1. About This Document
This document contains guidance on getting the most out of ChatGPT for your day-to-day technical writing tasks. The information is based on experiential knowledge gained from the author’s use and testing of ChatGPT in the course of their work. It is not intended as an official user manual for ChatGPT nor as an authoritative reference on artificial intelligence theory. All information is current as of the date of publication.
| AI Tool and Version | OpenAI’s ChatGPT (GPT-4) |
| Date of Publication | January 2024 |
| Audience | Technical Writers |
| Author(s) | Caity Cronkhite |
2. General Principles
This document provides guidance on maximizing the benefits of ChatGPT in your day-to-day technical writing tasks. The information is based on experiential knowledge from our use and testing of ChatGPT.
All the information and prompts herein are based on GPT-4, ChatGPT’s most advanced large-language model as of the publication date of this book. For optimal results in your work, we recommend using the most current version of ChatGPT available to you for these prompts.
 Tip |
| You Get What You Pay For: GPT-3.5 vs. GPT-4 After some experimentation, technical writers might find the free version of ChatGPT (currently GPT-3.5) surprisingly incompetent, leading them to decide against continuing with it. Sometimes the old adage “you get what you pay for” rings true. Many users (ourselves included) have noted that the difference between the pay-for-use GPT-4 and the free GPT-3.5 is profound. If you’re serious about using ChatGPT as a tool, we recommend (if you can afford it) opting for GPT-4. |
| ⚠ Warning |
| • Never upload text, files, content, copyrighted information, user data, or proprietary information into ChatGPT without express written consent from your employer. • Always fact-check any content from ChatGPT for accuracy before publishing to ensure it does not violate any plagiarism or copyright laws. |
2.1. Input / Output
| Principle | Description |
| Input Limit | ChatGPT is limited to a certain amount of “tokens.” A token roughly equates to a word, but it can include parts of words, whole words, or punctuation. You can split your prompts into multiple prompts if your content exceeds this token limit. If you’re unsure how many tokens your version allows, check OpenAI’s website, as these limits change from time to time. |
| Output Limit | ChatGPT’s output limit is similarly constrained to a certain amount of tokens. As with the input limit, if you’re not sure what the limit is, ask ChatGPT. |
| Custom Instructions | Custom instructions allow you to define common rules, including voice, tone, and style guidelines for all content that ChatGPT produces. Custom instructions can help you reduce the number of tokens you need to use in your prompts and when you supply context to ChatGPT. |
| Context | Like a person, ChatGPT needs context to understand your requirements. The clearer your instructions are, the better its output will be. However, its input limit means you can’t feed it unlimited context, so plan your prompts and context accordingly. |
| Input formats | ChatGPT can read and decipher content from multiple file types, including (but not limited to) PDFs, images, code snippets, and transcripts. You can upload these types of documents to provide context for your prompts. |
2.2. Working Memory Limitations
| Hallucinating | Fact-check all content that ChatGPT produces before using it in your work or any public-facing materials. ChatGPT is notorious for making things up. Why Does It Make Stuff Up? ChatGPT isn’t intelligent in the sense that we are. From your input, ChatGPT uses math and probability to output whatever phrases it deems most plausible, drawing from the relationships in its vast training data sets. It doesn’t differentiate between plausible-sounding content that’s false and plausible-sounding content that’s true. |
| Remembering | ChatGPT seems to “remember” a certain amount of information from your current conversation. This is useful if you want to iterate on a concept or work on content to get it just right, such as by feeding it additional information and nudging it with additional prompts. However, ChatGPT currently doesn’t store or apply information from your other chat sessions, so it won’t remember anything you’ve already told it in separate threads. This may change with new releases. |
| Forgetting | If you provide additional input (e.g., multiple consecutive prompts) in a single chat, ChatGPT’s working memory can eventually become overloaded, leading to responses that are irrelevant to your original prompt. Fortunately, there are workarounds for this. Workaround 1—Summarizing Lengthy Input If your input is complex and has a high word count, ChatGPT can quickly become overloaded, even if you’re under the token limit. If you notice this happening (e.g., it starts to forget your original prompt), open a new chat session and ask ChatGPT to summarize your lengthy input. Then input the summarized version into your original chat session. Review the output carefully, as the summarizing process can prune away details critical to you. Workaround 2—Recycling the Same Prompt Instead of accumulating a long, ongoing input-prompt-and-output dialogue in the same chat session, update your original input and resubmit it using the same prompt. For example, if you’ve asked it to synthesize some content and now you’d like it to perform the same task multiple times, simply update your original input with the new content, using the same prompt. Click Save & Submit instead of entering a new dialogue into the chat window. |
| Summarizing | Because ChatGPT’s output is limited, it tends to summarize whatever you input to fit that limit. In short, the more text you input, the more heavily it will summarize your content. If you don’t want heavy summarization, feed it smaller chunks of text at a time and specify the details that you want to be retained. |
| Iterating and Nudging | Like working with a person, ChatGPT often won’t perfectly capture your intentions in a first draft. Don’t hesitate to nudge it with additional prompts to fine-tune its output. For example, you might say, “I like the tone you’ve used, but I need a little more detail,” or, “That’s great, can you summarize it a little more for me?” |
3. Setting Up ChatGPT with Custom Instructions
First, you need to tweak a few settings to ensure that ChatGPT produces content matching your audience’s needs and adheres to technical-writing industry standards and best practices. To increase our chances of success, we use ChatGPT’s custom instructions feature.
