The secret of getting in-depth, quality output from an AI

--> is the same as it is for real people

If you’re anything like me, the first time you used an AI you probably sat staring at the screen wondering what you would ask it to do.

And after considering the obvious - build skynet, study man with his isometric body and his glass-jaw mind¹, you probably then asked it to write something.

“Write an article on Newcastle United”.

And like me, you were probably disappointed. And not just because there were no mentions of any silverware.

You probably ended up with some short, generic writing with no real depth.

Not something you could use - even after heavy editing.

It turns out that AI is pretty much like you and me. Ask it to do too much at once and it does a half-arsed job.

And a whole article - if you want a decent one - is too much. At least with the current generation of AI.

What works instead is to split up your instructions and ask step-by-step.

So for an article on Newcastle United, I might start by asking it to do some research first:

“Perform deep research on Newcastle United. Look back in history to when it was formed and get opinions from official sources, newspapers, expert commentators and fan publications. After you've finished give me a summary of what you've found.”

(I’m asking Claude Sonnet 3.5 here - but you’d get a similar picture from any AI).

In my case I’m not certain yet exactly what I want the article on, but you might have more specific guidelines.

After apologising for not having any more up-to-date information than April 2024, Claude gave me a list of 10 areas with sub-topics - all of which could have formed the basis of an interesting in-depth article.

One that jumped out at me was a mention of the Gallowgate Flags - a fan group that makes and displays the giant flags we have before each game. Our youngest son is one of the core members who does all the work, so it sounded like a fun article to do - and one I could get fact-checked too.

It’s also not something I’d have immediately thought of myself - despite the connection. Score one for Claude.

The next thing I like to do before jumping in with writing is to ask Claude about the best structure for the article. This then gives me the sections I can get Claude to write individually.

And it usually does a pretty decent job.

“If I wanted to write an in-depth article about the Gallowgate Flags, what would be a good structure for it that would make it an interesting read for casual fans of Newcastle United?”

If you mention the audience for the article and the angle you want to take - in this case an interesting read for casual fans - it will slant the structure in that direction.

Other times you might tell it this was a factual article, a short email, a sales page etc. It really does adapt the article structure significantly depending on the angle.

And if you don’t get what you want, just try a slightly different prompt.

Here’s what it came up with for my “interesting read”:

Because I talked about it being an interesting read for casual fans it’s included a teaser at the start and some suggestions on making it more engaging - like visuals, quotes, a stats sidebar and comparisons with other clubs.

How do you write an enticing teaser for an article like this?

“Please suggest some teasers about the impact on match day - something that would get casual fans to raise an eyebrow in interest and get them to read the full article”

Here are the first 5 Claude suggested:

• "How a group of fans turned St. James' Park into a cauldron of black and white that even opposition players can't help but admire."

• "The secret behind the 'wall of noise' that's worth an extra player on the pitch, according to Newcastle United's captain."

• "From risky investment to club icon: The £15,000 gamble that changed the face of Newcastle's home games forever."

• "The pre-match ritual that's become so powerful, it's got visiting managers changing their team talks."

• "How a sea of flags made one Premier League star 'forget how to kick a ball' - in his own words."

Some of those will need fact-checking - like the initial investment and the quotes. But actually they’re pretty darned good. Better than I could write to be honest.

After picking a teaser, it’s time to start writing.

“Using your research from before, please write the Introduction, using the "wall of noise" teaser.”

And we’re off:

So now we have an introduction that’s about the same length as the full article that came out when we used the basic “Write an article…” prompt. And it’s much more interesting.

All that remains is to go through each of the suggested sections one by one and ask Claude to write them. And if there’s something in there that needs expanding or removing or changing - we can just ask for that too.

The end result is a really solid in-depth article.

And it’s an article that would have taken me half a day or more to write on my own. Which means - of course - I wouldn’t have written it.

At this stage we haven’t even touched on writing style or anything clever. But hopefully you can see that by splitting a big task like writing an article into smaller steps - and interacting along the way - you can come up with much better and more in-depth output.

More next time.

- Ian

1. I was way too young when I watched this film. Still have the odd nightmare.