respond in a numbered list."
• "Format the response as a table with columns for Name, Department, and Status."
• "Write this as a professional email with a subject line."
• "Give me a one-paragraph summary followed by three bullet points with key takeaways."
• "Respond in plain language at an eighth-grade reading level."

Provide context

ChatGPT doesn't know your systems, processes, team preferences, or situation unless you tell it.

Instead of:

Write a response to this complaint.

Try:

I work in a campus registrar's office. A student emailed because their transfer credits have not yet appeared in their degree audit. Our policy is that transfer credit evaluation takes four to six weeks after official transcripts are received. Write a professional and empathetic response that acknowledges the student's frustration, explains the timeline, and directs them to the appropriate transfer credit contact.

This gives ChatGPT the role, the situation, the policy, the tone, and what to include.

Shape the response

Break complex tasks into steps

For multi-part tasks, ask for one stage at a time. You get checkpoints to review and redirect before ChatGPT continues, and it's less likely to skip something.

Instead of:

Create a presentation about our new employee onboarding process.

Try:

I need to build a presentation about our new employee onboarding process. Work through it in these stages:

1. Suggest an outline with 8 to 10 slide titles covering the full onboarding journey from offer acceptance through the 90-day check-in.
2. After I approve the outline, write the content for each slide.
3. Then suggest talking points I can use as speaker notes.

Use examples

An example is one of the best ways to show the style, tone, length, or format you want.

Here is an example of how we write knowledge base article summaries:

Multi-Factor Authentication adds a second layer of security to your UMS account. After entering your password, you will be prompted to verify your identity using an approved authentication method. MFA is required for eligible UMS users.

Now write a similar summary for our VPN service.

Say what to include and leave out

Telling ChatGPT what not to do can matter as much as telling it what to do.

Examples:

• "Explain how DNS works. Do not use analogies. Describe the technical process directly."
• "Summarize this research paper. Focus only on the methodology and findings. Do not include the literature review or future work sections."
• "Write a job description for a systems administrator. Do not include salary information."
• "List the advantages and disadvantages of migrating to a cloud-hosted learning management system. Do not recommend a specific product."

Set constraints

Limits keep responses focused and the right size.

Examples:

• "Explain this concept in three sentences or fewer."
• "Limit the response to 200 words."
• "Provide exactly five recommendations."
• "Use only information from the uploaded document. Do not use general knowledge."

Ask for a step-by-step explanation

For calculations, analysis, or problem-solving, ask ChatGPT to show its steps. It's easier to review and to spot a wrong assumption.

A student has 45 transfer credits and needs 120 credits to graduate. They want to complete the degree in two years while taking a full course load. Show the calculations step by step and explain what course load would be required each semester.

Ask for options

When you're exploring ideas, ask for several versions to compare.

Examples:

• "Give me three subject lines for this email, ranging from formal to conversational."
• "Suggest five possible titles for a workshop on data privacy in higher education."
• "Write two versions of this announcement: one for students and one for faculty."

Refine and reuse

Iterate

You don't need a perfect prompt on the first try. Start with a reasonable prompt, review the response, and refine it.

Useful follow-ups:

• "This is good, but make the tone more formal."
• "Shorten this to half the length."
• "Add a section about accessibility requirements."
• "Rewrite the third paragraph to focus more on cost savings."
• "This is too technical. Simplify it for a non-technical audience."
• "Try again, but structure it as a frequently asked questions section."

Ask ChatGPT to improve your prompt

Not sure how to phrase a request? Ask ChatGPT what it needs.

Examples:

• "I want help writing a grant proposal, but I am not sure what information you need. What questions should I answer before we start?"
• "Here is my prompt: [paste prompt]. How could I improve it to get a more useful response?"
• "What additional context would help you provide a better answer about our network architecture?"

Give it reference material

Upload the documents that matter for your task, such as policies, style guides, data files, templates, past examples, or drafts to revise. Then tell ChatGPT how to use them.

I uploaded our department's style guide and the previous annual report. Use the style guide's formatting standards and match the tone of last year's report. Draft the executive summary for this year's report using only the data I provide.

Save instructions you repeat in a Project

If you give the same instructions in many chats, add them to a Project. Every chat in that Project follows them automatically. For example, someone who writes knowledge base articles might use:

You are a technical writer for UMS IT. Write in plain language, use active voice, preserve the full source content, and follow the UMS knowledge base formatting standard. Use clear section headings and include an Environment section at the end.

Custom GPTs are retiring. If you set up instructions in a GPT, see ChatGPT - Custom GPTs to move them to a plugin.

Common mistakes

• Being too vague. "Help me with a report" gives ChatGPT very little. Include the topic, audience, format, length, and purpose when they matter.
• Asking for too much at once. Research, a long report, an executive summary, and slides in one prompt usually means weaker results across the board. Break it into stages.
• Accepting the first response without review. ChatGPT can sound confident and still be wrong, leave things out, or miss your intent. Review it and refine.
• Leaving out context. When a response feels generic, more context is usually the fix.
• Assuming it remembers every chat. A new chat may not include earlier context. Provide it again, or work in a Project with the files and instructions you need.
• Using one prompt style for everything. What works for an email may not work for data analysis, troubleshooting, research, brainstorming, or revising a document. Adjust to the task.

Prompt checklist

Before you send an important or complex prompt, check:

• Role: Did I say what role or perspective ChatGPT should take?
• Task: Is the task clearly stated?
• Context: Did I give the relevant background?
• Format: Did I say how the response should be structured?
• Constraints: Did I set limits on length, scope, or content?
• Examples: Would an example show what I expect?
• Exclusions: Did I say what to avoid?

A simple question doesn't need all of these. For important or complex tasks, including the ones that apply usually gets better results.

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Environment

• University of Maine System (UMS) ChatGPT Edu workspace
• Prompt writing
• Projects
• Eligible UMS students, faculty, and staff
• Web browser at chatgpt.com, plus the ChatGPT desktop and mobile apps