What is style matching in an AI prompt?
Quick answer
Style matching means giving an AI a few real examples of your writing and asking it to write the next piece in the same voice. The key is to tell it to copy your style, not the facts, names or promises inside the examples.
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Updated · By Robert Breen
Why it matters for a small business
Describing your voice in words is hard. "Friendly but professional" fits a thousand businesses. Showing three real replies works better, because the AI sees your sentence length, greetings, sign-off and how you handle bad news.
The risk is that the AI copies details from the examples into the new piece. A line like "Copy my style, not the facts" prevents that. Always read the result for borrowed names, reasons or promises before you send.
In a real lesson: Give Examples: Few-Shot Prompts That Copy Your Style
In Give Examples: Few-Shot Prompts, Marcus, who owns Riverbend Bike Shop (made up), asks ChatGPT for a reply to a five-star review and gets a generic answer that talks about Marcus instead of as him.
He tries again with this ask: I own Riverbend Bike Shop and I answer every Google review myself. Write my reply to a new review, in my style. Here are examples of my style: followed by three of his real replies, each separated by ### lines, then the new review.
For a harder two-star review, he adds: Copy my style, not the facts: don't reuse names, reasons or promises from the examples. Only use what's in this review. The reply is an honest apology in his voice with nothing borrowed.
Try this lesson free or read the step-by-step guide.
Common confusions
Style matching vs brand voice
Brand voice is a written description of how a company sounds. Style matching shows the AI real samples instead.
Style matching vs few-shot prompting
Few-shot prompting is the general technique of including examples. Style matching is one use of it, aimed at voice.
Tips
- Use three real examples, not made-up ones.
- Separate examples with ### lines so the AI sees where each starts and ends, as in delimiters.
- Add the guard line, then check for borrowed facts.
Related terms
More Prompting terms
Where you use it: free lessons
- Give Examples: Few-Shot Prompts That Copy Your Style (ChatGPT, 6 min)
- ChatGPT Projects: Keep Your Brand Voice, Files and Instructions in One Place (ChatGPT, 9 min)
Frequently asked questions
- How do I make ChatGPT write in my style?
- Paste three of your real past pieces as examples, ask for a new one in your style, and add "Copy my style, not the facts."
- How many examples do I need?
- Three is a good start. They should be real and a little different from one another.
- Why does AI copy details from my examples?
- It treats everything in the examples as a pattern. Tell it to use only the facts in the new request.