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Report two line stoppages with downtime math for the plant manager

  • For Managers and team leads
  • You practice Catching mistakes and made-up facts
  • Time about 5 minutes
  • Level Intermediate

About this exercise

Write a prompt for a short report to Beth Ramos, the plant manager, with exactly four lines starting "Total downtime:", "Lost output:", "Cause:" and "Status:". Use the maintenance log times, not the supervisor's note. Show the math for downtime in minutes and for lost output. Say what is confirmed and what is not. Plain text, under 90 words.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Trusting the supervisor note. The AI mixes in the 06:35 and 15-minute figures. Try: Say: "Use the maintenance log times only."
  • Claiming a cause for the sensor. The AI guesses why the sensor failed. Try: Say: "Say which cause is confirmed and which is not identified."
  • Wrong lines. The AI writes a narrative timeline. Try: Quote the four labels in order.
  • Getting markdown back. AI adds bold, headings and bullets 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 over the limit. Try: Cap each part instead of the total, for example "each line under 15 words".

What a strong prompt includes

  • Quotes the four labels
  • Names the trusted source
  • Asks for the math
  • Separates confirmed from unknown
  • Asks for plain text

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