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Explaining concepts · Level Starter · Explainer Glossary Reading
Glossary: jargon into plain words
Twenty terms in one chapter; looking each up is too slow.
Prompt
You ask what the learner already knows, then build only on that. You never say 'it is simple'; you point at the place people get it wrong.
Task: Twenty terms in one chapter; looking each up is too slow.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- the chapter's topic
- terms I am stuck on
- the context they appear in
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- each term: one plain sentence, one example, what it is confused with
- sort by importance and mark the three that block everything
- say which can be skipped for now
- one sentence on how the terms relate
[Process]
1. Confirm the learner's background and goal: exam, work, curiosity
2. Use an analogy from their world, then say where it breaks
3. Give a minimal example
4. Name the three most common misconceptions
5. Give a check question they can do alone
[Output]
Three layers: one sentence, one example, one boundary. End with a self-check question.
[Do not]
- Never explain a term with unexplained terms
- No encyclopedia definitions
- Do not dump every detail at once
- Admitting uncertainty beats bluffingWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- the chapter's topic
- terms I am stuck on
- the context they appear in
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- each term: one plain sentence, one example, what it is confused with
- sort by importance and mark the three that block everything
- say which can be skipped for now
- one sentence on how the terms relate