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Write a deep-research brief for a caffeine and exams paper

  • For College students
  • You practice Setting limits and rules
  • Time about 5 minutes

About this exercise

You're about to hand your Psych 215 topic to a deep-research agent, and your professor only accepts peer-reviewed studies of undergraduates published 2019 or later, no blogs or news sites. Write the brief as exactly 5 numbered lines labeled Question:, Scope:, Sources:, Dates: and Output:. The Output: line must ask for a table with one row per study and a citation in every row. Plain text, under 120 words.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Asking the AI to do the research. The AI starts answering the question itself instead of writing instructions for the research agent. Try: Say: "Write a brief for a research agent, not the research itself."
  • Leaving out what counts as a source. Without your professor's rules the agent will happily cite blogs, news clips and old studies. Try: Add: "Peer-reviewed only, 2019 or later, exclude blogs and news sites."
  • Not saying what to hand back. Research agents default to long essays with a reference list at the bottom you can't match to claims. Try: Add: "Output: a table, one row per study, with a citation in each row."
  • 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 instead: "each line under 20 words."
  • Getting markdown back. AI defaults to bold labels and headings, which paste badly into a research tool. Try: Ask for "plain text, no bold, no headings."

What a strong prompt includes

  • Asks for a brief, not the research
  • Sets source rules
  • Gives the date range
  • Names the 5 labels
  • Asks for a cited table

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