Lesson 7: Role, persona, and tone

The exact same question can get a completely different answer depending on whom we asked to reply. When we give the model a role — "answer as a patient teacher", "you are a concise copy editor" — we set the voice, the depth, the focus, and the tone of the reply. In this lesson we practice choosing a

The same person explains the same thing differently if you ask them to speak "like a kids' teacher" or "like an accountant". A role in the prompt does exactly that to the model: it sets who is speaking, and that changes how and what.

role: Defining that the responder is a particular figure ('answer as a teacher', 'you are a copy editor'), steering the voice and focus.
persona: The full character the model takes on — who they are, what matters to them, and how they sound throughout the reply.
tone: The character of the wording in the reply: formal, friendly, concise, or enthusiastic — set explicitly so it fits the audience.