“Don’t sound corporate” tells the model what you dislike, not what you want. Describe the target instead, and the output lands closer on the first try.
Don’t use bullet points. Don’t sound corporate. Don’t be too long.
Write it as two short paragraphs of plain, spoken English — the way a creative director would explain the idea to a client across the table.
The prompt
Copy-ready prompt
Write [CONTENT] for [AUDIENCE]. How it should read: [DESCRIBE THE TARGET STYLE IN POSITIVE TERMS — e.g. two short paragraphs of plain spoken language, like explaining the idea across a table]. Length: [EXACT LENGTH]. Format: [e.g. flowing prose / a numbered list of 5 / a table with columns X, Y].
Why it works
Anthropic’s guide lists “tell Claude what to do instead of what not to do” as the first way to steer formatting — for example, instead of “Do not use markdown”, ask for “smoothly flowing prose paragraphs”. It also notes that the style of your prompt tends to shape the style of the answer.
Use it for
Rewriting any list of “don’ts” in a brief. For each one, ask yourself: what do I want instead? Write that.
Sources
- Anthropic — Claude prompting best practices — platform.claude.com (accessed 28 Sep 2026)
More tricks and templates in the Prompt Lab. Want this applied to your brand’s brief? Start a project.