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Pull cited research notes from your sources

Practice: Keeping the AI to your sources. About 5 minutes.

About this exercise

For a US History project, you're answering: 'Where did Dust Bowl migrants go, and why did they leave?' You have notes from 4 sources, and your teacher said not to use Source D, an anonymous blog. You want at most 3 bullets, each one sentence ending with its source letter in brackets like [A], under 70 words in all, plain text. Use only Sources A to C.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Asking for a "summary of the sources". The AI summarizes each source in turn, Source D included, instead of answering your question. Try: Give it the question: "Answer: where did migrants go, and why did they leave?"
  • Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total and it often lands 20% over. Try: Cap each bullet: "each bullet one sentence under 18 words."
  • No citations. AI writes smooth notes without saying where each fact came from, and you can't build a bibliography from that. Try: Add: "End each bullet with its source letter in brackets, like [A]."
  • Trusting every source equally. The AI treats the blog like the textbook, and its exaggerated number sounds confident. Try: Say: "Never use Source D. Use only Sources A to C."
  • Notes that need cleanup. AI adds a heading and bold labels you'd strip out before pasting into your research doc. Try: Add: "Plain text, no bold or headings, no intro."

What a strong prompt includes

  • Gives the research question
  • Asks for citations
  • Excludes the blog
  • Limits the bullets
  • Asks for plain text

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