What does a good prompt look like for a student?

The new school term is under way, and for many students ChatGPT is already open in a browser tab next to the assignment. The question is not whether it can produce an essay. It can. The useful question is what kind of prompt helps you learn the material and hand in work you can stand behind.

The answer is to change the job you give it. Instead of "write my essay," you ask for the things a good tutor does: explain an idea at your level, check what you already know, ask you questions, and point out weak spots in a draft you wrote. A Beginner's Guide to ChatGPT, Robert Scales's book, includes the student among its eleven example roles, and its advice carries over well: tell the model who you are, what course and assignment you are working on, and what shape you want the help to take.

Three parts of a student prompt

A student prompt that works usually has three parts.

• Who you are and where you are. Your level (Secondary 5, first-year college, second-year nursing), the course, and what the assignment asks. A tutor explains photosynthesis very differently to a 12-year-old and to a biology major.
• What you already know, and where you are stuck. This is the part most people skip, and the most useful. "I understand the light reactions but I get lost at the Calvin cycle" lets the model aim at the gap instead of starting from zero.
• How you want to be helped. Questions before answers, one step at a time, a short quiz at the end, feedback on your paragraph rather than a rewrite of it.

OpenAI's new guide for teachers, published on August 31, makes the same choice. One of its sample prompts, written by Ethan Mollick and Lilach Mollick of Wharton Interactive, sets ChatGPT up as an encouraging tutor that asks one question at a time, checks the student's level and prior knowledge, and is told not to hand over answers but to guide with leading questions and hints.

A worked example: a history essay

Here is a Secondary 5 student in Québec with an essay due on the causes of the 1837–38 Rebellions in Lower Canada. First, the prompt that saves time but teaches nothing:

Write a 1,000-word essay on the causes of the Rebellions of 1837-38.

Now a tutor-style prompt for the same assignment:

Act as a patient history tutor for a Secondary 5 student in Québec.

My assignment: a 1,000-word essay explaining the main causes of the 1837-38 Rebellions in Lower Canada. My teacher wants a clear thesis and at least three causes, each backed by evidence from our course notes.

What I know: the Patriotes wanted more power for the elected assembly, and Louis-Joseph Papineau was a leader. I'm unsure how the economic problems and the Russell Resolutions fit in.

How to help me:
1. Ask me one question at a time to find out what I already understand.
2. Explain any cause I'm missing in plain words, with one example.
3. Help me turn my ideas into a thesis statement, but let me write it first.
4. Do not write any paragraphs of the essay for me.

The second prompt produces a conversation, not a product. You answer the questions, the model fills gaps, you draft a thesis, it pushes back. The essay you write afterward is built on understanding you actually have.

When you have a draft, a second prompt keeps the same spirit:

Here is my second paragraph. Don't rewrite it. Tell me (1) whether it supports my thesis, (2) one claim that needs evidence, and (3) one sentence that is unclear. Then ask me how I would fix each one.

Check what it tells you

A tutor that sounds sure of itself is not always right. ChatGPT can state wrong dates, mix up people and invent sources that do not exist. The teachers quoted in OpenAI's guide make the point to their own students: treat its answers as a starting point and confirm them in your textbook, course notes or a library source. For a history essay, that means every date, name and quotation in your final draft should come from material you can cite, not from the chat.

Where is the line between help and cheating?

The line is set by your teacher and your school, not by the tool, so the first step is to read the course outline or ask. Rules can differ from one course to the next: a teacher may welcome AI for brainstorming, allow it for feedback only, or forbid it for a given assignment.

Within whatever rules apply, one practical test works well: could you explain and defend every sentence you hand in, without the chat open? Using ChatGPT to understand a concept, quiz yourself, or get feedback on your own draft leaves you able to do that. Submitting paragraphs it wrote, or paraphrasing its essay closely enough that the ideas and structure are its own, does not, and most schools treat that as plagiarism.

When AI use is allowed, being open about it protects you. Keep the conversation, and if your teacher asks, say briefly how you used it: "I used ChatGPT to quiz me on the causes and to comment on my second paragraph." That turns a gray zone into something your teacher can judge, and it keeps the credit for the thinking where it belongs.