Lesson 11

Common Mistakes

Most disappointing answers come from the same five habits. Each has a simple fix.

Problem: Claude fills gaps with generic assumptions.

Fix: state goal, audience and constraints. Attach the real material.

Problem: "Make it better" has no target.

Fix: say better how: shorter, clearer for beginners, more persuasive, fewer than 100 words.

Problem: describing a style in words is imprecise.

Fix: paste one example of what good looks like and say what to keep from it.

Problem: a fast model on a hard reasoning task, or a heavy model on simple lookups.

Fix: match the tier to the task (section 2).

Problem: re-explaining your business in every chat.

Fix: put standing context in a project, a voice guide or a skill (sections 5, 7, 9).

Claude can be confidently wrong. Verify facts, numbers, quotes and citations before you publish or act on them.

Here's a prompt I used and the answer I got: [paste both]. What was missing from my prompt? Rewrite it so the answer would be more useful.