The Six Ingredients of a High-Quality Prompt
When you’re cooking, the same recipe can turn out completely different depending on the ingredients you use. Prompting AI is the same. If you want ChatGPT to give you sharp, business-ready answers, you need to include the right ingredients in your prompt.
Researchers and AI trainers have boiled this down to six core elements. Get these right, and your AI responses will instantly improve.
The Six Ingredients
Role
Tell the AI who to be.
Example: “Act as a social media manager for a local café.”
Context
Provide background details.
Example: “Our café is in Melbourne and we want to attract weekday office workers.”
Instructions
Be clear about what you want.
Example: “Write three Instagram captions that highlight our new lunch specials.”
Formatting
Say how you want the answer structured.
Example: “Present as a numbered list with emojis.”
Boundaries
Add limits to keep results relevant.
Example: “Each caption must be under 100 characters.”
Examples
Show what “good” looks like.
Example: “Use a friendly tone like: ‘Your lunch break just got tastier 🍴✨.’”
Why this works
By combining all six, you give the AI a crystal-clear brief. This means less fluff, less rework, and more content you can actually use in your business straight away.
Quick exercise
Take a vague prompt you’ve used before—like “Write a blog about coffee shops.”
Now, could you rebuild it with all six ingredients? Notice how much more helpful the output becomes.
