Show It an Example

Lesson 5 · taught by Pip

Here is the plainest tip in this whole course: instead of describing what you want, show one example of it. A single good sample teaches the AI more about your style than a paragraph of instructions ever will.

We spend a lot of energy trying to put taste into words. "Make it warm but professional, friendly but not too casual, clear but not blunt." The AI tries its best to guess what those words mean to you. But your version of "warm and professional" lives in your head, and adjectives are a blurry way to ship it across.

Why an example beats a description

Think of a tailor. You can stand there and describe the jacket you want for ten minutes, or you can bring in a jacket you already love and say "like this one." The second way is faster and the fit is better, because the tailor is matching something real instead of decoding your words.

An example does the same job for the AI. It carries tone, length, rhythm, and the little habits you can't easily name, all in one go. The AI reads it, picks up the pattern, and writes the next one to match.

How to do it

Paste one sample of the kind of thing you want, then ask for more in that style. A few examples:

• "Here's a thank-you email I wrote that I liked. Write one in the same tone for a customer named Dana." Then paste the email.
• "This is how I usually word my listings." Paste one, then: "Now write one for a two-bedroom apartment on Elm Street."
• "Match the voice of this note." Paste it, then ask for the new version.

One good example is plenty. Two is fine if they're different on purpose, say a short one and a long one. You don't need ten; you're showing a pattern, not building a library.

A small note on honesty: an example shapes style well. It does not magically make the facts right. The AI will happily copy your friendly tone onto a wrong detail, so you'll still check the content yourself in a later lesson.

If you don't have a sample handy, you can describe the example instead: "Write it like a calm text to a friend, not a press release." That's weaker than the real thing, but it still beats vague adjectives.

Your turn

Find one piece of writing you're proud of, an email, a caption, a short note. Paste it into the AI and say "write a new one in this exact style" for a fresh situation. Notice how much closer it lands than when you only described the style.

Next we'll try something different: instead of showing the AI an example, we'll hand it a role to play. 🔦