Lesson 10 · Intermediate · 15 min
Giving examples and a role to set the style
Give Copilot Chat examples and a role to set the style: what a role changes, what it does not, prompt before and after, exercise and quiz.
- Goal
- You will be able to provide two or three examples of the expected result and a role defined by a job function, to get your team's format and tone without confusing style and accuracy.
- Skills
- Frame
Your first attempt, unaided
Ask Copilot Chat for a standard customer service reply, without showing it any model. Then compare what it produces with a real reply from your team, and note three differences in form.
An example beats a list of adjectives. Showing Copilot Chat two or three productions in the expected style sets the format, the length and the tone more surely than "modern and professional". A sober role, defined by a job function, frames the register of the answer. Neither one makes the facts more accurate: that remains the work of the source and of checking.
1Two examples beat ten adjectives
Language models learn in context: a few examples placed in the prompt are enough to make them reproduce a format, a phenomenon documented since 2020 by Brown and co-authors. Anthropic's guide recommends three to five examples to stabilise a format; for a simple in-house template, two are often enough. The technique is called prompting with examples, or few-shot.
Which examples? Real productions from your team, anonymised: three headlines already published on the intranet, a meeting report considered exemplary, a client reminder that worked. In Copilot Chat, you paste them into the prompt, or you attach the model document as a file, writing "reproduce this structure". Pair them with a checkable rule: "60 characters at most, no exclamation mark". The example shows, the rule bounds.
The role is more debated. A study of 162 roles, four model families and 2,410 factual questions shows that personas do not improve correctness, and that the best role for a given question is unpredictable. So the role serves tone and structure, never the reliability of figures. Write it as a job function useful to the result: "you are the assistant to the head of purchasing", not "you are the world's best expert". And leave it out when the function changes nothing in the answer.
One trap of the technique: the example contaminates. If your three headlines are all about the staff restaurant, Copilot will propose headlines about catering. Pick examples that vary in topic and are identical in form. Finally, the terms of your trade must be kept as they are: ask for it, otherwise the model rewords them in generic language.
Diagram "A role and examples set the style"Diagram generated by AI and reviewed 2Ten intranet headlines built on three models
A communications officer wants ten headlines to announce the new bike shelter on the intranet.
Weak prompt:
Suggest catchy, modern headlines for the intranet.Summarised answer: twelve interchangeable headlines, three exclamation marks, lengths from 40 to 95 characters, an advertising tone that looks nothing like the intranet.
Strong prompt:
You are the intranet editor of an industrial company. Suggest ten headlines for an article announcing the new covered bike shelter, opening on 3 November. Expected style, see these three published headlines: "The staff restaurant goes organic", "Remote work: the new agreement in five questions", "Welcome to this autumn's 12 apprentices". Rules: 60 characters at most, no exclamation mark, a verb or a colon as in the examples. Numbered list.Summarised answer: ten headlines of 38 to 58 characters, no exclamation mark, built like the models, for instance "Bike shelter: 40 covered spaces from 3 November".
What changes: the examples set the form better than adjectives. The numbered rule lets you check every headline by counting. The role gives the intranet register without claiming to improve the facts.
3Give your progress update its style back
Every week your team writes a project status update whose style has drifted. Here is the starting prompt, to be improved:
"Write a clear, professional status update from my notes."
Add a role defined by a job function, two example bullets taken from an old update considered exemplary (for instance "Billing module acceptance testing complete (Karim)"), a checkable rule (one bullet = one action + one owner, 12 words at most) and the instruction to keep the project's vocabulary. Then paste fictional notes at the end of the prompt. The composer below guides you on the Role, Format and Tone fields.
Self-assessment grid: (a) the role is a job function, not a title; (b) two examples are provided; (c) every bullet in the answer respects the rule.
4The greetings message that could come from anyone
"Write a season's greetings message for our clients." The answer is interchangeable with that of any company. What you should have seen: no context, no example, no specific element, so the model produces the average of everything it has read. Correction: "Write a 2027 greetings message for our clients, 80 words, formal address. Mention two facts from the year: the opening of the Lille branch and the new seven-days-a-week customer service line. Sober tone, no superlative. Example of the expected tone:" followed by last year's message. Rule to remember: specificity comes from the context and the examples you give, not from the model.
5Quiz
Three questions, instant feedback. Each option comes with an explanation.
6Proof of mastery
Paste your final prompt, with the role and the examples provided, then the ten headlines obtained, stating the character count of three of them.
Criteria
What you wrote at the start of the lesson
Going further
Examples and role complete the four ingredients. To decide between a version with examples and one without, the next lesson, comparing two answers with a grid, provides the method. The prompt sheet for human resources shows a sober role applied to a job advert, and the Copilot prompts for sales sheet applies the same examples to follow-ups and proposals.
Frequently asked questions
Does a role make Copilot more accurate?
No. A study of 162 roles and 2,410 factual questions shows that personas do not improve correctness. The role frames the register and the structure; accuracy comes from the provided source and from checking.
How many examples should I give?
Anthropic's guide recommends three to five examples to stabilise a format. For a simple in-house template, two examples and a numbered rule are often enough. Pick examples that vary in topic and are identical in form.
Can I attach a model document instead of pasting examples?
Yes. Attach a meeting report or a note considered exemplary and write "reproduce the structure and tone of this document". It is the most reliable way to obtain a long internal template.
Should the role be flattering?
No. "You are the world's best expert" brings nothing. Write a job function useful to the result, "you are the assistant to the head of purchasing", and leave the role out when the function changes nothing in the answer.