AI Prompt Engineering Absolute Beginners Guide

Description

• Copyright 2026
• Dimensions: 7" x 9-1/8"
• Pages: 272
• Edition: 1st

• Book
• ISBN-10: 0-13-557046-8
• ISBN-13: 978-0-13-557046-3

Master the art of AI prompting to unlock the full potential of generative AI tools for enhanced creativity and productivity

AI Prompt Engineering Absolute Beginners 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. Youll learn what generative AI can (and cant) 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. Youll also learn how to evaluate prompt performance, troubleshoot underperforming prompts, and refine your prompts with iterative techniques. Even better, youll 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 todays 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

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Sample Content

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

Todays Most Popular AI Tools ...... 6

How to Use an AI Tool .......... 9

Summary .........11

2 What Is Prompt Engineeringand 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 Its 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 Promptingand 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

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