Machines are, well, machines. As machines, they don’t have feelings. If you don’t specify the underlying emotions that you want in your output (text, image, etc.) ChatGPT will guess. It probably won’t guess correctly.
One of the elements to include in a well-crafted prompt is tone. Tone is defined here as the emotional character of your output.
Here’s a quick exercise to help you see why tone matters
- Think about something in your life
- I.e., your cat, your dog, your car, your job, your spouse, etc.
- Describe whatever or whoever you’ve chosen using an optimistic tone
- Now describe it or then using a pessimistic tone
Here are some other tone options to consider using in your prompts
- Playful
- Confident
- Serious
- Arrogant
- Sarcastic
- Concise
- Verbose
- Elated
- Formal
- Authoritative
- Sympathetic
- Cynical
- Nervous
- Etc.
Sometimes tone doesn’t matter - like when defining a word. Sometimes tone matters a lot - like in an email.
You don’t always have to add it but I recommend always considering it. If it doesn’t matter then leave it out.
Now go try it
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