Five prompting habits every professional should know
Not tricks — habits. The repeatable moves that turn a vague request into work you can actually use.
By CIAI Faculty
Most people type a one-line request, get a mediocre result, and conclude the tool doesn't work. The tool is fine. The ask needs a little structure. Here are five habits we teach in the first week.
1. Say who it's for
"Write a summary" is a coin flip. "Summarize this for a busy manager who has ninety seconds" is a brief. Naming the reader changes everything about what comes back.
2. Give an example of good
If you have one paragraph in the voice you want, paste it. Showing beats describing every time — one good example is worth three sentences of instruction.
3. Ask for the reasoning, then check it
For anything that matters, ask it to show its steps and its sources. Then you verify. Fluency isn't trusting the answer — it's knowing how to check it quickly.
4. Iterate in small steps
Don't expect the first draft to be the last. Treat it like a colleague: "good start — make the second half more concrete and cut the intro." Two or three rounds beats one perfect prompt.
5. Keep the judgment
The part that's yours — deciding what's right, what to send, what to stand behind — stays yours. The tool drafts; you decide. That line is what keeps your work yours.
None of these are clever. They're habits, and habits are exactly the kind of thing a good course drills until they're automatic. That's what Arthur's courses — written for your field and your goal — are built to do.