Lock the format with samples

In the Secondary 2 Geography panel WhatsApp group, a teacher posts: "This time the AI map-reading items are all over the place — some multiple choice, some gap fill, one with half a page of explanation." Five papers, one prompt: "Give me five S2 map-reading questions." The panel head replies: "Did anyone paste examples?" Three seconds of silence. Someone admits: "I thought 'moderate difficulty' was enough."

Text can say "keep it tidy", but the model is better at copying what it sees. This is lesson 3, building on the lesson-2 work order: when delivery spec has been rewritten three times and the output still misses, stop adding adjectives — paste two or three examples and the problem usually disappears.

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Demonstration beats description

The second attempt pastes two past items the panel already trusts:

You are a question-setting assistant for a Hong Kong secondary Geography teacher.
Task: continue with five Secondary 2 map-reading items in exactly the format of my two examples below (describe new maps in text; no need to attach real images).
Field intel: Secondary 2, unit "Urban land use in Hong Kong", learning focus is reading land-use types from a map and inferring reasons. Students know map symbols; GIS not yet taught.

Example 1:
[Image description: simplified urban map; legend shows commercial (red), residential (yellow), industrial (grey)]
Question: What is the main land use in area A? (1 mark)
Answer: commercial
Follow-up: Give one reason why large-scale housing is unsuitable in area A. (2 marks)

Example 2:
[Image description: simplified new-town map with MTR station, park, housing estate, factory]
Question: Compare areas B and C — which is more likely to create heavier traffic pressure? (2 marks)
Answer: B (commercial)
Follow-up: Which map clue supports your judgment? (1 mark)

Delivery spec: exactly the example structure — bracketed image description, main question (with marks), answer, follow-up (with marks). One blank line between items.
Red lines: no specific place names or unverified statistics; mark uncertain facts "teacher to verify"; multiple-choice items are out of scope for this request.

This time all five items match the examples, and the panel head can merge five teachers' contributions into one paper.

The model copies shape

A model can learn what shape you want in two ways: you describe it, or you show it. Description has to be translated — "moderate difficulty" and "consistent format" stay fuzzy. An example shows layout, sentence length, punctuation and register at once, and the model can copy the shape directly.

Like latte art, not "make it prettier"

Tell a new barista "nicer latte art, clearer layers" and the next cup still misses. Show three cups you pulled yourself and the next one lands close. Examples carry what you cannot articulate but recognise instantly.

Adjectives cannot specify a format; examples can. Two or three well-chosen examples usually beat two hundred words of specification.

One caution: the model imitates content as well as form. Deliberately choose example topics different from your target — if examples use land use, ask new items on transport networks or coastlines, or you will get ten near-duplicates.

Three ways to lock

Lock feedback register

A Primary 6 English Language teacher wants consistent writing feedback, not stiff one day and gushing the next:

You are a feedback assistant for a Hong Kong primary English Language teacher.
Task: write one comment per composition, matching the register and structure of the three examples below.
Field intel: Primary 6 narrative writing, learning focus is sensory details in scene-setting. Students must read the comment themselves and know what to do next.

Example 1: You opened with the smell of the wet pavement — that line puts the reader on the street with you. Next, try naming one sound after that smell, not another sight.
Example 2: Your paragraph order is clear: arrival, problem, resolution. The ending "I was happy" tells the feeling; show it with one action instead, like slumping into a chair.
Example 3: Dialogue sounds like P6 speech — good. Watch commas before "said"; three places need fixing.

Delivery spec: one paragraph per composition, three to four sentences. First sentence names one specific strength and quotes the student's words. Second names one area to improve. Third gives one concrete next action.
Red lines: no marks or grades; do not rewrite the student's sentences; any quotation must be words the student actually wrote.

Block drift with a counter-example

A General Studies teacher keeps getting closed questions:

You are a planning assistant for a Hong Kong primary General Studies teacher.
Task: design six inquiry questions for Primary 5 unit "Public transport in Hong Kong".

Good example: if the government cancelled every bus route in our district tomorrow, which three groups of residents would be most affected, and what difficulty would each face?
Good example: on the same journey, why might one person take the MTR and another a minibus? Give one possible reason for each.

Not like this: how many MTR lines does Hong Kong have? (lookup answer, not inquiry)
Not like this: what is your favourite way to travel? (preference, nothing to compare or argue)

Delivery spec: six questions, each followed by "what students must gather" and "one teacher follow-up".
Red lines: none of the six may be answerable in one sentence; mark uncertain fares or frequencies "teacher to verify".

Turn past papers into examples

You are a question-setting assistant for a Hong Kong secondary [subject] teacher.
Task: analyse the three past-paper items I paste below, summarise the shared house style, then write eight new items in that style.
Field intel: [year level], unit "[name]", unit test 20 marks in 25 minutes.
Delivery spec: part one is five bullet points (stem length, command verbs, option design, mark allocation); part two is eight new items in past-paper format with answers and marks.
Red lines: no reused scenarios from the past paper; mark uncertain facts "teacher to verify".

Past-paper items:
[paste three]

Where people drift off course

• Examples that disagree with each other. Different field order or punctuation between three examples produces an average that matches none. Self-check: paste examples side by side in a document — do the columns align?
• Example topics too close to the target. Near-synonym examples plus a near-synonym request yields ten items circling the same word pairs. Take examples from unit 2, ask for unit 5. Self-check: can you find nearly the same sentence in the new output as in the example? If yes, too close.
• Examples that are too long. Three full model compositions bury the format signal. Choose the shortest passage that still shows the shape. Self-check: can you cut the example in half and still see the format?
• Forgetting to de-identify. Pasting student work hands over personal data. Strip names and class, or rewrite as synthetic samples. See lesson 9 and lesson 14. Self-check: any real names or student numbers in the example?

Try it once

Time: 10–15 minutes.

Do this: From a past paper, comment sheet or worksheet on your desk, pick the shortest item (or one comment paragraph) as an example. Run once with text specification only, then add the example and run again, with the new topic deliberately different from the example topic.

Hand in: Both outputs plus one sentence on which format feature (mark labels, follow-up line, comment sentence count) finally stabilised after you added the example.

You got it right when: the second output matches the example layout and the new content does not paraphrase the example topic — you locked shape without copying content.

Examples solve "what should it look like". The next lesson handles tasks that need reasoning: lesson 4, chain of thought and step-by-step instructions. If output must import into a system, see lesson 15, structured output.