You already know a small change in a prompt can swing what comes back. Today you practise the craft: take a vague request and climb a short ladder of better prompts until the result is something you would actually use.
You will keep every version, so you can prove which rung did the work and which words were noise.
Same request, five prompts, worst to best. Before each new version appears, name what it added.
Request: draft a short email asking a local business about a Transition Year work experience placement.
- V1: write email work experience
Your teacher will reveal V2 to V5 one at a time on the board. After each one, take a moment to answer: what did this version add that the last one lacked?
Do not decide yet which rung matters most; that comes after you have seen the full climb.
Pick one task from the options. If you have a school AI account, run every rung yourself. If you are on your own without a live assistant, write the full V1–V5 prompts and note which two you would test first.
Task options: email a local business about TY work experience; three sharp questions for a CAO open day; a half-page summary of a Leaving Cert topic you chose this year.
Run the assistant after every rung. Keep V1 through V5 where your class keeps its work, so you can compare them. Keep early versions rough: do not polish V1 or V2.
Worked example (your class AI assistant) — a task that is deliberately NOT one of yours, so you build your own rungs rather than copy these: “Explain the right-of-way rule at an uncontrolled crossroads for someone sitting the driver theory test. Audience: a 17-year-old who has never driven. Constraints: under 120 words, no legal wording, one everyday example. Good looks like: says who goes first and why, then the one mistake learners make. Return as a short paragraph followed by one bullet.”
If the class is running as a single board demo, agree one task together and direct the wording from your seat while the teacher runs it.
From the ladder you just ran, build a short class list of craft rules you will reuse. Only keep findings you can point to in V1–V5.
Under each heading, agree wording the whole class can stand over. Add one of the activity's suggestions only if it matches what you actually saw.
What earned its place
Apply the ladder to a task you actually have this week.
- Choose something real: CAO course research, a work-experience write-up, Leaving Cert subject notes, a message about a part-time job or club.
- Write V1 fully (one-line vague ask). Then write V5 in one go, folding in audience, constraints, one example of quality, and the output format.
- If you have a school account, run both and keep the outputs. If not, be ready to justify which two rungs you would test first on the board.
- One sentence: name the rung you would refuse to skip next time you are in a hurry.
- Done looks like: full V1 and V5 written, both run if accounts work, and that one sentence.
Optional stretch if you finish early: try the same ladder shape on one image prompt (subject, style, setting, one constraint such as no text in the image) and note whether the rungs that helped text also helped the image.
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