PAPER making! FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL ® FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TEC Volume 12, Number 1, 2026
Writing effective prompts for Copilot for Microsoft 365
Copilot for Microsoft 365 offers a new way for you to work with everyday productivity tools such as Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. However, the artificial intelligence (AI) assistant still needs a little guidance – after all, it’s a co-pilot, not an autopilot. In this blog, you’ll learn about writing effective Copilot prompts that
get you a better response first time around. What makes a good Copilot prompt?
Writing a prompt for an AI assistant isn’t quite as simple as asking your coworker across the desk for help. You need to ensure your prompt has all the required information and instructions for Copilot to take steer of your task. Good prompting helps Copilot understand your request better and provide more accurate and relevant responses. Not to mention that getting your prompt right will save you the time and effort of repeating or rephrasing your request. You can ensure your prompt contains all the required instructions for Copilot by following a simple formula: include your goal, some context, information source and your expectations. We’ll call this formula the GCSE method. These four elements make it simple and effective to create prompts that give you an effective response. Goal What do you want Copilot to do for you? This could be summarising a document, creating a presentation, writing an email or answering a question. Context Why do you need Copilot to do this? Provide details about the purpose, audience or situation of your task – this might be preparing for a meeting, writing for a specific audience or looking for specific information. Source Where do you want Copilot to get the information from? Give Copilot a place to look, whether that is a document, website, an email or chat – or anything else Copilot can access. You can use quoted text within your prompt, instructing Copilot to “use this text as the source” or direct it to a website URL. Expectations How do you want Copilot to present the information? This gives you the chance to get specific about the format, length, style, tone or level of detail you want from the response. For example, do you want it to be in bullet points, paragraphs, tables, or slides? Do you want it to be concise or comprehensive? Do you want it to be formal or informal? Do you want it to include technical terms or simple language? These four elements can take your prompt to the next level by helping Copilot understand what you need to generate a better output. The GCSE method also works well to refine prompts – you can add, remove or change any part to get a different result. You can change the goal from summarising to creating, or the context from training to sales, or the source from a document to a website, or the expectation from bullet points to paragraphs. Using the GCSE method to write Copilot prompts Copilot for Microsoft 365 is embedded in the entire suite of Microsoft 365 apps – meaning you can use prompts in the programmes you know and use every day in your work. If you have a Copilot for Microsoft 365 licence, take a look at how you can use the GCSE method in your prompts in some of the scenarios below – and maybe how you can modify them to suit your own needs.
Article 11 – Microsoft Copilot
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