AI 101: The Student Guide to AI Prompting

This content is intended to highlight best practices for AI use when it is allowed. Remember to check the syllabus for each course for instructors' guidelines. 

In computer science, there’s an old saying: garbage in, garbage out. The phrase refers to the idea that if a computer is given low-quality or unclear input, it will produce low-quality or unclear output. 

Even as AI tools like ChatGPT or Google Gemini continue to evolve and gain popularity, this principle still holds true. If you feed them vague or incomplete instructions, you’re likely to get an output that’s far from what you wanted. 

In our last AI 101 blog post, we explored the history of AI and shared some general guidelines for using AI in your courses. Now, let’s take things a step further and talk about how to write better AI prompts to ensure you get the best results. 

What is AI Prompting? 

An AI prompt is a set of instructions given to an AI tool to guide its response. 

Just like a person, AI needs clear directions to deliver the results you’re looking for. 

For example, if you asked someone to clean your house, you might not get the outcome you expected unless you provided specifics — vacuuming the carpets, sweeping and mopping the floors, and wiping down the kitchen counters. 

The same logic applies to AI. If you simply tell an AI tool to "develop an outline for a paper," the response may not be what you need. But if you specify, "Develop an outline for my communication class research paper on social media use among teenagers, using my research notes and following my outline guidelines," you’ll get a strong starting point to build upon. 

This process of crafting and optimizing AI prompts is known as prompt engineering. 

Writing effective AI prompts takes skill and practice — just like writing a research paper. But with the right approach, you’ll be crafting strong prompts in no time. 

Elements of a Strong AI Prompt 

A strong AI prompt includes several key ingredients. There are many AI prompting frameworks out there, but one of our favorites is CRAAFTED, developed by Dr. Francesco Crocco, assistant director of instructional support at the University. 

Each letter in CRAAFTED represents an essential piece of information to include in your prompt: 

• Context: What is the situation?
• Role: Who should the AI tool pretend to be?
• Assignment: What should the AI do?
• Audience: Who is the person or group receiving or reading the output?
• Format: What should the output look like?
• Tone: What kind of feeling should the output express?
• Exemplar: What is a good sample or example the AI can reference?
• Details: What specific items would you like the AI to include? 

Incorporating each of these elements will help ensure you get the most useful output possible. 

Let’s say you need an AI tool to help you develop an outline for your research paper. Your prompt could look like this: "I'm a college student writing a five-to-seven-page research paper on social media use among teenagers for my communication class. I've reviewed all my literature and taken notes. Now, I need your help creating a three-to-six-section outline with clear, simple language and bulleted points for reference while I write. I will copy and paste my notes and a sample outline below for you." 

This prompt gives the AI a clear role, assignment, audience, format, and other crucial details, resulting in a much stronger response. 

A Few More Notes on Using AI 

Your work doesn’t end once you submit your initial prompt. 

AI-generated content often needs refining. You may need to tweak your prompt or provide feedback to get closer to the response you want. This process is called iteration. 

Additionally, always evaluate AI-generated content for accuracy and bias. AI chatbots generate responses by predicting the most likely sequence of words based on patterns in their training data, which means they can sometimes produce content that sounds correct but isn’t. 

AI can also reflect biases present in its training data, so it’s important to review outputs critically before using them. 

Final Thoughts 

AI is a powerful tool, but its usefulness depends on how well you communicate with it. By crafting clear, detailed prompts using the CRAAFTED framework, you can ensure that AI works for you — not against you. 

Remember: AI isn’t perfect, and neither is its first response. Think of it as a collaborative tool that requires guidance and refinement. The better your prompts, the better your results. 

Happy prompting!