Lesson 3 of 8 · Prompt Engineering Essentials for Better Results
In this lesson. Put the instruction where the model will not bury it.
What you will learn
- Delimiters for pasted text
- Instruction placement
- Relevant context only
Walkthrough
You will wrap untrusted text, put the task last or clearly marked, and pack only relevant context. This lesson prevents prompt injection lite and “lost in the middle” on longer inputs. Structure is a reliability tool.
Work through the ideas in order. After each point, pause and connect it to a task you already do — a document, a workflow, or a feature you own. The goal of Prompt Engineering Essentials for Better Results is usable skill, not a pile of notes.
If something is unclear, rewrite it in your own words before you continue. Teaching the step back to yourself is the fastest way to see gaps.
Practice
Rewrite a messy prompt with delimiters and a clear task block.
Keep the first attempt small. A finished example you can reuse beats a perfect plan you never run.
Check your understanding
- Can you explain the goal of this lesson in one sentence to a teammate?
- Where would you apply “Delimiters for pasted text” in your own work this week?
- What would you change on a second pass of the practice?
Next. Continue to the following lesson when the practice has a real artifact, even a rough one.