# The Preamble Fill-In Sheet (Chapter 4)

**Use when:** you are about to ask for a draft of any document that matters. Write this first. The preamble is not a warm-up. It is the prompt, and the draft is its output.

## The three-part preamble

```
Audience: [ONE LINE ABOUT WHO ACTUALLY READS THIS. Not "stakeholders."
"A procurement panel that has read forty of these this month."
"A manager skimming between meetings."]

Outcome: [WHAT YOU WANT TO BE TRUE AFTER THEY FINISH READING. Not "a good
proposal." "They can approve the budget in the room without follow-up
questions." "They know what to do Monday."]

Constraints: [WHAT MUST AND MUST NOT BE TRUE. Length, tone, format,
must-includes, must-avoids. "Under 200 words." "No invented statistics."
"Mirror the section order of the RFP."]
```

Then, and only then, the draft: "Given this preamble, draft the document. [THE DRAFT REQUEST]."

## Filled example, from the worked case

- Audience: a parks committee that has read twelve of these this month.
- Outcome: a recommendation to award, without a second round of questions.
- Constraints: three pages, the RFP's section order, and every number traceable to the project log.

Watch how the preamble carries the draft: the page limit was a constraint before a word existed, so the verify pass checks a promise instead of discovering a problem.

## Why the preamble is the prompt

The model has no reader, no outcome, and no constraints, so a generic ask makes it invent neutral ones. Naming all three before you type the draft request changes every choice after it: length, vocabulary, what needs explaining, what can be assumed. When you cannot name the reader, name the person whose question this document answers. If you cannot state the outcome, the document does not need to exist yet, and discovering that costs you nothing. Constraints are where compliance lives.