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Student Guide to Generative AI

Basic tips and advice to consider when using generative AI tools and chatbots in an academic setting.

Prompting

The way you prompt makes a huge difference in the output generative AI tools give you. 

What is prompting?

Simply, it's what you type into the chat box. You can think of generative AI as your personal assistant.

  • It will need very specific instructions, and you will need to always verify the information it gives you to make sure that it is correct.
  • Generative AI tools sometimes make things up. This is because these tools are designed to write in a way that sounds like human writing (natural language). They are not necessarily designed to know facts - or to even know the difference between fact and fiction.

Tips for writing effective prompts

  1. Use correct spelling and grammar. Write complete sentences.
  2. Be clear, specific, and detailed about your request to the AI.
  3. Provide context and perspective to focus the AI output.
  4. Break down complex tasks into multiple short prompts.
  5. Specify the desired format, tone, and style of the output.
     

Basic Prompt Formula

Declare a [ROLE]. Give [CONTEXT]. Create a [TASK] and specify [FORMAT].


Examples

  1. Role examples:  "Act as an expert in [fill in the blank]" or "You are a [fill in the blank]." 
    Act as an expert community organizer...
    Act as a high school biology teacher...
    You are a first year college student...
     
  2. Prompt example:
    Act as an expert academic librarian. I’m writing a research paper for Sociology and I need help coming up with a topic. I’m interested in topics related to climate change. Please give me a list of 10 topic ideas related to climate change.
     
  3. Keep the conversation going until you get something useful:
    Now give me some sub-topics or research questions for [list one of those topics]. Also, give me a list of keywords and phrases I can use to search for each of those topics in library databases and Google Scholar.
     

    Or...

    I didn't like any of those topics. Please give me 10 more.

More Prompt Examples

Example:

You are a math tutor helping a college student with business math. Help me learn how to figure out how much less something will cost if the sale is for 30% off without telling me the answer. Give me three more similar problems that I can use to test whether I understand the concept.

Example:

You are a freshman college student taking an ethics course. You have to research a topic having to do with using generative AI in an academic setting. Generate a list of at least 5 ethical dilemmas that should be considered when thinking about this topic. Please include a list of 5-10 keywords for each dilemma that can be used to search library databases.

Example:

You are an administrative assistant for the humanities department at a community college. There are faculty who want to know more about the advantages and disadvantages of using AI detectors. Use the most up-to-date data you can find to write no more than 2 paragraphs. Paragraph 1 should talk about advantages or benefits that AI detectors may offer. Paragraph 2 should include any disadvantages or risks involved with these tools. Please include the sources that you used to create these paragraphs. I would prefer it if you would also include .edu domains in your search, as well as policies from colleges and universities. Ask me questions if you are not clear on what I need.

Example:

Act as an instructor at a community college who teaches world history. Create a set of 10 open ended questions that will get students to think critically about the events leading up to the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during World War II. For each question, include two or three bullet points where you provide ideas of how the question could be answered. Cite your sources and ask me any follow-up questions you need in order to clarify the instructions.

Prompts written by Angela Davis, PCC Library

References

Adapted from Student Guide to ChatGPT by University of Arizona Libraries (Nicole Hennig, Michelle Halla, Nicole Pagowsky, and Niamh Wallace), 2025, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The Basic Prompt Formula is from StudentGuidetoAI.org: Skill-Up on Prompts.