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Writing Good AI Questions

Master the art of AI interaction using a structured 4-point prompting system and conversational techniques. This guide provides practical strategies and real-world examples to help you get more accurate, personalized results from any chatbot.

1. Engage in a discussion
2. Ask your questions skillfully.

Engage in a discussion

This is the easiest to explain. Engage in a discussion with the bot. It will remember what you asked and how it answered. If it gave you an opinion, ask why it said that. Challenge it. Argue with it. Ask it to present another side. Ask it to explain what you don't understand. You won't hurt its feelings if you contradict it. It won't stop being your friend. Make it explain what you are questioning. Ask for examples and data for its position. Provide alternative explanations and ask it why those aren't true. Working with a bot is a back-and-forth activity slowly progressing toward your own more in-depth understanding.

This is particularly important if you aren't getting what you want from the bot. For example, it may pontificate far too long and present a boring response. Or, it could give you short answers when you need more meat. I've also received responses that just seemed like regurgitated crap from biased sources presented unquestionably as fact. In any of these scenarios, you might get what you want by following up with something like one of these:

• Your answers are too long. Give me three bullet points of the main issues and one-paragraph summaries of each one.
• Your answers are too short. Give me the three main points and three paragraph explanations of each one.
• You are presenting only one side. What is the counterargument and the facts that support it in 3 paragraphs?

Be sure and follow up with questions about whatever you don't really understand.

Ask your questions skillfully

Sometimes you can just ask a simple question, like "What is the circumference of the Earth?” But often it is important to think more deeply. For instance, if you ask, "Who won the Oregon versus Washington football game?”, it is likely to give you last year's game results. A better question would be, "Who won the University of Oregon versus the University of Washington football game played on Saturday, November 29, 2025?”

My 4 point question system

However, if you actually want to learn about something, you'll need to ask questions more thoroughly. I use a 4-point system: Task, You, Me, More.

1. Task: What should it do? For news, I'll ask it for the 3 most important current USA news stories and 2 paragraphs each. For a recipe for frozen chimichurri pork medallions with a chimichurri marinade, I'll ask for 3 simple recipes that are easy. For new shows appearing this month on Tubi, I ask for the best 10 movies and 5 TV shows arriving this month (December 2025) on Tubi. I want one-paragraph descriptions of each, including how they were reviewed. I repeat this prompt for each new month and get lists of stuff I'm likely to enjoy.
2. You: Who should the bot be? You tell the bot who it should be. For example, if I'm asking about news, I tell it to be "objective and skeptical. To dislike opinions from news sources and look for the facts and data behind them. To try to present both sides.” This is the persona I want the bot to assume.
3. Me: Who are you? Often, I'm not important, but occasionally I am. Frequently I get results more like what I want if I explain the character I want it to talk to. Am I a good cook who wants to do something special or a lousy cook who just wants something fast? If it is a science or economics question, am I an expert and want an in-depth answer, or a novice and need the explanation to be simple? I frequently ask it to explain things to me, assuming I am totally ignorant, which I frequently am. When I ask for TV recommendations, I explain what kinds of shows I like and what categories of shows I don't like. I say, "I don't like horror or lots of sex and nudity, but violence generally doesn't bother me. I like mysteries and sci-fi. I don't like being forced to read the dialogue, but dubbed movies are fine. I am open to shows outside my preferences, so do not limit your recommendations to only mysteries and sci-fi.” Sometimes I try to figure out whether I'm likely to enjoy a book that gets good ratings but is from an author unknown to me. I'll tell it what authors of similar books I really like and to compare this to that.
4. More: What else should be supplied to really get exactly what you want? When I'm asking for TV programs or book recommendations, I want a paragraph or two description and what kind of ratings it gets. Perhaps on an investment you want it to give you a chart? Or bullet points? I frequently request summary or comparison tables. The question is, after describing who it should be, who I am, and what I want, is there even more I can put into the question to get exactly what I want?

Examples: Gemini-3-Pro

Using Poe, I asked Gemini-3-Pro to create 5 examples for my clients to see how to write good prompts. The following 2 paragraphs were my prompt. It is followed by Gemini's "Thinking...”, then its answers that were so good, I just left them exactly as Gemini gave them to me. You can see how a good prompt and a good bot can work together.

give me 5 examples I can use to help people write good AI prompts. I use a system where I recommend they consider (but do not need to always use), the following 4 memory tools for prompt writing. I have diverse readers, but most are small business people.

1. bot's persona or who it should be,
2. The task
3. Who I am
4. Anything else that would help (more)

I often use the shift key with the enter key to create a separate line when writing prompts. This allows a new line without submitting the partial prompt to the bot. I often create bullet or numbered lists making it easy for the bot to parse what I'm asking and to pay attention to the multiple points. Here's what it created in its entirety. I very much like that it presented both weak and strong prompts. I hadn't thought to do that.

Thinking...

Example 1: The Complex Concept Explainer

Scenario: A user is trying to understand a difficult topic.

• Weak Prompt: "Explain Quantum Computing.”
• Strong Prompt (Using your System):
  • 1. Persona: Act as a friendly Middle School Science Teacher.
  • 2. Task: Explain the basic concept of Quantum Computing and how it differs from regular computing.
  • 3. Who I am: I am a marketing professional with zero background in physics or computer science.
  • 4. Anything else: Use an analogy involving everyday objects (like coins or lightbulbs) to make it easy to visualize. Keep it under 200 words.

