# Rewriting instructions > **What you will learn** > This is a chapter for **doing**, not reading. Here are five bad instructions. > Rewrite each using the [four parts](/guide/ai-intent-context), then compare. ## How to use it For each problem: 1. Read the bad instruction 2. **Before expanding the answer**, rewrite it yourself (anywhere — a notepad) 3. Expand the answer and compare 4. Note what you left out If you leave out the same part every time, that is your habitual blind spot. --- ## Problem 1 — a report ``` Make me last month's sales report ``` **Rewrite it, then expand below.**
See the answer ``` [Goal] Produce the July 2026 sales performance report. [Scope] - Domestic sales only. International is reported separately - No analysis — factual summary only [Done condition] - One page - Order: total revenue → by product line → vs. same month last year → notes - Tone appropriate for reporting to a team lead [Context] - The data is in the attached spreadsheet - Product B was discontinued in July. The decline reflects that ``` **Commonly omitted**: context (product B discontinued). Without it, the decline gets read as an anomaly and irrelevant analysis gets attached.
--- ## Problem 2 — an email ``` Write an apology email to the supplier ```
See the answer ``` [Goal] Write an apology email about the delivery delay. [Scope] - Apology and the new schedule only - Compensation terms are not decided yet — do not mention them [Done condition] - Five sentences or fewer - Polite but not excessively deferential - Include the reason for the delay in one line [Context] - Recipient: a major supplier we've worked with for 3 years - Reason: parts supply delay - New date: March 15th - This is our first delay with this supplier ``` **Commonly omitted**: scope (do not mention compensation). Without it, AI helpfully adds "we will compensate you," and once that goes out it is a promise.
--- ## Problem 3 — organising data ``` Tidy up this data ```
See the answer ``` [Goal] Turn the meeting notes below into an action item table. [Scope] - Decisions only. Exclude anything still under discussion - Where no owner is named, mark "TBD" — do not assign one arbitrarily [Done condition] - Columns: Topic / Decision / Owner / Deadline - One line per cell - Do not guess at anything not present in the source [Context] (paste the meeting notes) ``` **Commonly omitted**: "do not guess." An empty cell in a table makes filling it the natural continuation, so it [invents something](/guide/ai-hallucination). You have to block it explicitly.
--- ## Problem 4 — research ``` Research our competitors ```
See the answer ``` [Goal] Summarise the pricing of 3 domestic small-appliance competitors. [Scope] - The mini washing machine category only - Online prices only; exclude offline retail [Done condition] - Table: company / flagship model / price / recent price change - Every item must carry a source (URL and date checked) - Anything you cannot confirm, leave as "unconfirmed" [Context] - Our product is in the $250 range and its strength is quietness - There's a rumour Company A cut prices last month — needs confirming ``` **Commonly omitted**: requiring sources, and "leave it unconfirmed." Research is [the highest hallucination-risk category](/guide/ai-hallucination), so those two lines are mandatory.
--- ## Problem 5 — work handed to an agent The difficulty steps up here. **Nobody is watching this one.** ``` Every morning, summarise yesterday's sales and post it to Slack ```
See the answer ``` [Goal] At 8am daily, post a summary of the previous day's sales to the Slack #sales channel. [Scope] - Read and post only. Never modify data - Post only to #sales [Done condition] - Contents: previous day total / vs. the same weekday last week / top 3 products - If the data lookup fails, do not post — notify the owner instead (not posting beats posting a wrong number) - Numbers must come from the lookup result. Do not estimate [Context] - Sales data refreshes via overnight batch at 06:00 - Monday compares against the previous Friday - Skip public holidays ``` **What is newly required here**: 1. **Behaviour on failure** — nobody is watching, so failure handling must be specified 2. **The scope of irreversible actions** — a Slack post is hard to retract 3. **When the data refreshes** — it refreshes at 06:00, so running at 05:00 posts the day-before-yesterday's figures **For work nobody watches, you write down "when it goes wrong," not "when it goes right."**
--- ## Self-check After all five: | If you kept omitting | Your habit is | |---|---| | Goal | jumping to solutions without defining the problem | | Scope | assuming the other side will respect the line on its own | | Done condition | deferring it with "I'll know it when I see it" | | Context | assuming the other side knows what you know | **The last is the most common.** Not writing down the background in your head — the same problem occurs when working with people. --- ## Check yourself **1. In problem 3, why must you spell out "do not guess"?**
Answer Because an empty cell in a table makes **filling it the natural continuation**, so it invents something. [Hallucination](/guide/ai-hallucination) comes from the structure, so it has to be blocked explicitly.
**2. What extra must you write for work nobody is watching?**
Answer **What to do when it goes wrong** — how to handle failure, which actions are irreversible, what to do when the data is not ready. In supervised work a person stops when something looks off; in unattended work there is no such person.
**3. Which part is most commonly omitted, and why?**
Answer **Context.** You unconsciously assume the other side knows the background that is in your head. The same problem occurs when working with people.
--- That covers rewriting instructions. How an organisation knows it is doing well → [Evaluation (evals)](/guide/ai-evaluation)