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Total volunteer hours for a grant after catching a typo
Practice: Giving the right context. About 5 minutes.
About this exercise
Your grant report needs volunteer hours by program for October. No volunteer shift is ever longer than 10 hours, so any entry over 10 is a typo with an extra zero (80 means 8). Write exactly 3 numbered lines, one per program, each showing the hours added up, then one unnumbered last line: Total: X hours. Plain text, under 60 words.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- Not telling the AI your shift rule. It doesn't know shifts top out at 10 hours, so it reports 80 as real and Food pantry hits 95. Try: Add: "No shift is over 10 hours; 80 is a typo for 8."
- Not asking to see the work. Grant reports get audited; bare totals are hard to back up. Try: Add a line to copy: "1. Food pantry: 4 + 6 + 8 + 5 = 23"
- Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it. Try: Cap each line: "each line under 14 words."
- Forgetting where it goes. AI loves markdown tables and bold, which show up as clutter in a grant form. Try: Add: "Plain text, no bold, headings or tables."
What a strong prompt includes
- Explains the typo rule
- Asks to show the math
- Asks for a total
- Sets a word limit
- Asks for plain text
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