Options A and B are correct because Claude needs a clear task and the context required to perform that task appropriately. The prompt should state the requested action using direct language—for example, summarize, compare, classify, draft, calculate, or recommend. It should then provide relevant information such as the intended audience, business objective, authoritative sources, constraints, success criteria, and required output format.
Anthropic’s prompting guidance emphasizes clarity, specificity, contextual grounding, and explicit formatting instructions. Audience and purpose are particularly important in business tasks because the same underlying information may need very different treatment for executives, customers, technical teams, or regulators.
Option C can be useful when an approachable tone is genuinely required, but it is not an essential element of every structured business prompt. Tone should be selected according to the task rather than added automatically. Option D introduces excessive and potentially irrelevant information; only products or services relevant to the task should be included. Option E similarly adds noise unless the anecdote supplies necessary factual context or illustrates the desired output.
Therefore, a clear task statement and relevant goal-and-audience context form the indispensable foundation. See Anthropic’s prompting best practices .
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