Master the art of AI prompting to unlock the full potential of generative AI tools for enhanced creativity and productivity
AI Prompt Engineering Absolute Beginner’s Guide, by best-selling author Michael Miller (writer of 200+ practical tech books), teaches readers how to craft effective prompts that unlock the full power of generative AI. You’ll learn what generative AI can (and can’t) do, why well-structured prompts matter, and how to craft them step-by-step for the results you actually want.
This approachable guide walks you through the anatomy of a great prompt--defining clear goals, outputs, constraints, tone, and style--then builds your skills with proven prompting strategies. You’ll also learn how to evaluate prompt performance, troubleshoot underperforming prompts, and refine your prompts with iterative techniques. Even better, you’ll learn how to construct prompts for specific tasks (productivity, writing, image generation, and more) and take advantage of a large library of prompt templates.
Whether you are a casual user or a professional in content creation, marketing, education, or tech, this book helps you unlock the full power of today’s AI tools. With practical examples and real-world use cases, you will learn how to evaluate performance, refine and iterate, troubleshoot weak outputs, and use AI responsibly.
This book will help you with:
- Understanding how generative AI works and why prompts matter
- Structuring the anatomy of clear, specific, goal-oriented prompts
- Defining outputs, constraints, tone, and style to guide results
- Applying zero-shot, one-shot, and few-shot prompting techniques
- Using chain-of-thought and self-consistency to improve reasoning
- Adopting role- and persona-based prompting for better context
- Building prompt chains and multimodal prompts (text, image, video)
- Evaluating prompt performance and iterating for improvement
- Generating higher-quality text, images, and videos for real use cases
- Troubleshooting weak outputs and practicing responsible, ethical prompting
Table of Contents:
Introduction ....xvi
1 Understanding Generative AI .....1
What AI Is ........ 2
How AI Works .. 2
How Generative AI Differs from Predictive AI ... 4
How People and Businesses Use AI ........ 5
Today’s Most Popular AI Tools ...... 6
How to Use an AI Tool .......... 9
Summary .........11
2 What Is Prompt Engineering—and Why Is It Important? .........13
What Is Prompt Engineering? .....14
What Does Prompt Engineering Entail? ..........14
Why Is Proper Prompt Design Important? .......15
How to Turn a Bad Prompt into a Better Prompt .....18
Summary .........19
3 The Anatomy of a Perfect Prompt .....21
Crafting an Effective AI Prompt ..22
Necessary Components of an AI Prompt ........22
What Not to Include in a Prompt ..........26
Putting It All Together .........27
Summary .........32
4 Defining Output in Your Prompts.......33
What Is Output Specification in an AI Prompt? .........34
Why Is Output Specification Important? ..........34
Types of Output to Specify 35
Best Practices for Specifying Output ....38
Summary .........38
5 Understanding and Comparing Different Prompting Strategies.......39
Different Approaches to AI Prompting .40
Comparing Prompting Strategies .........45
Choosing the Right Prompting Strategy .........46
Summary .........47
6 Using Zero-Shot Prompting ......49
What Zero-Shot Prompting Is and How It Works .......50
When to Use Zero-Shot Prompting .......50
Crafting Effective Zero-Shot Prompts ....51
Tips for Better Zero-Shot Prompting .....53
Limitations of Zero-Shot Prompting ......53
Summary .........54
7 Using One-Shot Prompting .......55
What One-Shot Prompting Is and How It Works .......56
When to Use One-Shot Prompting .......56
How to Reference Examples in Prompts..........57
Best Practices for Creating Effective One-Shot Prompts ...59
Advanced One-Shot Prompting Strategies .....60
Limitations of One-Shot Prompting .......60
Summary .........62
8 Using Few-Shot Prompting .......63
What Few-Shot Prompting Is and How It Works .......64
When to Use Few-Shot Prompting ........64
How to Craft a Few-Shot Prompt ..........65
Best Practices for Effective Few-Shot Prompts ..........67
Advanced Few-Shot Prompting Strategies......68
Limitations of Few-Shot Prompting .......69
Summary .........70
9 Using Role-Based Prompting ....71
What Role-Based Prompting Is and How It Works ....72
When to Use Role-Based Prompting.....73
How to Craft a Role-Based Prompt .......73
What Kinds of Roles Can You Have AI Assume? .......75
Best Practices for Effective Role-Based Prompts .......81
Advanced Role-Based Prompting Strategies ..81
Limitations of Role-Based Prompting ....82
Summary .........83
10 Using Chain-of-Thought Prompting ....85
What Chain-of-Thought Prompting Is and How It Works ..86
When to Use Chain-of-Thought Prompting .....86
How to Craft a Chain-of-Thought Prompt .......89
Best Practices for Effective Chain-of-Thought Prompts .....90
