Bring it a real job
Most people's first message is a test. Something like "what is the capital of France," to see whether it works. It works. Then they close the tab, because a tool that knows capital cities is not a tool worth returning to.
The way to actually understand this thing is to bring it something you genuinely have to do today. A difficult email. A letter to a landlord. A birthday message you have been putting off. Something with real stakes, however small, so you can judge the result properly.
In plain English
- Context:
- The background you give it. Who you are, who it is for, what happened. More context, better answer, almost every time.
- Tone:
- How something sounds. Warm, formal, blunt, apologetic. You can ask for a tone by name and it will hit it.
- Regenerate:
- Asking for another go at the same request. Usually a button near the reply, and always available by simply asking again.
- Draft:
- A first version, not a finished one. Treat everything it gives you as a draft you are the editor of.
Vague in, vague out
The single biggest difference between people who find this useful and people who do not is how much they say.
โ Weak prompt
Prompt
Write an email to my landlord.
Output
Dear Landlord, I am writing to you regarding a matter concerning the property. I would appreciate your attention to this issue at your earliest convenience. Kind regards.
It had nothing to work with, so it produced a shape where an email should be. Not wrong, just empty.
โ Good prompt
Prompt
Write an email to my landlord, Marcus. The boiler has been broken for nine days. I have reported it twice by phone and heard nothing back. I want to be firm but not rude, because I like living here and want to renew. Keep it short, under 150 words.
Output
Hi Marcus, I wanted to follow up in writing about the boiler, which has now been out for nine days. I have called twice and not yet had a response, so I want to make sure this is properly on record...
Who, what, how long, what you already tried, the tone you want, the length you want. Six pieces of context, and the email is usable as it stands.
You do not need to write like that from memory. There is a rough recipe, and after a week it becomes automatic:
- Who you are and who it is for. A tenant writing to a landlord. A parent writing to a teacher.
- What actually happened. The facts, in whatever order they fall out of your head.
- What you want out of it. An apology, a repair date, a polite no.
- How it should sound and how long it should be. Warm, formal, brief, under 200 words.
Messy is fine. Bullet points are fine. Typos are fine. Say more, in any order, and the answer improves.
Help me write a message. I am a tenant, writing to my landlord. The situation: the boiler has been broken for nine days and I have called twice with no reply. What I want: a firm date for a repair. Tone: polite but clearly serious. Length: under 150 words.
When the answer is not right
This is where most beginners quietly give up, so read this bit properly.
The first answer being wrong is not a failure. It is the middle of the process. Experienced users almost never keep the first version of anything. What they do instead is say what was wrong and ask again, in the same conversation, because the conversation already holds everything they explained the first time.
Just talk to it the way you would talk to a colleague who handed you a draft.
Too formal, and too long. Cut it to half the length, make it sound like a normal person wrote it, and take out the phrase at your earliest convenience.
That is closer, but you invented a detail I never told you. I did not say I withheld rent. Rewrite it using only the facts I gave you.
Give me three different versions: one warm, one neutral, one firm. Do not explain them, just give me the three.
Notice the shape of all three: name the problem, state the fix. You are not starting over and you are not apologising to it. Two or three rounds of this and you usually have something better than you would have written alone.
There is one more move worth knowing, and it is the opposite of correcting. When the reply is close but you want to keep the good bits, say so explicitly: keep the second paragraph, rewrite the first, drop the ending entirely. Otherwise a rewrite can wander off and lose the very line you liked. Being specific about what worked is as useful as being specific about what did not.
It sometimes states things confidently that are simply not true, especially names, dates, numbers and anything about the very recent past. This is real and it does not go away. Anything factual that matters, check elsewhere before you rely on it.
Reading a reply and thinking "that is not quite it" but not knowing why? Say exactly that. Type "this is not quite right and I cannot say why, ask me three questions to work out what is missing." It will interview you, and the answer after that is usually the one.
Checkpoint
Give it real context, treat the first answer as a draft, and fix it by saying what was wrong in the same conversation.
๐ Quiz
Question 1 of 4The first answer is too formal and too long. What is the best next step?