Question

A support team asks Claude to "make this customer email better" and pastes a draft reply. The results are inconsistent — sometimes Claude shortens the email, sometimes it adds legal disclaimers, and sometimes it changes the tone entirely. The team wants more predictable output without adding examples or changing models. Applying the 'be clear and direct' technique, what is the best first change to the prompt?

Accepted Answer

Explicitly specify the desired outcome: e.g., 'Rewrite this email to be more concise and empathetic, keeping it under 150 words and without adding new policy claims.'

Answer

Raise the temperature so Claude explores more rewriting styles and picks the best one.

Answer

Add a stop sequence after the first sentence so Claude cannot over-edit the email.

Answer

Switch to a smaller, faster model to reduce variability in the responses.