Search results

Prompt engineering series: Gathering source input

by Tom Johnson on Mar 20, 2024
categories: ai

A powerful way to reduce hallucination with AI tools is to supply an abundance of source material for the AI to draw upon. This article explores best practices for gathering and organizing that source material. I argue that you should be selective in what you include, preferring quality over quantity. Organize basic information first, then more advanced details. Include the reference output and any meeting notes.

Read the article here: Gathering source material for input.

Sponsored

About Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson

I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, agent skills, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my AI courses for more on the latest in AI and tech comm. If you're looking for info about documenting APIs, see my API documentation course.

If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in tech comm, be sure to subscribe to email updates below. You can also learn more about me or contact me.

Finally, I want to note a couple of things. I usually write the first drafts of my posts myself and then use AI to improve accuracy, clarity, and detail in places, so my writing is a mix of human and AI. (Hopefully that's not too off-putting.) Also, the opinions I express on my blog are my own perspectives, not those of my employer.

© 2026 Tom Johnson