Write prompts that give you usable first drafts

An AI assistant is a quick writer who knows nothing about your business unless you tell it. If you ask for "an email to a customer", you will get something that could have come from anyone. If you brief it the way you would brief a capable new colleague, you will often get a draft that needs a light edit instead of a rewrite.

There are no magic words. The skill is in saying clearly what you want, which is useful anyway. The method below works for emails, letters, summaries, plans and replies, and shows how to write prompts that give you a usable first draft.

Start with the goal

Say what the text must achieve. Not "write a proposal", but "write a one page proposal that persuades a restaurant owner to try our delivery service for a month". The goal tells the assistant what to include and what to leave out.

If you can, add what success looks like: "The reader should reply with a time for a call."

Say who it is for

The same facts read differently for different people. Tell the assistant who the reader is, what they know and how they feel: "a busy practice manager who has never heard of us and is wary of new software." This steers tone, length and the amount of explanation.

Give it the facts

This is the step that matters most. The assistant can write sentences, but it cannot know your prices, dates, names, promises or history. Paste or type them in:

• the key facts as a list, with numbers and dates,
• the earlier email you are replying to,
• anything it must include, such as a deadline or a link,
• anything it must not say.

When you want the assistant to answer from your own documents, put them in your library and ask there, so the answer is based on them and shows its sources.

If a fact is missing, ask it to leave a visible blank rather than invent. This is a very good habit: "If you do not know something, write [to fill in] instead of guessing."

Set the limits

Constraints improve drafts:

1. Length: "Under 150 words", "three short paragraphs".
2. Tone: "Warm and direct", "formal but friendly", "calm, no exclamation marks".
3. Format: "A subject line and a short email", "a table of options", "a checklist".
4. Language and spelling: "British English", "write in French".
5. Words to avoid: "No jargon", "no promises about dates".

Show an example

If you have a past email or letter whose style you like, paste it and say "write in a similar style". This is the best cure for generic text. If you have a bad example too, say what is wrong with it.

Ask for what you want first

Order the request in a way a person could follow. A reliable shape is:

I run a small bakery. Write an email to a café owner who bought from us last year but not this year. Goal: ask whether anything went wrong and offer a free tasting. Facts: last order 14 March, they liked the rye loaf, tasting slots on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tone: friendly, short, no pressure. Under 120 words. If a detail is missing, leave a blank in square brackets.

That is five sentences, and it will give a far better draft than a one line request.

Iterate instead of starting again

The first draft is a start. Tell the assistant what to change, one thing at a time:

• "Shorter, and move the offer to the first sentence."
• "Less salesy. Remove the second paragraph."
• "Keep the facts but make it more formal."
• "Give me three subject lines."

Each instruction builds on what you have. If you do not like a direction, say so and why. Compare versions side by side and take the best parts. Keep earlier versions, because sometimes version two was the right one.

Check the draft, line by line

Never send the first output without reading it. Check:

1. Facts. Every name, number, date and promise.
2. Claims. Anything that sounds like a statistic or a quote you did not give. Remove it if you cannot verify it.
3. Tone. Does it sound like you, to this reader?
4. Gaps. Did it quietly leave out something important?
5. Rules. Does it respect any legal, contractual or privacy limits you work under?

Assistants can be confidently wrong. They write fluent text whether or not it is true. The more important the document, the more carefully you check.

Be careful with what you paste

Do not paste passwords, secrets or personal data you have no right to share. Understand where your text goes and how it is handled before you paste anything sensitive. Our posts on choosing an AI model and keeping your data in the EU cover how to think about that.

Save what works

When a prompt gives you a good result, keep it. Write a short brief once for each task you repeat, such as a customer reply, a weekly update or a product description, with blanks for the facts. Over a few weeks you build a small set that saves real time.

Where nerix helps

In the chat, you can put your documents in the library and ask nerix to write from them, with each claim tied to the page it came from. Drafts open beside the chat as a document, and each change is kept as a version you can go back to. Email drafts (early access) writes an email or a reply from a few words, leaves a blank where it could not know a fact, and sends nothing until you press Send.

You can choose among the models for different jobs, a quick one for a short reply and a more careful one for something important. You are still the author: read it, correct it and send it under your name.

The short version

Say the goal, the reader and the facts. Set length, tone and format. Show an example. Ask for blanks instead of guesses. Change one thing at a time and check every fact before you send.