Final Prompt: "Act as a friendly Middle School Science Teacher. Explain the basic concept of Quantum Computing and how it differs from regular computing. I am a marketing professional with zero background in physics or computer science, so keep it simple. Use an analogy involving everyday objects to make it easy to visualize. Keep the response under 200 words."

Example 2: The Corporate Email Drafter

Scenario: A user needs to send a difficult email to a client.

• Weak Prompt: "Write an email saying we are going to be late on the project.”
• Strong Prompt (Using your System):
  • 1. Persona: Act as a Senior Project Manager with high emotional intelligence.
  • 2. Task: Draft an email informing a client that their website launch will be delayed by one week.
  • 3. Who I am: I am the owner of a small agency who values long-term relationships over quick profits.
  • 4. Anything else: The tone should be apologetic but confident. Offer a 5% discount on the next invoice as a goodwill gesture. Do not make excuses, just state the facts.

Final Prompt: "Act as a Senior Project Manager with high emotional intelligence. Draft an email informing a client that their website launch will be delayed by one week. I am the owner of a small agency who values long-term relationships, so I want to preserve trust. The tone should be apologetic but confident. Do not make excuses. Offer a 5% discount on the next invoice as a goodwill gesture."

Example 3: The Study Partner

Scenario: A student is cramming for a history exam.

• Weak Prompt: "Tell me about the French Revolution.”
• Strong Prompt (Using your System):
  • 1. Persona: Act as a strict but effective History Tutor.
  • 2. Task: Quiz me on the key causes of the French Revolution.
  • 3. Who I am: I am a college student preparing for a final exam tomorrow.
  • 4. Anything else: Ask me one question at a time. Wait for my answer. If I get it wrong, give me a hint, don't just give me the answer immediately.

Final Prompt: "Act as a strict but effective History Tutor. Quiz me on the key causes of the French Revolution. I am a college student preparing for a final exam tomorrow, so focus on the most important themes. Ask me one question at a time and wait for my answer. If I get it wrong, give me a hint rather than the full answer immediately."

Example 4: The Excel Wizard

Scenario: A user is stuck on a spreadsheet formula.

• Weak Prompt: "How do I combine two columns in Excel?”
• Strong Prompt (Using your System):
  • 1. Persona: Act as an Advanced Excel Expert.
  • 2. Task: Write a formula to combine Column A (First Name) and Column B (Last Name).
  • 3. Who I am: I am an office assistant using an older version of Excel (2016).
  • 4. Anything else: The final result needs to be "Last Name, First Name” and it must be in all uppercase letters. Please explain how the formula works step-by-step.

Final Prompt: "Act as an Advanced Excel Expert. Write a formula to combine Column A (First Name) and Column B (Last Name). I am an office assistant using Excel 2016. The final result needs to be formatted as 'LAST NAME, FIRST NAME' in all uppercase. Please explain how the formula works step-by-step."

Example 5: The Creative Chef

Scenario: A user has random ingredients and needs dinner ideas.

• Weak Prompt: "What can I cook with chicken and rice?”
• Strong Prompt (Using Your System):
  • 1. Persona: Act as a Michelin-star Chef who specializes in home cooking.
  • 2. Task: Suggest 3 distinct recipe ideas using chicken breast and white rice.
  • 3. Who I am: I am a busy parent with two picky toddlers who hate spicy food.
  • 4. Anything else: I also have broccoli, cheddar cheese, and heavy cream in the fridge. The recipes must take less than 30 minutes to cook.

Final Prompt: "Act as a Michelin-star Chef who specializes in home cooking. Suggest 3 distinct recipe ideas using chicken breast and white rice. I am a busy parent with two picky toddlers who hate spicy food, so keep flavors mild. I also have broccoli, cheddar cheese, and heavy cream available. Ensure all recipes take less than 30 minutes to cook."

Would I send out an email exactly as the bot wrote it? Of course not, but it could easily give me an excellent first draft. I will use recipes it recommends and try out any of the procedures it creates for doing what I want to do with software or websites I can't figure out. The above examples are precisely what the bot gave me without editing it. I think it writes prompts better than I do.

Costs

As a real world example of costs and benefits. The above query and 5 example responses using the expensive Gemini-3-Pro bot cost me 546 Poe points. Gemini 3 Pro is currently Google's top engine and is the second most popular bot on Poe. I used that bot to try to get good examples for my newsletter. However, I didn't need to have it think too deeply, so I left the thinking depth at low instead of moving it to high. I left web search off, feeling that its training would equip it to answer me well. Turning those on could have tripled my costs.

What do 546 points mean? It is less than 1/4th of the 3,000 points Poe provides daily with their free account. But it is about 8 times as much as their extremely valuable but less expensive bots. I do get as many as 8 questions answered for a similar number of points when I don't need a premium bot.

Poe gives their free accounts 3,000 points a day. I'm guessing most of you won't need more than that. With the $5/month ($50/year) account, you'd get 10,000 points a day. You get 1 million points a month with a $200/year account.

One Final Tip

Every so often I don't feel like my prompt is good enough but don't know how to improve it. This is typically the case when trying to create images. So, I present my prompt to a chatbot and ask it to show me how to improve it. Poe even has a custom bot, called PromptGenerator, which takes your prompt and improves it.