Module 2 · Prompting — getting a real answer Lesson 7 of 15
When the answer is wrong: iterate instead of restarting
A bad answer is information. Its failure is a silent one: the automation stops, and you go on assuming it is running. Keep the conversation, name the fault, and correct one thing at a time — restarting from scratch throws away everything the model has already got right.
The concept
There are four things that usually went wrong, and each has a different fix. It answered a different question — restate the TASK as one sentence. It made things up — supply the facts yourself and say "use only these". It wrote too much — ask for the length first. It sounded like a machine — ask it to rewrite for one specific reader and cut every third word.
Say the fault out loud, in the message. "This is too long for a WhatsApp message and it sounds like a brochure." A model cannot fix a problem you have not named, and naming the problem is also how you find out what you actually wanted.
Follow-ups that work: "shorter", "only the parts that are true for a fresher", "rewrite the second sentence three ways", "what would you have to check before I send this?". That last one is worth using before anything goes out with your name on it.
Worked example
A field that is empty because the form changed, a connection that expired, a filter that no longer matches: all of these look like nothing happening.
Your practice task
Take the worst answer you have received this week and correct it in three follow-up messages without retyping the original prompt. Notice how much faster it converges.
Do this before moving on. Reading a solution teaches the shape of it; typing it teaches you.
Key takeaway
There are four things that usually went wrong, and each has a different fix.
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