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Prompt Engineering Foundations · Clarity, context and examples · lesson 3 of 16 · 10 min

Clarity and specificity

Vague words are the enemy

Words like "good", "short", "professional", "engaging" and "detailed" mean different things to different people. The AI has to guess what you mean, and it guesses average. Clarity means replacing vague words with concrete ones.

| Vague | Specific | |---|---| | Make it short | Under 100 words | | Make it professional | Formal, no slang, suitable for a bank's client email | | Make it engaging | Start with a question; use one short personal example | | Explain it simply | Explain for a 12-year-old using an everyday comparison | | Give me some ideas | Give me 10 ideas, each in one sentence |

Say what you want, not only what you don't

"Don't be boring" gives the AI nothing to aim at. "Use a surprising fact in the first sentence and keep sentences under 20 words" does. It is fine to include things to avoid, but pair each "don't" with a "do".

Be specific about the goal

The same task changes with the goal. Compare:

  • "Write a LinkedIn post about our new product."
  • "Write a LinkedIn post about our new product to get small-business owners to book a free demo."

The second tells the AI what the post is for, so it can choose a call to action, the right benefits and a suitable tone.

Quantities and limits

Numbers are one of the easiest ways to be specific:

  • How many? ("5 subject lines")
  • How long? ("2 paragraphs", "under 50 words", "a 3-minute speech")
  • How detailed? ("one sentence per point")
  • By when? ("a plan for the next 4 weeks")

Word counts are approximate for AI, so give a range ("80 to 120 words") and check.

One task at a time (or clearly listed)

Mixing several requests in one long paragraph invites the AI to do some and skip others. Either ask one thing at a time, or number the requests:

Please do three things with the notes below:
1. Summarise them in 5 bullet points.
2. List any decisions we made, with the owner's name.
3. Draft a short follow-up email to the team.

Worked example: from vague to clear

A teacher in Manchester wants help with a parents' newsletter.

Vague:

Help me with a newsletter.

Clear:

Write the opening section (about 120 words) of our Year 4 class
newsletter for parents. Topics: the school trip to the science museum
on 14 March (permission slips due 7 March) and our new reading challenge.
Tone: warm and upbeat, easy to read on a phone. End with a reminder to
return slips.

Everything the AI needs is there: section, length, audience, topics, dates, tone and ending.

Clarity is not length

Being specific does not mean writing an essay. A clear 40-word prompt beats a rambling 300-word one. Aim for every sentence to add information the AI could not guess. If a sentence does not change the result, cut it.

A useful trick: let the AI ask you

When you are not sure what details matter, ask the AI to interview you first:

I want to write a speech for my sister's wedding. Before you write
anything, ask me up to 5 questions about what you need to know.

This is one of the most powerful beginner techniques. The AI's questions show you which details matter, and the final result will be far more personal.

Common clarity mistakes

  • Using pronouns without context ("rewrite it", when "it" is not in the chat).
  • Assuming the AI knows internal names ("update the Q3 deck" means nothing to it).
  • Leaving out the most important constraint ("it must fit on one slide").
  • Changing your mind halfway through a long prompt without editing earlier parts.

Summary checklist

  • Replace vague adjectives with concrete descriptions or numbers.
  • State the goal, not only the task.
  • Number multiple requests.
  • Pair every "don't" with a "do".
  • When unsure, ask the AI to ask you questions first.

Hands-on: the vague-word hunt

Take any prompt you wrote recently and underline every word that a stranger could interpret in two ways. Then replace each one using this checklist:

Vague word        Ask yourself                      Replace with
"short"           How short, measured how?          "under 80 words" / "3 bullets"
"professional"    Professional for whom?            "formal, for a bank's client email"
"catchy"          What makes it catch attention?    "start with a question or number"
"simple"          Simple for which reader?          "for a 12-year-old" / "no jargon"
"soon"            By when?                          "by Thursday 5pm"
"some ideas"      How many, how detailed?           "8 ideas, one line each"

Now try the improved prompt and compare the two answers side by side. Most people are surprised by how much a few concrete words change the result.

Worked example: a small business owner in Jeddah

Before:

Write something for our new menu.

After:

Write a 3-line description for each of these 4 new dishes on our café's
Instagram story. Audience: university students in Jeddah. Tone: playful,
modern. Each description: dish name, one sensory detail, price in SAR.
Dishes: saffron latte (18), date cheesecake (22), halloumi wrap (25),
mango sparkling tea (15).

The second prompt fixes the destination (Instagram story), the audience, the tone, the structure and supplies the real facts, so nothing needs to be invented.

Specific, not rigid

Being specific does not mean controlling every word. Leave the AI room where you want creativity ("suggest the angle") and be exact where you have firm requirements ("price in SAR, under 30 words"). A useful habit is to separate must-haves from nice-to-haves:

Must: under 100 words, mention the 14 March deadline, friendly tone.
Nice to have: a light joke, a question at the end.

How to measure your progress

Over the next week, count how many follow-up messages you need before an answer is usable. When your prompts are clear, that number drops from three or four to one or zero. That is the most practical measure of clarity you have.

Video lecture: Clarity and specificity

Clarity and specificity — Vague words are the enemy Words like "good", "short", "professional", "engaging" and "detailed" mean different things to different people. The AI has to…

11 chapters · about 7 minutes · captions and full transcript below.

