The CLEAR framework, created by developed by Dr. Leo Lo of the University of New Mexico, encapsulates the five main components of prompt creation: Concise, Logical, Explicit, Adaptive, and Reflective.
|
CLEAR |
Reason |
Example |
|
Concise |
Keeping prompts brief and to the point |
“Write a research-based summary about how social media affects teenagers’ mental health.” |
|
Logical |
Craft prompts that follow a logical flow and an order of ideas |
“Include an introduction, key positive and negative effects, supporting evidence or stats, and a conclusion.” |
|
Explicit |
Clearly define your needs, and the exact information or type of response you seek from the tool in question |
“Act as a psychology lecturer.” “Use peer-reviewed sources published after 2018.” “Keep it around 500 words.” |
|
Adaptive |
Analyze, revise, and refine prompts based on AI-generated outputs |
“Use simple academic language that first-year students can understand.” |
|
Reflective |
Critically evaluate the relevance, accuracy, and completeness of the output |
“Discuss both positive and negative impacts.” |
Completed Prompt:
“Act as a psychology lecturer. Write a concise, 500-word academic summary on how social media affects the mental health of teenagers. Include an introduction, clear sections on both positive and negative impacts, supporting evidence or statistics from peer-reviewed sources published after 2018, and a brief conclusion. Use a formal, neutral tone appropriate for a first-year undergraduate assignment, and highlight areas where further research is needed. Include sources used.”
Include prompts in the appendix of your assignment for full transparency.