The R-T-C prompt formula

Most disappointing AI answers come from the same mistake: a vague prompt. "Give me a meal plan" gets you a generic meal plan. But feed the AI three ingredients and you get a plan you'd actually cook.

The three ingredients are Role, Task, and Context — R + T + C.

R — Role

Tell the AI who to be. This anchors its tone, vocabulary, and instincts.

• "You are an experienced nutritionist who works with busy families."
• "You are a plainspoken small-business accountant."
• "You are a warm middle-school English teacher."

Roles change everything. The same question asked of "a lawyer" and "a friend" produces two different worlds of answer.

T — Task

Say exactly what you want. Include the format if you care about it.

• "Write me a 7-day dinner plan as a bullet list."
• "Draft a 4-sentence email to a customer who wants a refund."
• "Give me 10 Instagram caption ideas, each under 20 words."

Weak tasks ("help me with dinner") get weak answers. Strong tasks name the deliverable.

C — Context

This is where 90% of the improvement lives. Give the AI the details only you know.

• Who is this for? ("my 6-year-old," "a first-time customer," "my boss who hates long emails")
• Constraints? ("under 30 minutes," "budget $40," "no dairy")
• What have you already tried? What went wrong?
• Any examples of what "good" looks like?

Putting it together

"You are an experienced nutritionist who works with busy families. Write me a 7-day dinner plan as a bullet list. We're a family of 4, vegetarian, love Mexican and Mediterranean food, want each meal under 600 calories and 30 minutes to cook, and we always have rice, eggs, and beans on hand."

Now compare that to "give me a meal plan." The difference is not the AI — it's the prompt.

A prompt template you can steal

You are [role].

Do [task] in [format].

Context: [who it's for, constraints, preferences, examples of what good looks like].

If anything is unclear, ask me before answering.

That last line is a small trick worth its weight in gold. It stops the AI from guessing when it should be asking.

When your first answer isn't right

Don't start over. Reply with what to change. "Shorter." "More casual." "Make the third one funnier." "Rewrite as if for a first-time reader." This is how professionals actually work with AI — iteratively, in conversation.

Where to go next

The next guide gives you 10 copy-paste prompts built with this formula, ready for emails, captions, blog posts, replies, and bios. You'll finish it with a library of prompts you'll use every week.