  1. Clarity and specificity
  2. Vague words make the AI guess
  3. Two more habits
  4. Use numbers
  5. Worked example: a Jeddah café
  6. Clear, not long
  7. Let the AI interview you
  8. Practice: the vague-word hunt
  9. Example 1: snack ideas
  10. Example 2: a proposal summary (illustrative)
  11. Recap

Lecture transcript

Clarity and specificity

Short. Professional. Engaging. Simple. These everyday words are quietly ruining your AI results. In this lecture you will learn why vague words make the assistant guess average, how to swap them for concrete descriptions, how to state the goal behind a task, and a powerful trick where the AI interviews you before it writes. By the end, you will be able to rewrite any fuzzy prompt into a clear one in under a minute.

Vague words make the AI guess

Here is the problem. Short means one sentence to you and three paragraphs to someone else. Professional means formal to a banker and friendly-but-polished to a start-up founder. When your prompt contains a vague word, the AI has to guess what you meant, and it guesses the average. The fix is to replace every vague word with something a stranger could not misread. Short becomes under one hundred words. Professional becomes formal, no slang, suitable for a bank's client email. Engaging becomes start with a question and use one short personal example.

Two more habits

Second habit: say what you want, not only what you do not want. Do not be boring gives the AI nothing to aim at. Use a surprising fact in the first sentence and keep sentences under twenty words gives it a target. It is fine to include things to avoid, but pair every don't with a do. Third habit: state the goal, not just the task. Write a LinkedIn post about our new product is a task. Write a LinkedIn post about our new product to get small business owners to book a free demo tells the AI what the post is for, so it can choose the right benefits, tone and call to action.

Use numbers

Numbers are the easiest route to clarity. How many? Give me five subject lines. How long? Two paragraphs, or under fifty words. How detailed? One sentence per point. By when? A plan for the next four weeks. One caution: AI is much better at counting items than counting exact words. So if length really matters, use structure-based limits like three bullets or two short paragraphs, or give a range such as eighty to one hundred and twenty words, and then check.

Worked example: a Jeddah café

Let us see it in action with a café in Jeddah. The vague version: write something for our new menu. The clear version: write a three-line description for each of these four new dishes for our café's Instagram story. Audience: university students in Jeddah. Tone: playful and modern. Each description should have the dish name, one sensory detail, and the price in riyals. Then the four dishes with their prices. Notice what happened. The destination, audience, tone, structure and real facts are all there. Nothing needs to be invented, so nothing will be.

Clear, not long

Clarity is not the same as length. A clear forty-word prompt beats a rambling three-hundred-word one. Aim for every sentence to add information the AI could not guess. A helpful habit is to separate must-haves from nice-to-haves. Must: under one hundred words, mention the fourteenth of March deadline, friendly tone. Nice to have: a light joke and a question at the end. That tells the AI where to be exact and where it has room to be creative.

Let the AI interview you

Now the trick most beginners never discover. When you are not sure which details matter, ask the AI to interview you first. For example: I want to write a speech for my sister's wedding. Before you write anything, ask me up to five questions about what you need to know. The questions themselves teach you what a good brief contains. And the final speech will be far more personal, because it is built on your answers instead of generic filler.

Practice: the vague-word hunt

Let us practise the vague-word hunt together. Here is a prompt: write a short, professional update for the team about the project soon. Which words could a stranger misread? Short: how short? Make it under eighty words. Professional: for which team? Make it direct and friendly for our six-person design team. Soon: by when? Make it by Thursday at five. And the project: which one? Name it, the Bloom Café website relaunch. Four vague words, four quick fixes, and the answer goes from a generic paragraph to something you could send without editing.

Example 1: snack ideas

Here is a simple example. You ask: give me some healthy snack ideas. You get a generic list. Nuts. Fruit. Yoghurt. Now be specific. Give me eight snack ideas I can pack for work, no fridge available, under two hundred calories each, vegetarian, and cheap to buy in a UK supermarket. One line each, with a rough price. Every vague word became something concrete. Some ideas became eight ideas. Healthy became under two hundred calories and vegetarian. And the hidden constraint, no fridge, is now stated. That constraint alone removes half the useless suggestions. Clarity is often about saying the obvious thing you forgot to say.

Example 2: a proposal summary (illustrative)

Now a business scenario, with illustrative numbers. Bilal runs a digital agency in Islamabad and wants a proposal summary for a prospect. His vague prompt: write a professional summary of our proposal. His clear prompt: write a one-paragraph executive summary, about one hundred words, for the owner of a chain of six dental clinics who is busy and not technical. The goal is to get a thirty-minute call booked. Mention the three deliverables, a new website, local search optimisation and monthly reporting, the four-month timeline, and one result from a similar client. Avoid jargon like conversion rate. End with a clear next step. The first version was forgettable. The second reads like it was written for that one reader, and it tells the AI exactly what success looks like: a booked call.

Recap

To recap. Replace vague words with concrete descriptions or numbers. Pair every don't with a do. State the goal, not only the task. Use structure-based limits, and separate must-haves from nice-to-haves. When you are unsure, let the AI interview you. Try this now: find a prompt that recently gave you a disappointing answer, do the vague-word hunt from the lesson, underlining every word a stranger could misread, and rewrite it. Then count how many follow-ups you need. That number is your clarity score, and it will fall fast.

Key takeaways

  • Replace vague words (short, engaging, professional) with concrete descriptions or numbers.
  • State the goal the output serves, not only the task.
  • Number multiple requests so none are skipped, and pair every 'don't' with a 'do'.
  • Ask the AI to interview you first when you are unsure which details matter.

Try it

Find a prompt you used recently that gave a disappointing answer. Rewrite it by replacing every vague word with something concrete, and compare results.