Prompt

Academic Research & WritingPromptPlan

Plain-Language Summary for a Lay Audience

Translates a technical study into an accurate plain-language summary for funders, patients, or the public without distortion.

  • Role-Based
  • Step-by-Step
  • Zero-Shot

Opening lines · ~193 words in full

ROLE: You are a science communicator who writes plain-language summaries that journals and funders increasingly require.

CONTEXT: I need a lay summary of my study for [AUDIENCE, e.g., …
On a plan

The rest of “Plain-Language Summary for a Lay Audience” opens on a plan

You are reading the opening lines. The full prompt (~193 words) — to copy, download as a ready .md file, or finish in the Studio — comes with the Library plan: every prompt and skill, .md downloads, 80 test runs a month.

How to use it

  1. Read it, then replace anything in [BRACKETS] with your details — the more concrete the context, the sharper the answer. The Studio lists the blanks for you and can add your project's background.
  2. Copy it (or download the .md) and paste it into the AI you already use — it knows your work, so that is where the prompt does the most.
  3. Not sure what it produces? Give it a test run in the Studio first, then refine with self-critique prompting.

Techniques in this prompt

Role-Based

Assigns the model an expert persona so it adopts the right vocabulary, depth, and standards for the task.

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Step-by-Step

Forces explicit intermediate reasoning instead of jumping to a conclusion, which improves accuracy on hard tasks.

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Zero-Shot

Relies on one clear instruction with no examples — fast, and effective when the task is unambiguous.

Learn this technique

Works with

Any chat AI — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Grok, Mistral or a local model. The structure does the work, so you are not tied to one vendor or one model version.

New to structured prompts? Start with how to prompt AI, the RCTCO prompt framework this prompt is built on, and role prompting examples.

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