AI School › Talking to AI · Lesson 35 of 130

📋 Saying what shape you want the answer in

You can ask for a list, a table, a poem or three lines: you choose the shape of the answer.

Imagine asking your mum for the shopping list. If she says it out loud while you run outside, you forget half. If she writes it as bullet points, you follow it without mistakes. With AI you can choose the perfect shape for you: "write it as a list", "make me a table with two columns", "answer in three sentences at most", "make it a nursery rhyme". The same information, put in the right shape, becomes much easier to use, study or remember.

A practical school example: instead of "tell me about the planets", try "make a table with the planets in the first column and one fun fact for each in the second". Or to revise: "turn these notes into five short points". The shape is like a lunchbox: the same pasta sits differently on a plate, in a sandwich or in a container. Saying the format upfront saves you time, because you don't have to rewrite or reorder the answer afterwards.

🎒 Try it in class (or at home)

Ask the AI to explain a topic first as a paragraph, then as a five-point list: which version helps you revise more?

← Lesson 34: Showing an example of what you want · Lesson 36: Explaining the situation (the context) →

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Say what you mean. Get what you need.

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