Custom instructions allow us to:
- Provide information about who we are, our role, and the kind of content we’re working on.
- Define the audiences we’re writing for.
- Include specific guidelines and instructions for the content ChatGPT produces, such as voice and tone, punctuation, or style guidelines.
Update your custom instructions in your ChatGPT account settings. We’ve included some examples below to guide you.
| Custom Instruction | Purpose | Example |
| What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses? | Tell ChatGPT about yourself, your technical writing role, the audiences you write content for, and the types of content you produce. | I am a developer relations technical writer who works for a large enterprise software company. I write API and how-to documentation, technical articles, and developer tutorials for software developers in the fintech industry. |
| How would you like ChatGPT to respond? | Include a list of all voice, tone, style, and linguistic guidelines that you want ChatGPT to consistently follow when it generates responses. | Write in the style of technical documentation.Apply the Microsoft Manual of Style to all writing. Apply the concept of minimalism to the writing. Write as little as possible, but as much as necessary. Use the Oxford comma and contractions. Write in active voice. Cite and provide links to external sources whenever possible. ChatGPT should remain neutral; never provide political opinions. |
| Check Understanding | Ask ChatGPT to summarize its knowledge of you after you update your custom instructions. This helps you determine if you’ve given ChatGPT sufficiently clear context to correctly understand your goals and use cases. | Please summarize what you know about me, my role, and my work in 500 words or less. |
4. Use Cases
4.1. Research and Plan Content
| Goal | Prompt | Example |
| Provide context | I’m working on [DOCUMENTATION TYPE] for [AUDIENCE] to help them do [TASK/GOAL]. | I’m writing API documentation for a new API that software developers will use to build credit card payment functionality into a website. |
| Gather information | What are the top [NUMBER] topics [AUDIENCE] need to know about [TOPIC] to be successful? | What are the top ten topics software developers need to know to be successful with building credit card payment functionality into a website? |
| Gather references and sources | List [NUMBER] sources, including URLs and their author names, that will help [AUDIENCE] learn about [TOPIC]. | List ten sources, including URLs and author names, that will help my audience learn about credit card processing and compliance. |
| Find similar documentation | Provide [NUMBER] links to documentation sites for [PRODUCT TYPE]. | Provide 5 links to documentation sites that offer product documentation for credit-card processing APIs. |
4.2. Outline and Structure Content
| Goal | Prompt | Example |
| Provide context | I’m working on some [DELIVERABLE TYPES] for [COMPANY NAME]. For context, I’ve included the following background information: [INCLUDE ATTACHMENTS, TEXT, AND OTHER RELEVANT MATERIALS] | I need to create user guides and manuals for drone pilots to learn about and use the Clockwork Dragonfly’s new fixed-wing drone for test flights. For context, here are some documents that describe the Clockwork Dragonfly, some diagrams of their drone prototype, and some marketing materials about use cases for this aircraft. |
| Draft an outline | Based on that information, help me create a [DELIVERABLE TYPE] outline for [AUDIENCE] that [DESCRIBES GOALS]. | Based on that information, help me create an outline for a hardware user guide that describes the important parts of the aircraft for drone pilots to be able to identify and repair parts of the aircraft successfully. |
| Create templates | Create a template for [DELIVERABLE TYPE] in [FORMAT TYPE] for [AUDIENCE] to [DESCRIBE GOALS]. | Help me create an API reference topic template in Markdown format to provide software developers with the details of API objects. |
4.3. Write Content
| Goal | Prompt | Example |
| Create code samples | Write a code sample in [PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE] that [DESCRIBE GOALS]. | Write a code sample in SQL that queries a database and flags duplicated entries. |
| Draft content from a product demo transcript | Take a look at the attached transcript and create an outline for [DELIVERABLE TYPE] that [DESCRIBE GOALS]. | Take a look at the attached demo transcript. Create an outline and a draft for an end-user guide that guides IT administrators through the steps to set up new accounts. |
| Draft concept topics | Draft a concept topic about [TOPIC] that describes [PURPOSE OR GOALS]. | Draft a concept topic that’s less than 300 words about two-factor authentication best practices for enterprise applications. |
4.4. Edit and Format Content
| Goal | Prompt | Example |
| Apply style guides | Apply [STYLE GUIDE NAME] style to the following content. [INCLUDE ATTACHMENTS, TEXT, AND OTHER RELEVANT MATERIALS] | Apply the Chicago Manual of Style and Microsoft Manual of Style guidelines to the following content. |
| Summarize and streamline content | Review the following content, apply minimalism, and condense it to [NUMBER] words or fewer. [INCLUDE ATTACHMENTS, TEXT, AND OTHER RELEVANT MATERIALS] | Review the following blog post, apply minimalism, and condense it to 500 words or fewer. |
| Provide developmental editing feedback | Review the following content for a developmental edit. Provide feedback on the content overall, ideas for improvements, content gaps, and points of view I might not have considered. [INCLUDE ATTACHMENTS, TEXT, AND OTHER RELEVANT MATERIALS] | Review the following whitepaper and provide developmental editing comments. Provide feedback on the content overall, ideas for improvements, content gaps, and points of view I might not have considered. |
| Convert content to a specific format | Convert the following content into [FORMAT NAME] format. [INCLUDE ATTACHMENTS, TEXT, AND OTHER RELEVANT MATERIALS] | Divide the content in this PDF into concept, task, and reference topics, then convert them to Markdown format. |
