From Instruction to Output: The Role of Prompting in Modern NLG

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zaib, Munazza, Alhazmi, Elaf
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Zaib, Munazza
Alhazmi, Elaf
author_facet Zaib, Munazza
Alhazmi, Elaf
contents Prompt engineering has emerged as an integral technique for extending the strengths and abilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) to gain significant performance gains in various Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. This approach, which requires instructions to be composed in natural language to bring out the knowledge from LLMs in a structured way, has driven breakthroughs in various NLP tasks. Yet there is still no structured framework or coherent understanding of the varied prompt engineering methods and techniques, particularly in the field of Natural Language Generation (NLG). This survey aims to help fill that gap by outlining recent developments in prompt engineering, and their effect on different NLG tasks. It reviews recent advances in prompting methods and their impact on NLG tasks, presenting prompt design as an input-level control mechanism that complements fine-tuning and decoding approaches. The paper introduces a taxonomy of prompting paradigms, a decision framework for prompt selection based on varying factors for the practitioners, outlines emerging trends and challenges, and proposes a framework that links design, optimization, and evaluation to support more controllable and generalizable NLG.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_11179
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle From Instruction to Output: The Role of Prompting in Modern NLG
Zaib, Munazza
Alhazmi, Elaf
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Prompt engineering has emerged as an integral technique for extending the strengths and abilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) to gain significant performance gains in various Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. This approach, which requires instructions to be composed in natural language to bring out the knowledge from LLMs in a structured way, has driven breakthroughs in various NLP tasks. Yet there is still no structured framework or coherent understanding of the varied prompt engineering methods and techniques, particularly in the field of Natural Language Generation (NLG). This survey aims to help fill that gap by outlining recent developments in prompt engineering, and their effect on different NLG tasks. It reviews recent advances in prompting methods and their impact on NLG tasks, presenting prompt design as an input-level control mechanism that complements fine-tuning and decoding approaches. The paper introduces a taxonomy of prompting paradigms, a decision framework for prompt selection based on varying factors for the practitioners, outlines emerging trends and challenges, and proposes a framework that links design, optimization, and evaluation to support more controllable and generalizable NLG.
title From Instruction to Output: The Role of Prompting in Modern NLG
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.11179