Give context

What this technique does

Prompt context is the sentence or two that tells the AI what situation you are in and who is going to see the result, and why. The same “write a notice” comes out differently depending on whether it goes to staff or to customers — both the sentence length and how much you apologise change. Without context the AI assumes the most average situation, and you get writing that is slightly off wherever you paste it.

There are three things to put in. The situation (what happened, and when), the purpose (what you want this text to achieve), and the reader. Adding even one of the three changes the result noticeably.

Naming the reader — who is this for

Naming the reader settles which words the AI picks and how deep the explanations go. Write “parents of a fourth-grader” and the jargon gets unpacked; write “the division head who signs it off” and the conclusion moves to the front. Add what the reader already knows and the unnecessary background disappears.

Good example / bad example

Bad

write a shipping delay notice

Good

A holiday rush has pushed deliveries back by three days. This is a notice that customers who have already paid will receive as an app notification, and the purpose is to state the expected arrival date clearly so that fewer of them call in.

Please write a notice explaining this situation. The readers are individual customers waiting on a delivery.

The first answer is a template with the company name and the reason for the delay left blank, so you end up filling it in by hand. The second leads with the reason and the arrival date, and phrases like “as quickly as possible” — which invite enquiries rather than heading them off — largely drop out.

How to write it

• The situation is {situation}, and I want this text to {purpose}.
• The person reading this is {reader}, and they already know {what they know}.
• This will go {where}, and I need it {when}.

Watch out

Piling on unrelated background in the name of context buries the conditions that actually matter. Keep only the information that changes the result.

Pasting internal details or customer records in wholesale exposes more than you need to. Summarise only as much as the judgement requires.

Unfamiliar terms? See Aha AI: context-window