Everything from the last eight lessons snaps together into one repeatable structure. Save it once, use it for years.
Why labels help
You've learned the pieces: be specific, show an example, give a role, put material first and the ask last. For big or important prompts, one more thing helps: label the parts. Labels keep Claude from mixing up your example with your instructions, or treating background as a to-do. Think of it as a well-organized work order instead of a voicemail.
The recipe
Copy-paste skeleton, save this one
WHO YOU ARE:
{a realistic role, one sentence}
BACKGROUND:
{the situation, plus any pasted emails, documents, or notes}
RULES:
{2 to 4 rules, each with a "because"}
EXAMPLE:
{one example of what good looks like, if format or voice matters}
THE ASK:
{exactly what you want, one sentence}
If you're not sure about something, say so instead of guessing.
Two notes. The ask goes last, like you learned in the previous lesson. And the safety line rides along at the bottom of everything important. It costs nothing.
Two power moves for when it counts
For hard problems, invite thinking. Add a line like "think through the edge cases before answering." On anything with tradeoffs, a schedule, a pricing decision, a tricky reply, Claude does better when it works through the problem instead of blurting the first answer.
When a prompt fails, don't patch it blind. Ask Claude to fix its own instructions:
The fixer prompt
Here's a prompt I gave you that got a bad result:
{paste your prompt}
Here's what I wanted instead: {describe the result you were hoping for}
Rewrite my prompt so it gets that result, and tell me in one sentence what was missing.
This is the fastest prompting teacher there is. The one-sentence diagnosis shows you the gap, and after a few rounds you'll stop leaving it in the first place.