Decide whether your prompt needs examples

Work out whether examples would help this prompt, and what they should be.

1. **Is the problem actually fixable with an example?** ***An example teaches a shape. It does not teach a rule*** — **if what is going wrong is a rule being ignored, an example will not fix it and will cost length**
2. **If yes, what kind:**
   - **One good output** — teaches the shape
   - ***One good and one bad, with what separates them*** — **teaches the boundary. Usually stronger**
   - **Several** — ***only when the variation is the point.* **Otherwise the model copies the one it saw**
3. **What the example must not contain** — ***values I do not want reused.* **A model given one example reuses its names, numbers, and phrasing far more than people expect**
4. **How long** — ***an example longer than the rule it illustrates is a cost, not a help***

**Then:**
- **Write the example** from my material, ***and mark what in it is shape versus what is content***
- ***Where my example accidentally teaches something I did not intend*** — a structure, a register, a level of detail
- **Whether to describe the shape instead** — *a stated rule generalises; an example anchors*