How to Write Better AI Prompts for Research: Summarize & Analyze
AI can summarize and analyze text quickly, but generic prompts lead to generic summaries. The best research prompts define the audience (who's reading this?), specify the output structure (bullets, sections, tables), and ask the AI to flag where it's making inferences vs. stating facts.
Last updated · By the Prompt Orange team
Common mistakes to avoid
Asking for a summary with no structure
Request specific sections: 'TL;DR (2 sentences) → Key takeaways (bullets) → Implications'
Not specifying depth or audience
Define who's reading: 'For a non-technical executive', 'For a grad student', 'For a 5-year-old'
Forgetting to ask for sources
Request: 'Include citations', 'Provide links', 'Note where claims are unsupported'
Ignoring bias and assumptions
Ask: 'Flag anything that seems opinion vs. fact', 'Identify the author's perspective'
Before & after: Real example
See exactly how to transform a weak prompt into a strong one
“summarise this article”
Too vague—AI has to guess what you want
“Summarise the following article for a non-technical business audience. Output: (1) TL;DR in 2 sentences, (2) 4 key takeaways as bullets, (3) one implication for a B2B SaaS company. Flag anything that seems opinion rather than fact.”
Specific, clear, ready to use
Why this works:
The strong prompt defines the audience (non-technical business), specifies the structure (TL;DR, takeaways, implication), and asks the AI to flag opinion vs. fact. This ensures the summary is actionable, clear, and critically evaluated.
The framework: Step by step
Follow this process to write better research & summarisation prompts every time
Define your audience: Who's reading this summary? What's their background?
Specify output structure: TL;DR, key points, implications—make it scannable.
Set depth required: High-level overview? Deep dive? Specific focus area?
Request bias/quality checks: 'Flag opinions', 'Note unsupported claims', 'Identify assumptions'.
Ask for sources: 'Include citations', 'Link to original sources', 'Note if info is missing'.