Advanced Chain-of-Thought Prompting Strategies ..90
Limitations of Chain-of-Thought Prompting ....91
Summary .........92
11 Using Self-Consistency Prompting ......93
What Self-Consistency Prompting Is and How It Works ....94
When to Use Self-Consistency Prompting .......94
How to Craft a Self-Consistency Prompt .........95
Best Practices for Effective Self-Consistency Prompting ..100
Advanced Self-Consistency Prompting Strategies...100
Limitations of Self-Consistency Prompting ....101
Summary .......103
12 Using Prompt Chaining .. 105
What Prompt Chaining Is and How It Works .106
Benefits of Prompt Chaining .....106
When to Use Prompt Chaining . .....107
Examples of Prompt Chaining .. .....107
Best Practices for Effective Prompt Chaining .....112
Limitations of Prompt Chaining .....112
Summary .......113
13 Using Multimodal Prompts .... 115
What Is Multimodal Prompting and How Does It Work? . .....116
What Kinds of Files Can You Upload? .....118
When to Use Multimodal Prompting .. .....119
Examples of Multimodal Prompts ........119
Best Practices for Multimodal Prompting ......120
Limitations of Multimodal Prompting .. .....121
Summary .......122
14 Evaluating Prompt Performance ...... 123
Why Prompt Evaluation Matters ..........124
Defining Prompt Performance Metrics 125
Simple Ways to Evaluate Prompt Performance ........127
Advanced Prompt Evaluation ....128
Best Practices for Prompt Evaluation ..129
Common Pitfalls When Evaluating Prompt Performance.130
Summary .......130
15 Refining Your Prompts ... 131
Why It’s Important to Refine Your Prompts ....132
How Iterative Prompting Works 132
How to Refine Your Prompts .....134
Best Practices for Iterative Prompting .134
Pitfalls When Iterative Prompting ........135
Summary .......135
16 Prompting for Writing.... 137
Why Use AI for Writing .....138
Discovering the Best AI Tools for Writing ......139
Key Prompt Parameters for Writing .....140
Examples of Prompts for Different Types of Writing ........141
Best Practices for Writing with AI ........143
Summary .......144
17 Prompting for Productivity .... 145
Three Principles of Productivity Prompting ...146
Common Productivity Uses of AI ........147
Writing and Communication .....147
Marketing and Promotion ....149
Planning and Organization ...150
Education and Learning ........151
Data Analysis and Research . .....152
Decision-Making .....153
Summary .......154
18 Prompting for Image Generation .... 155
Why Create Images with AI .......156
Discovering the Best AI Tools for Image Generation .......157
Key Parameters for Image Generation Prompts ......158
Examples of Prompts for Generating Different Types of Images ..........159
Best Practices for AI Image Generation .........165
Summary .......167
19 Prompting for Video Generation ..... 169
Why Create Videos with AI .......170
Discovering the Best AI Tools for Generating Videos ......170
Key Parameters for Video Generation Prompts .......172
Examples of Prompts for Generating Different Types of Videos ..........173
Best Practices for AI Video Generation .........175
Pitfalls Inherent in AI Video Generation.........176
Summary .......177
20 Prompting for Music Generation ..... 179
Why Use AI to Generate Music. .....180
Discovering the Best AI Tools for Creating Music ...180
Key Parameters for Music Generation Prompts .......182
Examples of Prompts to Generate Different Types of Music......184
Creating Lyrics ........186
Summary .......188
21 Advanced Prompting Strategies and Tools ......... 189
Advanced Prompt Engineering Techniques .. .....190
Prompt Engineering Tools .....194
Prompt Management and Optimization ...194
Prompt Libraries and Repositories . .....196
Summary .......197
22 Prompting Responsibly .. 199
What Is Responsible Prompting—and Why Is It Important? ......200
Dealing with Bias in AI Prompting .......201
Dealing with Ethical Issues in AI Prompting ..205
Dealing with Legal Issues in AI Prompting ....207
How to Responsibly Use AI-Generated Content .....209
Summary .......209
23 Troubleshooting Less-Effective Prompts ... 211
How to Recognize Unhelpful or Hallucinated Responses .....212
Common Characteristics of Ineffective Prompts ......213
Step-by-Step Guide for Troubleshooting AI Prompts ......216
Summary .......218
24 Future Directions in AI and Prompt Engineering ........ 219
The Future of AI ....220
The Future of Prompt Engineering ......222
Summary .......224
A Prompt Templates .......... 225
TOC, 11/18/2025, 9780135570463
About the Author :
Michael Miller has written more than 200 non-fiction books over the past three decades. Collectively, his books have sold more than a million copies worldwide. His best-selling books for Que include My iPad for Seniors, My Video Chat for Seniors, My TV for Seniors, My Social Media for Seniors, My Facebook for Seniors, My Smart Home for Seniors, My Samsung Galaxy S7 for Seniors, Computer Basics: Absolute Beginner's Guide, and Easy Computer Basics.
