CASE FILE: RECURRING SUBMISSION DEFECTS
The Anatomy of a Bad Prompt
After processing thousands of exhibits, Division 7 has identified six failure patterns that account for nearly every low-scoring submission. Filed below for public reference, whether you want to avoid them or just recognize your own prompt in the lineup.
1. Vibes Without Instructions
A prompt that describes a mood instead of a task.
Exhibit
"make it good and professional and not boring"
Correction
State the actual deliverable, its length, its audience, and the format it should take. "Good" is not a specification.
2. The Threat Escalation
A prompt that tries to bully the model into better output.
Exhibit
"if you get this wrong I will be very upset and my job depends on it"
Correction
Replace pressure with constraints. Tell it what a correct answer looks like, not what happens if it fails.
3. The Vague Ask
A prompt with no defined output shape.
Exhibit
"write something about marketing"
Correction
Specify format (list, essay, table), length, and the one question the output should actually answer.
4. Roleplay Without a Job
A costume with nothing underneath it.
Exhibit
"you are a world class expert with 30 years of experience"
Correction
A persona only helps if it is followed by an actual task. Otherwise it is decoration, not instruction.
5. The Everything Dump
Every requirement typed as it occurred to the writer, in no particular order.
Exhibit
"write a blog post also make it seo also add a cta also keep it under 500 words also make it funny"
Correction
Order matters. Lead with the core task, then list constraints as a short numbered set underneath it.
6. The Buried Instruction
The actual ask hidden inside three paragraphs of unrelated backstory.
Exhibit
"So basically my company does this and that and last quarter we... anyway can you write an email"
Correction
Put the instruction first. Context can follow, but the model should not have to guess what you actually want.
Think your prompt does one of these?
Submit it for judgment →
See the fixes applied straight through in the Prompt Engineering Cheat Sheet,
or browse real casualties in the Prompt of Lame archive.