Techniques & Methods
Prompt Engineering in plain English.
Also known as: prompting
The one-sentence version
The skill of writing clear, structured instructions that get the best results from AI.
Prompt engineering is the skill of writing clear, structured instructions that get the best results from AI tools. A bad prompt ("write me a blog post") gets a generic response. A good prompt (role + task + context + format + examples + constraints) gets something usable. The six elements every prompt should have: explicit role, specific task, relevant context, exact output format, examples where useful, and constraints on what to avoid. Conventions differ across models — ChatGPT prefers plain English headings, Claude responds best to XML tags, Midjourney wants comma-separated descriptors. In 2026, prompt engineering as a standalone job is rarer, but prompt skills are expected across many AI-adjacent roles.