CLEAR Framework: Conversational Language with Emphasis on Adaptable Results
A flexible framework for crafting conversational prompts that adapt to different audiences while maintaining clarity and relevance
Framework Structure
The key components of the CLEAR Framework framework
- Context
- What is the situation or background information?
- Language
- What tone, style, or specific terminology should be used?
- Examples
- What references or samples should guide the output?
- Audience
- Who is the intended recipient of this content?
- Request
- What specific content do you want created?
Core Example Prompt
A practical template following the CLEAR Framework structure
I need to explain quantum computing to my high school students. Please use simple language with relatable analogies. Include examples like comparing qubits to coins that can be both heads and tails simultaneously. The audience is 16-17 year olds with basic physics knowledge. Create a 5-minute introductory script that will get them excited about quantum concepts.Usage Tips
Best practices for applying the CLEAR Framework framework
- ✓Start with enough context to ground the AI in the right situation
- ✓Be specific about language requirements including tone, style, and vocabulary level
- ✓Provide meaningful examples that demonstrate your expectations
- ✓Clearly identify your audience's knowledge level and needs
- ✓Make your request specific and actionable
Detailed Breakdown
In-depth explanation of the framework components
C.L.E.A.R. Framework
The C.L.E.A.R. framework—Context, Language, Examples, Audience, Request—provides a structured approach for crafting conversational prompts that produce highly adaptable results by focusing on the background situation, preferred communication style, reference examples, target recipients, and specific deliverables.
Introduction
The C.L.E.A.R. Framework—Context, Language, Examples, Audience, Request—is a flexible approach to prompt engineering designed for crafting conversational prompts that lead to naturally adaptable outputs. This framework excels at creating content that feels human, relatable, and precisely tailored to specific audiences and situations.
Unlike frameworks that emphasize rigid structure or technical specifications, C.L.E.A.R. focuses on the communicative aspects of prompt engineering. It ensures that AI-generated content feels appropriate for the situation, uses the right tone and terminology, follows relevant examples, addresses the intended audience effectively, and delivers exactly what was requested.
The C.L.E.A.R. framework produces outputs that are:
- Contextually Relevant – Firmly grounded in the appropriate situation
- Linguistically Appropriate – Using the right tone, style, and terminology
- Example-Guided – Informed by relevant references and patterns
- Audience-Centered – Tailored to the needs and understanding of recipients
- Request-Focused – Delivering precisely on the specific ask
- Natural, conversational outputs are required
- Tone and language style are critical to success
- Content needs to emulate specific examples or patterns
- The audience has particular needs or knowledge levels
- Clear deliverables with specific characteristics are needed
- Educational content for specific learning levels
- Customer communications across various touchpoints
- Professional content that requires a particular voice
- Technical explanations for non-technical audiences
- Marketing messages that need to strike the right tone
Framework Structure
The C.L.E.A.R. framework consists of five components that guide the development of effective, conversational prompts:
Context
Establish the situation and background information that grounds the prompt in the right environment. The Context component answers:
- What is the situation where this content will be used?
- What relevant background should the AI know?
- What constraints or opportunities exist in this context?
- What prompted the need for this content?
"I'm teaching an introductory computer science elective at Lincoln High School. We've covered classical computing fundamentals for the first semester, and I want to introduce emerging technologies for our final unit. The students have expressed curiosity about quantum computing after seeing it mentioned in a recent Marvel movie."
Language
Specify the communication style, including tone, vocabulary level, and terminology preferences. The Language component answers:
- What tone and style should the content use?
- What vocabulary level is appropriate?
- Are there specific terms to use or avoid?
- How formal or casual should the content be?
"Please use approachable, conversational language that avoids unnecessary jargon. When technical terms are needed, define them clearly. Use humor where appropriate and incorporate metaphors that relate to teenage experiences (social media, sports, video games, etc.). Strike a balance between scientific accuracy and accessibility."
Examples
Provide references, samples, or patterns that should guide the output. The Examples component answers:
- What existing content can serve as a model?
- How can complex concepts be illustrated?
- What analogies or metaphors would be effective?
- What patterns should the AI follow?
