Politeness adds tokens. Structure adds signal. Here's the difference.
Annotated prompt example
Hi, hope you're doing well! I'm a marketing ops manager building a post-campaign summary for our VP of Revenue. Our last campaign targeted mid-market SaaS companies, ran across email and LinkedIn, and generated 340 MQLs against a 300 target. Keep the summary under 150 words, no jargon, no bullet points. The output should pass the "so what" test — every sentence should connect performance to business impact. Write the executive summary.
Context
Who you are, what the work is for, relevant background the model needs to calibrate its output.
Constraints
Format, length, tone, scope. What the output should not include is as important as what it should.
Acceptance Criteria
The definition of done. If you can't articulate what good looks like, the model can't approximate it.
Task
The actual instruction. Clear, direct, unambiguous. One sentence is usually enough once the rest is in place.
Noise
Pleasantries, filler, conversational habit carried over from human communication. Adds tokens. Contributes nothing to output quality.
Signal — context + constraints + criteria + task82%