Copy, Personalise, Use

---

Intro

Every exercise from here on gives you a starting message with blanks to fill in. This module teaches you how to fill them in. It is the one skill that makes all the others work.

---

What the brackets mean

Throughout this course, you will see messages that contain parts in square brackets, like [your role] or [brief description of task]. These brackets mark the parts you change.

Here is exactly what to do: select the text inside the brackets, including the brackets themselves. Delete it. Type your own words in its place. If a bracket says [your role], you delete everything from the opening [ to the closing ] and type what you actually do, in plain language.

---

The walkthrough

COPY

Here is a starting message. Copy it exactly as written — brackets and all.

I'm a [your role] working on [brief description of task]. I need you to [verb: summarise / explain / draft / list] [the specific thing]. Keep it under [length: e.g. 100 words / 5 bullet points]. Don't include [what to leave out].

Do not change anything yet. Just copy it and paste it somewhere you can edit it — a notes app, a text document, or directly into the text area on your AI platform.

PERSONALISE

Now go through each bracket, one at a time.

[your role]
What you do — at work, at home, in life. This gives the AI useful context about your situation.

• Examples: "primary school teacher", "freelance graphic designer"

[brief description of task]
One sentence about what you are working on right now. Keep it short.

• Examples: "planning a team meeting for next Monday", "writing a reply to a client who asked for a refund"

[verb: summarise / explain / draft / list]
Pick the one closest to what you need. Stick to these four for now — they have a clear ceiling and will do only what you asked. You will learn the full set of safe verbs in B-05.

• "summarise" means: make this shorter
• "explain" means: help me understand this
• "draft" means: write a first version of this
• "list" means: give me a set of options

[the specific thing]
What do you want that action applied to? Be specific.

• Examples: "the main points from this article I'm going to paste below", "a thank-you email to a volunteer who helped at our event"

[length: e.g. 100 words / 5 bullet points]
How long should the response be? Pick any size that makes sense for your task.

• Examples: "under 100 words", "5 bullet points", "one short paragraph"

[what to leave out]
What do you not want in the response? This is your chance to prevent things that would waste your time.

• Examples: "jargon or technical terms", "any suggestions I didn't ask for"

USE

Here is what it looks like after personalising:

I'm a small business owner working on replying to a negative customer review. I need you to draft a professional but warm response. Keep it under 100 words. Don't include excuses or discounts.

Notice: no brackets left. Every placeholder has been replaced with specific, real details. The message sounds like something a person would actually send.

Now do it yourself. Go back to the version you copied, replace each bracket with your own details, and send it.

---

What good looks like

Your personalised version does not need to be perfect. If it sounds like something you would actually say about your actual work, it is ready to send. The goal is a message that fits your situation — not a message that matches the example above.

---

If you are not sure what to put in a bracket

Guess. Put in your best attempt and send it. The AI will respond based on whatever you wrote, and you can always try again with different words. There is no penalty for getting it wrong the first time.

---

Next

Now that you know how to take a starting message and make it yours, B-03 walks you through the main features of your AI platform so you know where everything is.