Trimming Wordy Prompts

This worksheet is designed for students in Grades 5-7 to strengthen concise writing, editing, and critical thinking by learning how to trim long-winded prompts into clear, focused questions. Students analyze verbose examples and rewrite each one in 20 words or fewer, preserving the core meaning while removing unnecessary language. The activity emphasizes clarity, readability, and purpose-key skills for academic writing and effective AI prompt design.

Learning Goals

• Concise & Clear Writing (Grades 5-7) – Edit sentences to express ideas efficiently without losing meaning.
• Summarizing Key Ideas – Identify the essential message within a longer passage.
• Critical Thinking & Editing – Decide what information is necessary versus redundant.
• Effective Prompt Design – Apply brevity to improve the quality and usefulness of prompts.

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource – Designed by educators to align with middle-grade ELA and technology standards.
• Word-Limit Challenge – The 20-word cap encourages thoughtful revision and precision.
• Before-and-After Practice – Makes improvements in clarity easy to see.
• Flexible Use – Ideal for writing workshops, digital literacy lessons, independent practice, or homework.

This printable worksheet helps students learn that strong communication doesn’t require more words-just better ones. By trimming wordy prompts into concise versions, learners strengthen editing skills, summarization, and clarity of expression. Suitable for classroom or homeschool use, this no-prep activity builds confidence in precise writing while reinforcing how brevity improves understanding in both academic tasks and AI interactions.

This worksheet is part of our Fixing Bad AI Prompts collection.