A plain-language rewrite should reduce unnecessary phrasing while preserving every operational condition. Supply the source facts as a structured list: who is affected, what changes, when it starts and ends, what remains uncertain, and where the reader can act. Require the draft to map each output sentence back to one or more facts. Ask for link text that names the destination or action without relying on nearby words such as 'here'. The assistant may split a long sentence or explain a technical term, but it must not turn 'eligible riders may claim' into 'all riders receive'. Compare dates, thresholds, and negations mechanically where possible, then have an editor judge whether the result reads plainly to its audience.
Make this comfortable
Plain-language prompts: simplify without losing conditions
Operational case
A transit refund notice says that riders who paid before 08:30 and could not use Line K between 08:45 and 10:15 may file a claim within 47 days. The first AI draft says, 'All Line K riders get a refund today' and offers a link named 'Learn more'. Both are wrong: eligibility widened, filing became payment, and the link hides its purpose. The corrected notice states the affected window and filing deadline, labels the link 'File a Line K disruption claim', and keeps the claim decision separate from the notice. Reviewers compare the draft with the approved eligibility record, including the exact time zone.
FACT: paid_before=08:30; disruption=08:45–10:15; file_within=47 days.
DRAFT: eligible riders may file a claim; decision follows review.
LINK: File a Line K disruption claim.
REJECT: all riders get a refund today; Learn more.Performance and operating cost
With F source facts and S draft sentences, a recorded fact-to-sentence map costs O(F+S) to store and O(FS) in a naive full comparison. A keyed field check reduces date and threshold review, but meaning and clarity still need a person. Keep the approved facts in structured form so a changed filing window can mark old prose stale. Readability scores cannot detect a reversed condition. A shorter notice is useful only when the reader retains the right action and the limits on that action.
Common Mistakes
- Do not widen eligibility while shortening a sentence.
- Do not replace a filing opportunity with a guaranteed payment.
- Do not use vague link text when the destination can be named.
Connected lessons
- Prompt engineering applications
- Prompt Engineering
- Report summaries: preserve contrary results and missing data
- Multilingual prompts: test policy meaning across languages
- HTML Accessibility
- Prompt templates: bind variables without changing instruction structure
- Image alternatives: prompt for purpose, then check the image
- Caption and transcript prompts: keep timing, speakers, and sound evidence
- Semantic output prompts: verify structure after generation
- Accessible output evaluations: measure failures by artifact and user task
- Project: release an accessible transit disruption alert
- Accessible prompt output decisions
prompt engineering
accessible output