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Sort your history sources into primary and secondary

  • For High school students
  • You practice Asking for a format you can use
  • Time about 5 minutes

About this exercise

For your history project on the 1952 Millbrook flood, your teacher wants a source table with columns Source, Year, Type and Use for, where Type is Primary (made at the time or by someone who was there) or Secondary. One row per source, no bullets. After the table, write one line starting Conflict: that names which two sources disagree on the death toll and which one to trust. Under 200 words.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Not defining primary. The AI calls the 1998 interview secondary because it was recorded later. Try: Add: "Primary means made at the time or by someone who was there."
  • Asking for a summary. The AI writes paragraphs about each source instead of a table you can paste into your project. Try: Say: "Table with columns Source, Year, Type, Use for. One row per source."
  • Missing the disagreement. The AI lists the sources but doesn't notice two of them give different death tolls. Try: Add: "After the table, one line: Conflict: which sources disagree and which to trust."
  • Long or formatted output. AI adds a heading, bold text and a tips section after the table. Try: Add: "No heading, no bold, nothing after the Conflict line."

What a strong prompt includes

  • Asks for a table with columns
  • Defines primary
  • Asks about the disagreement
  • Bans extras

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