Lesson 8: Structure and format — asking for output that's easy to read and use
A correct answer that arrives as one long paragraph is hard to scan and nearly impossible to drop into a doc, an email, or a screen. In this lesson we'll learn to ask for the output shape exactly as we want it: bullets, a numbered list, a table, sections with headings, or fields named and ordered. W
Ask 'tell me about the product' and you'll get a paragraph. Ask for 'a table with three columns: name, price, benefit' and you'll get exactly the shape you can copy straight out and work with.
- output structure
- How the answer is arranged — bullets, a numbered list, a table, or sections with headings — so it can be scanned quickly.
- format
- The concrete shape we asked the output to take, e.g. a table instead of a paragraph, so the answer looks the same every time.
- named fields
- A list of parts fixed by name and order ('return: title, 3 bullets, a CTA line'), so a human or a program can locate each part easily.
- structured output
- Output in a fixed shape a machine (not just a human) can read — e.g. JSON with named fields. That's how a developer asks for output so a program can pull out each field. Here we only ask for it in wording — no code.
