AI & ChatGPT for Beginners

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A task often has more than one acceptable result. Make your criteria visible: short or detailed, beginner-friendly or technical, formal or conversational, with a table or without one. An example can clarify the desired structure, such as "Action | Owner | Due date | Evidence" for a task tracker. You should not provide real personal information merely to demonstrate the format; replace it with fictional placeholders.

When accuracy matters, ask the assistant to separate facts supplied, inferences, and missing information. Tell it to quote source sections or identify source references where possible. A request for citations does not guarantee that sources are real, so you must still open and verify them.

Worked example

"Using only the fictional notes below, produce a table with Action, Owner and Due Date. If an owner or date is missing, write 'Not specified'. Do not create new actions. After the table, list two clarifying questions." This makes an auditable output.

Practice

Create four fictional meeting notes. Build a prompt that outputs a three-column action table, then deliberately omit a due date from one note. Check that the response labels the gap instead of filling it with an invented deadline.

Key takeaway

A good output format exposes errors rather than hiding them in polished prose.