"- Explain superposition like being able to select multiple dialogue options in a video game simultaneously rather than just one path
- Compare quantum entanglement to twins who always know what the other is thinking, no matter the distance
- Describe quantum interference like sound waves that can amplify or cancel each other out
- Present qubits as coins that can be spinning (both heads and tails) rather than just showing one side"
Audience
Define who will receive or benefit from the content. The Audience component answers:
- Who is the primary audience for this content?
- What is their knowledge level on the subject?
- What are their interests, needs, or pain points?
- What assumptions can be made about their background?
"High school juniors and seniors (16-18 years old) with basic understanding of classical computing concepts. They've learned about binary, logic gates, and simple algorithms. Most are taking concurrent physics classes at the standard level, not AP. They are curious but get easily intimidated by dense mathematical content."
Request
Clearly state what you want the AI to create or provide. The Request component answers:
- What specific content do you need created?
- What format should the deliverable take?
- What elements must be included?
- How should success be measured?
"Create a 5-minute introductory script that I can use to kick off our quantum computing unit. The script should:
- Begin with an attention-grabbing hook that connects to their interests
- Explain 3 key quantum computing concepts (superposition, entanglement, quantum interference)
- Highlight 2-3 potential real-world applications they might experience in their lifetime
- End with a thought-provoking question that will lead into our class discussion
- Include 1-2 points where I should pause for comprehension checks"
Example Prompts
Basic Prompt Structure
Education Example
Customer Support Example
Best Use Cases
The C.L.E.A.R. framework excels in situations where:
Educational Content
The framework shines when creating educational materials that need to match specific learning levels and teaching contexts. By clearly defining the audience's knowledge level and providing examples of how to explain complex concepts, educators can generate content that meets students exactly where they are.
Example Prompt:Customer Communications
When tone and relationship-building are crucial, C.L.E.A.R. helps create customer-facing content that feels appropriate for specific audiences and situations. By specifying exactly how language should be used and providing examples of preferred communication styles, organizations can maintain consistent voice across touchpoints.
Example Prompt:Technical Explanations
The C.L.E.A.R. framework excels at making complex technical information accessible to specific audiences. By focusing on language requirements and audience knowledge levels, technical experts can generate explanations that inform without overwhelming.
Example Prompt:Marketing Messages
When the right tone and voice are essential for brand consistency, C.L.E.A.R. helps create marketing content that feels authentic and resonates with target audiences. By providing examples and specifying language requirements, marketers can generate on-brand content efficiently.
Example Prompt:Conclusion
The C.L.E.A.R. framework provides a structured yet flexible approach to generating content that feels natural, appropriate, and effective for specific communication contexts. By systematically addressing the contextual background, language requirements, guiding examples, audience characteristics, and specific requests, prompts created with this framework produce outputs that are precisely tailored to their intended use.
What sets C.L.E.A.R. apart from other frameworks is its focus on the communicative aspects of content creation. Rather than emphasizing technical specifications or rigid structures, C.L.E.A.R. creates a foundation for naturally adaptive content that feels human and appropriate for its context.
The framework is intentionally versatile, applicable across a wide range of content creation needs from educational materials to customer communications to marketing messages. Its strength lies in its ability to generate outputs that don't feel AI-generated but rather seem as though they were crafted by a human communicator with a deep understanding of the audience and context.
By implementing the C.L.E.A.R. framework in your prompt engineering practice, you can transform vague requests into clearly defined communication briefs that produce consistently effective results. The framework ensures that no critical aspect of effective communication is overlooked, leading to outputs that accomplish their communication goals while feeling natural and appropriate for their intended context and audience.
Framework in Action: Examples
See how CLEAR Framework transforms basic prompts into powerful instructions
Before & After Examples
See how this framework transforms basic prompts into powerful instructions for AI
Explain quantum computing to students.
Explain quantum computing to students.
Response Comparison
Quantum computing is a type of computing that uses quantum mechanics to process information. Unlike classical computers that use bits (0s and 1s), quantum computers use qubits which can exist in multiple states simultaneously due to superposition. Quantum computers can solve certain problems much faster than classical computers. They work through processes like entanglement and quantum interference. These computers are still being developed but show promising applications in cryptography, drug discovery, and optimization problems. The field is complex but represents the future of computing technology, potentially revolutionizing how we approach computational problems across many fields.
