Put the Instruction Before the Data

A prompt-structuring habit where you state the instruction first, then paste the long data — the document, code, or transcript — clearly separated below it, rather than burying the ask at the end of a wall of text.

When the data comes first and the instruction last, Claude reads a long block with no idea what it's looking for, then discovers the task. Leading with the instruction tells it what to attend to as it reads, and a clear delimiter (a heading, triple backticks, XML-style tags) stops the data and the instruction from blurring together. It's a small ordering change that measurably improves adherence on long inputs.

Any prompt with a substantial block of pasted content — summarise this, extract from this, review this. The longer the input, the more the ordering helps.

Short prompts where there's no real 'data' block to separate. Structuring a one-liner is pointless overhead.

<Your instruction, stated fully and first.>

Here is the <document / code / transcript> to work on:
"""
<paste the long content between clear delimiters>
"""

Apply the instruction above to the content between the quotes only.

Instead of pasting a 5-page contract and then typing 'find the termination clauses', you write the instruction first, then the contract inside triple quotes. Claude reads the whole contract already knowing to watch for termination language, and the extraction is sharper.

For prompts with several parts — instruction, data, examples, constraints — give each its own labelled section with delimiters. Explicit sections let you paste huge inputs without Claude losing track of which part is the task and which is the material.

• Sandwiching the instruction in the middle of the data, where it's easiest to overlook.
• Using no delimiter, so a document that itself contains instruction-like sentences gets confused with your actual ask.
• Repeating the instruction three times instead of stating it once, clearly, at the top.