The First Answer Is a Draft

Unit ID: PAW-M07-U00 Estimated active time: 15-20 minutes

Nobody writes a good brief first time

When a colleague hands you a task and the result is not what you wanted, the usual cause is that the brief was incomplete — not that they cannot write.

The same applies here. A disappointing first answer is usually a signal about the request, not a verdict on the tool.

Two ways to respond, and one is better

The common response is to reword the prompt and try again. Sometimes that works.

The more reliable response is to keep the conversation and ask for a specific change, because the tool still has the context and you are only correcting one thing.

Rewording throws away what was already working.

Name what was wrong, not what you want

Compare:

> Make it better.

with:

> The second paragraph states a cause that is not in my notes. Remove it and say the notes do not record a reason.

The second is actionable and reviewable. The first invites a rewrite that may lose what was good.

The three-question triage

FIRST-ANSWER TRIAGE

Before asking again, decide which of these it is:

1. WRONG FACTS      -> the tool lacked context, or invented
                       fix: supply the fact, or bound the source
2. WRONG SHAPE      -> format, length, structure
                       fix: give an output specification
3. WRONG JUDGEMENT  -> emphasis, tone, what it treated as important
                       fix: describe the reader and the decision

If it is more than one, fix them one at a time.

Fixing three things in one follow-up usually produces a fourth problem.

Know when to stop

If three follow-ups have not converged, stop. Either the task is unclear to you, or it is not a task this tool does well.

Continuing past that point costs more than writing it yourself, and the sunk effort makes the eventual output harder to reject.

Mini practice

Take a disappointing output you kept.

Triage it into one of the three categories.

Write the single follow-up you should have sent, and compare it with what you actually did.

Mark complete