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Researching with Artificial Intelligence

How to Create Effective Prompts

CLEAR Framework

The CLEAR Framework is a framework that can help you optimize your prompts given to AI tools. When you are using an AI tool, make sure your prompts are CLEAR.

C

Concise

  • Use concise and clear language
  • Be specific
L

Logical

  • Provide the information in a structured way
  • Clearly show relationships between concepts
E

Explicit

Define clear output specifications, such as format, content, or scope

A

Adaptive

  • Be flexible – research is an iterative process
  • Be willing to attempt new approaches
R

Reflective

  • Evaluate AI responses for accuracy, relevance, and completeness
  • See: PAGE for evaluation methods

Source: Lo, L. S. (2023). The CLEAR path: A framework for enhancing information literacy through prompt engineering. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(4), 102720–. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102720

💡 Examples of CLEAR prompts

  • Explain the process of photosynthesis and its significance
  • Describe the steps in the scientific method, starting with forming a hypothesis and ending with drawing conclusions.
  • Identify benefits and drawbacks of globalization, from a business-discipline perspective.

Considerations

When you are prompting an AI to ask for information, we encourage you to reconsider inputting and asking for the following information into an AI tool:

1 Private and Personal Information

  • This information may be collected and stored. Some tools do not explicitly state where and how they store their data, and they may use your private and/or personal information to train their AI model.
  • Learn more from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: View Privacy Guidelines

2 Legal and Financial Advice

  • AI tools may not provide entirely accurate legal and/or financial information. Legal and financial laws differ greatly from country to country, and even province to province. AI tools lack this precision and may even 'hallucinate' to affirm your stance.
  • Your legal conversation with an AI tool is not protected by attorney-client privilege, and AI tools may use your personal information to train their AI model.
  • Read about a BC lawyer who used fake, AI-generated cases: View Case Study

3 Medical Advice

  • While AI tools may be useful for those who are medically trained, AI tools alone should not be used to diagnose a medical condition. AI tools can also very much be biased and do not accurately represent information for BIPOC.
  • Read this article from American Medical Association: View Medical Guidelines

4 Copyrighted Information

  • AI tools use inputted information to train their algorithms. If you input copyrighted information into an AI tool, it can take the art style or even the actual art to generate another image.
  • Read this article from the University of Toronto: View Copyright Guidelines

5 Questions That Do Not Achieve a Particular Goal

  • Asking for a fun image or a conversation may seem harmless. However, AI tools require an immense amount of electricity, which emits a staggering amount of carbon dioxide. It also requires an immense amount of water to cool the hardware used to function the AI tools.
  • Learn more about the environmental impact of AI tools: View Environmental Impact

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