Prompt Engineering
The One-Page Summary
If you forget everything else:
- Vague in, vague out. Constrain until only good answers are plausible.
- Role, Task, Context, Constraints, Format. Every serious prompt, every time.
- Missing context is the #1 failure. Would a new freelancer need to know it? Then write it down.
- Ask for the shape you want. Numbers, not adjectives. "60 words," not "short."
- Show, don't describe. Three examples of your best work beat a paragraph about tone.
- Make it think before it answers. Plan first, conclude last. For anything long, approve the outline.
- "Make it better" fails. Name the dimension, the direction, the amount — and what to keep.
- Arabic needs a named register and an anti-translationese block. Or you get stiff, translated-sounding copy.
- Visual models reward over-description. Ten layers: subject, composition, lighting, lens, style, mood, action, camera move, shot type, audio.
- Never let it invent a number.
[VERIFY]or[PLACEHOLDER], always. - A system prompt is a job description. Enumerate the boundaries, specify the reporting format, state the failure behaviour.
- It agrees with you by default. Force the counter-argument before you trust the answer.
- Save what works. The library is where all of the above compounds.
Course written for Dr. Mohamed Fathy El Zayat · STRIKE MEDIA · July 2026