Show, don't tell.
One or two good examples teach tone, length and format faster than a paragraph of instructions.
No examples
Zero-Shot
Just the instruction. Fine for common tasks with an obvious shape.
USE WHEN
Quick questions and rewrites.
One example
One-Shot
Shows the style and format you want. Big jump in consistency.
USE WHEN
Emails, summaries, posts in your voice.
Two to five examples
Few-Shot
Teaches a pattern, including the tricky edge cases.
USE WHEN
Sorting, labelling, anything repeated at volume.
Vary them
The Knack
Examples that all look alike get copied, not learned from.
USE WHEN
Mix lengths, topics and one awkward case.
Source: Anthropic ↗
Show it good. Say what to copy.