Lesson 3 · Beginner · 15 min
Writing a good prompt: the four ingredients
The four ingredients of a good Copilot prompt: goal, context, expectations, source. Before and after on a real case, guided exercise, quiz and proof of mastery.
- Goal
- You will be able to write a prompt that names the goal, the context, the expectations and the source, and get a usable answer on the first try.
- Skills
- Frame
Your first attempt, unaided
Open Copilot Chat and ask it, in a single line, for the email announcing that the Monday meeting is moving to another room. Give nothing else. Keep its answer: you will compare it with the one from the exercise.
A good prompt says what to do, for whom, in what situation, in what form and from what material. Microsoft calls these ingredients goal, context, expectations and source; only the goal is mandatory, but the four together avoid rewriting. Write the instruction first, give a numbered length, and put the text to process or the attached file last.
1What goes into a prompt you will not rewrite
The official guides converge. Microsoft describes a prompt in four parts: the goal (what you want to get), the context (why, for whom, in what situation), the expectations (format, length, tone) and the source (the text or file to use). Google Workspace speaks of persona, task, context and format; Anthropic insists on the clarity and level of detail a new colleague would need. In every case, the model guesses nothing: what you do not say, it invents or leaves out.
Ingredient The question to ask yourself Example Goal Which action verb, which result, for whom? "Summarise in five bullets for my manager" Context What must it know that it cannot guess? "She did not attend the meeting" Expectations Which format, which numbered length, which tone? "One bullet = one decision or action, 80 words in total" Source What to work on, and where in the prompt? "Report:" followed by the pasted text, last Two rules complete the ingredients. Order matters: Microsoft notes that the last parts of the prompt carry more weight, so the instruction opens and the source closes. And positive instructions work better than prohibitions: "sentences of 20 words at most" rather than "no long sentences".
Diagram "A good prompt has four ingredients"Diagram generated by AI and reviewed 2A meeting note summed up for an absent manager
A department head wants to forward a meeting report to senior management.
Weak prompt. "Summarise this text." followed by the pasted report.
The answer is a correct but generic paragraph. It has to be rewritten to say who decided what, and shortened.
Strong prompt. "Summarise the report below in five bullet points for my manager, who did not attend the meeting. Each bullet starts with a decision or an action, with the owner's name and the deadline when they are given. 80 words in total. Report:" followed by the pasted text.
What changes. The model knows who it is writing for, what a good bullet is, how many words it has, and where its source ends. The output is usable as is, and every bullet can be checked against the report.
3Turn a spoken instruction into a team email
A spoken instruction to turn into an internal email. Here is the starting prompt, to be improved:
"Write an email to say that the meeting room is changing."
The facts to pass on: from 1 October, Monday meetings move from the Rhône room to the Loire room, on the second floor, because the Rhône room is under renovation until the end of November. The email goes to the forty people of the department; for questions, contact Nadia, the assistant.
Rewrite the prompt with the four ingredients, in order, then run it in Copilot Chat. The composer below guides you field by field, with the Goal, Context, Sources, Output format and Length fields; you can also write it directly.
Self-assessment grid: (a) the four ingredients are present; (b) no information was invented in the email; (c) the subject line is under 60 characters and the body under 90 words.
4The three studies Copilot invents when you demand them
"Give me three studies proving that remote work increases productivity, with authors and year." Copilot supplies three plausible references; two do not exist. The prompt demands precise references without providing a source or asking for verification: the model fills in. Correction: "Search the web for three studies published after 2020 on remote work and productivity. For each: exact title, authors, journal or organisation, link to the publisher's page, date consulted. Cite none without a verifiable link; if you find fewer than three, say so." Then open every link. Rule to remember: a reference without an opened link does not exist.
5Quiz
Three questions, instant feedback. Each option comes with an explanation.
6Proof of mastery
Paste your final prompt, with its four ingredients visible, and the answer you obtained in Copilot Chat.
Criteria
What you wrote at the start of the lesson
Going further
The Microsoft Support page on Copilot prompts, cited below, offers examples by job. The next lesson moves on to your first useful conversation: summarising, rephrasing, translating, and following up without starting over.
Frequently asked questions
Do you always need all four ingredients?
No. Microsoft states that only the goal is mandatory. But as soon as the task has an audience, a format or a source, leaving them out forces you to rewrite the answer. The four together almost always avoid the second pass.
In what order should the prompt be written?
Instruction first, context and expectations next, source last. Microsoft notes that the last parts of the prompt carry more weight: the pasted text or the attached file closes the prompt.
Is a long prompt a better prompt?
Not necessarily. A useful prompt is precise, not long. One example of the expected result is often worth more than a list of adjectives, and a numbered length is worth more than "keep it short".