When using AI for your research, it is only as useful as the questions you ask and how you interact with it. To generate accurate, detailed, and relevant responses, be clear and direct with your initial question, evaluate AI’s response, and provide clarifications, context, and follow-up prompts.

  1. Ask: Pose your initial question or request.
  2. Evaluate: Read the response. What’s useful? What’s missing?
  3. Revise and Reask: Adjust your prompt. Add context, clarify the task, or set a new constraint.

When creating your initial ask, and when creating any follow-up prompts based on AI’s response, consider including COSTAR information:

  • Context (C): Provide background information (ex: “My research topic is on …”)
  • Objective (O): Clearly define the task (ex: “Generate a list of keywords...”)
  • Style (S): Specify the writing style (ex: “…in a persuasive style…”)
  • Tone (T): Set the mood (ex: “using a professional tone…”)
  • Audience (A): Identify your audience (ex: “The audience is someone new to academic research.”)
  • Response (R): Identify the format you want (ex: “Generate a table of pros and cons…”)

To see this in action, review the BASIC, BETTER, and BEST examples below:

Basic Prompt Example: “Tell me about school lunch programs in the US.”

Better Prompt Example: “Provide me with a summary of the pros and cons of US public school lunch programs.”

Best Prompt Example: “My research topic is on the school lunch program in the United States. Using a persuasive style, generate a table that provides the pros and cons of public-school lunch programs. Your audience is someone who has no prior knowledge of the school lunch program in the United States.”

Pro Tips for Prompting AI:

Be clear and specific. Think critically about what you want and how you want AI to think about the topic and provide a response. Type in more than just key terms.

For example, “Explain three strategies leaders use to build trust in remote teams, with one real-world example for each.”

Provide AI with the situation or audience. 

For example, if you want information on teaching and learning, tell AI the situation and the audience you are thinking of: “What strategies can online teachers use to better engage middle school students?” 

Engage in a back-and-forth conversation with AI, providing clarifications, more context, and follow-up questions. You can ask for examples, or ask AI to clarify a point, or ask situational questions.

For example, if you ask AI about emotional intelligence, you can then ask for examples within a situation: “Can you give me an example of emotional intelligence in a workplace conflict?”

Break up questions to get a more detailed response. Instead of asking “What is vaping and why is it so dangerous?” perform two separate searches.

For example, “What is the history of vaping?” first, and then “How does vaping impact health?” 

 Help AI avoid misinterpretations when searching topics that might be ambiguous. If you want information about Apple, specify that you want information about the company and not the fruit.

For example, “…Apple the company and not the fruit….”

Include how you want the response to be provided. Do you want a summary or a detailed explanation? Do you want a bulleted list? Do you want the response to be prioritized in some order?

For example, “Give me a detailed bulleted list of the 3 most misunderstood things about space travel.”

Consider stating what you want it to avoid.

  • For example, “Only provide information that was published between 2022-2026.”
  • For example, “Do not re-write my paper. Instead, provide suggestions on areas where I have and have not addressed the assignment prompt.”

Provide AI with the role you want it to take.

  • For example, “You are a career coach. Write a 2-paragraph explanation for a first-year college student about why time management matters.”
  • For example, “Answer this as if you were a hiring manager deciding between two candidates.”

Use AI to discover gaps in your thinking, challenge your thinking or assumptions, offer alternative arguments, better organize your ideas or your paper, and **discover sources. Also see Using AI as a Tutor or Paper Reviewer.

  • For example, “What might I be overlooking here?”
  • For example, “Explain step by step how you arrived at this answer.”
  • For example, “Play devil’s advocate. What are some weaknesses in this argument?”
  • For example, “Here’s my academic paper. Suggest ways I could better organize these ideas.”
  • For example, “What credible websites or organizations provide up-to-date statistics on global warming?"

**AI does not have access to all scholarly articles. Articles that require a subscription and are therefore not publicly available on the internet will not be included in the information generated by AI.  The university library holds subscriptions to these articles so you will still need to use the library for current, unbiased, and scholarly articles.  

**All sources and information generated by AI must be verified by you. There are times when generative AI provides a “source” that does not exist at all. You can only cite a source when you have located the information within that source yourself. And you should never cite AI as a research source.

A Note About Privacy

Avoid sharing information with any generative AI tool unless you're comfortable with the possibility that it could be incorporated into the model's understanding and used in subsequent interactions with other users.

Self-Check: Keeping a Human in the Loop

AI can generate ideas, structure information, and spark new directions but you are still the thinker and decision-maker. Before you use any output from AI, pause and consider:

Using AI responsibly means supporting your own critical thinking, not outsourcing it. The best results happen when you stay in charge, letting AI expand your perspective while you provide the judgment and integrity.

Your instructor may not allow the use of AI for coursework. It is your responsibility to follow any policies posted within your course.