# Introduction to Quantum Computing: Computing's Wild Frontier [ATTENTION GRABBER] Imagine if you could be in two places at once - both sitting here in class AND at home playing your favorite video game. Sounds like a superpower from that quantum realm scene in the last Avengers movie, right? Well, that mind-bending concept isn't just science fiction - it's the foundation of quantum computing, possibly the most revolutionary technology you'll see in your lifetime. Today, we're going to peek behind the curtain of this strange quantum world, where the rules of normal reality don't apply, and computers can potentially solve problems in seconds that would take our fastest supercomputers thousands of years. [CONCEPT 1: SUPERPOSITION] Remember when we learned about bits - those 0s and 1s that make up everything in classical computing? Well, quantum computing uses something called "qubits" instead. Think about your favorite choice-based video game. In a classical system, when you reach a decision point, you choose path A OR path B, and the story follows just that one route. But imagine if you could explore BOTH paths simultaneously - experiencing all possible storylines at once. That's essentially what a qubit can do through something called superposition. It's like having a coin that's not just heads or tails, but spinning so fast it's effectively both at the same time - until you measure it or look at it. This isn't just twice as powerful as a normal bit - with each qubit you add, you DOUBLE the potential processing pathways. That's why just a few hundred qubits could theoretically have more processing configurations than there are atoms in the universe. [PAUSE FOR COMPREHENSION CHECK] Before I continue - does the concept of superposition make sense? Can someone explain back to me why qubits are different from regular bits? [CONCEPT 2: ENTANGLEMENT] Now here's where it gets even weirder. Imagine you and your best friend suddenly developed a supernatural connection where whatever happens to one of you instantly affects the other, no matter how far apart you are - across school, across town, or across the galaxy. That's quantum entanglement - when qubits become connected in such a way that the state of one instantly influences the state of another, regardless of distance. Einstein called this "spooky action at a distance" because it seemed to break the laws of physics as we understood them. It's like having telepathic twins in your computer - when one makes a decision, the other automatically knows and responds, with zero communication delay. This gives quantum computers an incredible ability to work on multiple parts of complex problems simultaneously. [CONCEPT 3: QUANTUM INTERFERENCE] The last concept is quantum interference. You know how sound waves can either amplify each other when they line up, or cancel each other out when they clash? Quantum computers can manipulate qubits so that incorrect solutions cancel out and correct solutions amplify. It's similar to how noise-canceling headphones work - they detect unwanted sound waves and generate opposite waves to cancel them out, leaving just what you want to hear. Quantum algorithms can be designed to cancel out wrong answers and enhance right ones, guiding the computer toward the correct solution. [REAL-WORLD APPLICATIONS] So why should you care about this quantum weirdness? Here are three ways quantum computing might directly impact your lives: 1. Unbreakable Security: Most of our current internet security would be easily cracked by quantum computers. But quantum cryptography is developing new security methods that would be truly unbreakable - imagine never having to worry about your digital identity being stolen again. 2. Personalized Medicine: Quantum computers could model molecular interactions so precisely that doctors could create medications specifically designed for YOUR exact genetic makeup and conditions - reducing side effects and maximizing effectiveness. 3. Climate Solutions: Some of the most complex problems in fighting climate change involve optimizing enormously complex systems. Quantum computers could revolutionize everything from battery chemistry to carbon capture, potentially helping solve our climate crisis. [THOUGHT-PROVOKING CONCLUSION] As we wrap up today, I want to leave you with this question to discuss: If quantum computers can potentially process information in ways that seem to defy our understanding of physical reality, what does this suggest about the nature of information itself? Is information physical, or is it something more fundamental to our universe? [PAUSE FOR DISCUSSION] Take a moment to discuss with a partner before we open this up to the whole class.
Key Improvements with the Framework
Professional Structure
Clear organization with logical sections
Targeted Focus
Precisely aligned with specific outcomes
Enhanced Clarity
Clear intent and specific requirements
Actionable Output
Concrete recommendations and detailed analysis