Question

A support engineer is writing a prompt for Claude to draft customer email replies. Their current prompt says: "Do not be too formal. Do not use jargon. Do not write more than three paragraphs." The replies are inconsistent — sometimes overly stiff, sometimes cluttered with technical terms. The engineer wants to make the instructions clearer and more reliable without adding examples yet. Applying the 'be clear and direct' technique, what is the single best change to the prompt?

Accepted Answer

Rewrite the instructions to state affirmatively what to do, e.g., "Write in a warm, conversational tone, use plain everyday language, and keep the reply to three paragraphs or fewer."

Answer

Lower the temperature to 0 so the model follows the negative instructions more deterministically.

Answer

Add a system prompt assigning Claude the role of a senior customer support agent and leave the negative instructions unchanged.

Answer

Wrap each 'Do not' instruction in its own XML tag so the model parses the constraints separately.