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Announce planned maintenance in four labeled lines
- For IT teams
- You practice Asking for a format you can use
- Time about 5 minutes
- Level Beginner
About this exercise
Write a staff notice with exactly four lines starting "When:", "What's affected:", "Before you start:" and "Questions:". Say the window length in hours. Plain text, under 100 words. Do not mention possible delays; none are confirmed.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- Mentioning the delay. The engineer's comment about 3 AM appears and the AI announces it. Try: Add: "Do not mention possible delays."
- Missing the duration. The AI gives times but no length in hours. Try: Say: "State the window length: 4 hours."
- Wrong layout. The AI writes headings and a long paragraph. Try: Name the four labels.
- Getting markdown back. AI adds bold and headings by default, which show up as stray symbols where this is pasted. Try: Say "plain text, no bold, no headings, no asterisks".
- Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting and usually runs long, so a vague "keep it short" lands well over the limit. Try: Cap each part instead of the total, for example "each line under 15 words".
What a strong prompt includes
- Asks for plain text
- Sets a length limit
- Names the labels
- Bans delays
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