Practice: Improve a Prompt With One Example and One Rubric

Unit ID: PAW-M06-U05 Estimated active time: 25-30 minutes

What you are producing

One prompt, improved in two specific ways, with before-and-after outputs and a rubric score for each.

Choose a prompt that half works

The best candidate is one you use regularly whose output you always edit in the same way.

That repeated edit is the gap the example and rubric are going to close.

Add exactly one example

Take one output you were happy with — or edit a weak one until you are — and add it as the example.

Include the line about what to match and what to ignore:

> Match the structure, length and level of hedging. Do not match the subject or the specific examples.

Add a five-criterion rubric

IMPROVEMENT RECORD

Prompt:        (name)
Repeated edit I always make:
Example added: (which output, and why that one)
Rubric criteria: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Before  -- score per criterion:
After   -- score per criterion:
Edits I still had to make:

Run all three versions

Original prompt, prompt plus example, prompt plus example plus rubric.

Score all three against the rubric. Keep the outputs.

Decide what actually helped

Often one of the two additions does most of the work. Note which.

If neither closed the repeated edit, the problem is probably a missing constraint rather than insufficient demonstration — go back to Module 3 and check whether the tool has the facts it needs.

Mark complete