AI Open Guide
← Claude · Start here

1In one sentence

Here are ten things to type today, each showing one thing Claude is good at, so that by the end you have felt what it can do instead of reading about it.

2New words

  • Summarize — make something long into something short that keeps the important points.
  • Brainstorm — produce many ideas quickly without judging them yet.
  • Draft — a first version of a piece of writing that you will improve.

3Why you would want it

Most people type one vague question, get a vague answer, and decide Claude is "okay". These ten prompts are written properly: each says what you want, who it is for, and how long it should be. Copy them exactly, then change the parts in [brackets] to your own life.

#What it showsType this
1ExplainExplain how [a mortgage] works to a 12-year-old, in 6 short lines.
2SummarizePaste any long text, then: Summarize this in 5 bullet points, then tell me the one thing I must not miss.
3RewritePaste your own paragraph: Rewrite this to be shorter and friendlier, keep my meaning, no new facts.
4TranslateTranslate this into [Arabic], keeping it polite and formal: [text]
5PlanMake me a simple 3-day plan to [prepare for a job interview], one hour a day.
6CompareCompare [renting] and [buying] a car for someone who drives 20,000 km a year. Give a table, then your recommendation.
7BrainstormGive me 15 names for a [small coffee shop by the sea]. Mix short, funny and classy ones.
8CheckHere is an email I wrote. Point out anything unclear, rude or wrong, then show a fixed version.
9TeachTeach me the 5 most important words in [Spanish] for a restaurant, with how to say them. Then quiz me.
10DraftDraft a 6-line message to my [landlord] asking to fix the [air conditioning] by Friday. Polite but firm.

4Try it now

  1. Open a new chat.
  2. Do prompts 1, 5 and 10 first; they take under a minute each.
  3. For prompt 2 and 8, paste real text of yours.
  4. After any answer, reply with Make it shorter or Make it more formal and watch it adjust.

5What you will see

Ten very different kinds of answer: a child-level explanation, a tidy summary, a table with a verdict, a list of names, a quiz. Here is prompt 6, the comparison, with its table (the recommendation follows below it):

Prompt 6: the rent-versus-buy table
Prompt 6: the rent-versus-buy table

The point is not any single answer; it is that the same box did all ten.

6Watch out

  • One-word prompts ("mortgage?") get one-word quality. The brackets are where your details go; fill them.
  • If an answer is too long, say so. Claude adjusts instantly and remembers for the rest of the chat.

7Go further

Pick the prompt you liked most and ask: What else could you do with this? Then read Chapter 0.5 to understand why some answers are great and others are not.