Prompts for the text summarizer

A text summariser is only useful when you say what to keep, and every card here does. Pick the job, see on the example what comes back, then send the prompt to the tool with your own text right after it and edit it to taste.

Studies and research

Reading you have to remember on Friday. Summarise an article down to its argument, turn a two-hour lecture into revision notes, write an abstract for a research paper, or pull out the terms and nothing else.

Lecture into notes

Ninety minutes of transcript, and you need notes before the seminar.

Prompt

Compress this text into study notes: short bullet points, only definitions, formulas, dates, names and conclusions. One idea per line. Add nothing of your own and drop no terms — the notes have to work in place of the original.

Before

Right, today we are looking at inflation. Start with the definition: inflation is a sustained rise in the general price level. Note the word general — one product getting dearer is not inflation.

After

• Inflation — a sustained rise in the general price level. • One product rising in price is not inflation.

Paper into an abstract

Thirty pages of research, and the decision is whether to read it at all.

Prompt

Condense this paper into five sentences, in this order: the question the authors ask, the data they use, what they found, the limitation they admit themselves, and what follows from it. No preamble and no opinions of your own.

Before

Drawing on a sample of 1,240 respondents, the study tests the association between remote work and burnout, using regression with controls for tenure and sector. The survey was administered once.

After

Question: is remote work associated with burnout. Data: 1,240 respondents, regression controlling for tenure and sector. Finding: the association is weak and shows only under two years of tenure. Limitation: a single survey wave, no trend.

Terms only

Before an exam you need the glossary, not the retelling.

Prompt

Pull out every term and concept in this text, each with a one-line definition, in the order they appear. Take the definitions from the text itself and invent none. Leave out examples, digressions and repetitions.

Before

Liquidity — that is, how quickly an asset turns into cash without losing value — is low for property, unlike a savings account you can close the same day.

After

• Liquidity — how fast an asset turns into cash without losing value.

The argument only

An opinion column where the point is buried under anecdotes.

Prompt

Keep only the author's case: the central claim in one sentence, then the arguments defending it, one per line. Cut the anecdotes, the atmosphere and the borrowed quotes. If the author concedes a counter-argument, keep it on its own line.

Before

I still remember my father at the kitchen table in 1998, explaining why savings mattered. A quarter of a century on, I watch people keep every penny in one currency again.

After

Claim: keeping all savings in one currency is dangerous. Argument: currency shocks come round roughly once a decade.

Work documents

An hour-long call becomes a meeting summary, a forty-message thread becomes a status update, a twenty-page report becomes something your boss reads standing up, and a contract comes back in plain English.

Call into a brief

An hour of discussion the team needs as decisions and owners.

Prompt

Turn this meeting transcript into a short brief in three parts: what was discussed, what was decided, and who does what by when. Keep names and dates word for word. Do not retell discussion that ended in nothing.

Before

…right, let us do this: Maria, can you take the mockups? — I can, but not before Wednesday. — Fine, then we move the launch to Monday and I will warn support.

After

Decision: launch moves to Monday. Maria — mockups by Wednesday. Chair — to warn support.

Thread into a status

Forty messages deep, and you were added the day before yesterday.

Prompt

Boil this thread down to two parts: where things stand as of the last message, and what is expected from me personally. Keep names, amounts and dates. Skip the pleasantries, the signatures and the quoted history.

Before

Re: Re: Re: Contract — Good afternoon! Legal has come back with edits to clause 4.2 and we need your response by Friday, otherwise signing slips to next month.

After

Where it stands: legal sent edits to clause 4.2. On me: reply by Friday, or signing slips to next month.

Report for the boss

A twenty-page quarterly, and you have one minute in the meeting.

Prompt

Condense this report into five lines for a manager: the headline conclusion first, then only what supports it. Keep every figure, percentage and period exactly as written — no rounding, no averaging, no recalculating.

Before

Revenue for the quarter came to £41.2m against £38.9m in the previous quarter. Repeat purchases rose from 22% to 27%, while acquisition cost was up 14%.

After

The quarter closed up: revenue £41.2m against £38.9m, repeat purchases 27% against 22%. Acquisition cost rose 14%.

Contract in plain English

Ten screens of terms to understand before you tick the box.

Prompt

Restate this contract in plain English, point by point: what I have to do, how much I pay and when, what is guaranteed to me, how to get out, and what the penalties are. Replace the legal wording with human wording, but keep amounts, deadlines and clause numbers exactly.

Before

The Provider may unilaterally amend the cost of the services, having notified the Customer not less than 30 calendar days before the new price takes effect.

After

• They can raise the price without your agreement, with 30 days notice (clause 5.3).

News and content

Content that has to travel further than it was written: summarise a YouTube video into points, turn a long article into a post for a channel, and cut a longread down to a two-line TL;DR for the group chat.

Article into a post

You have read the news; your followers want it in twenty seconds.

Prompt

Turn this article into a post for a channel: three or four sentences, the news itself in the first line, then why it matters to the reader. No clickbait, no hashtags, no words like shocking — only what the article actually says.

Before

The Bank of England held the base rate at 4.25% on Thursday, noting that services inflation has stayed above forecast for a third consecutive month.

After

The Bank of England has held the base rate at 4.25%. The reason: services inflation has beaten forecasts three months running. So savings and mortgage rates are unlikely to move much in the coming weeks.

Video into points

A webinar transcript with greetings, ad reads and filler throughout.

Prompt

Compress this video transcript into bullet points: only what was actually said on topic. Cut the greetings, the sponsor reads, the repetitions, the slips and everything addressed to the chat. Keep the original order.

Before

Okay, hi everyone, can you hear me? Great. So, today we are on sleep. So, um, the first thing I always say is go to bed and get up at the same time, weekends included.

After

• The main sleep rule — same bedtime and wake time, weekends included. • Everything else only works once that is in place.

Two-line TL;DR

A longread you want to share, that nobody in the chat will open.

Prompt

Cut this text down to a two-line TL;DR: the first line says what it is about, the second gives the conclusion. Conversational, no corporate wording, ready to paste into a group chat with nothing left to explain.

Before

A long investigation into how three major marketplaces changed their terms for sellers from 2021 onwards, why commissions climbed and where the small shops went.

After

An investigation into four years of marketplaces squeezing their sellers. The upshot: commissions doubled and the small shops moved to selling on social media.

What do I do with this

Not a retelling but the part you act on. Extract the action items from meeting notes, pull the numbers and the dates out of a report, and list what was left open by the time the call ended.

Action items only

The tasks are in there somewhere, mixed in with the discussion.

Prompt

Extract only the tasks from this text, one per line, as who — what — by when. If the owner or the deadline is not named, say so instead of guessing. Include nothing that is not a task.

Before

We sort of agreed the copy needs refreshing. Pete, can you do it by the end of the month? And someone should get the contractor on a call, he has been quiet for three weeks.

After

• Pete — refresh the copy — by the end of the month. • Owner not named — call with the contractor — no deadline named.

Numbers only

From an invoice or an email you need the amounts, rates and dates.

Prompt

List every number in this text: amounts, percentages, deadlines, dates and quantities — each on its own line, together with what it refers to. Round nothing, recalculate nothing, and miss nothing.

Before

A 30% deposit within 5 working days of signing, the balance by 15 December; late payment carries interest of 0.1% for each day overdue.

After

• Deposit — 30%, within 5 working days. • Balance — by 15 December. • Late interest — 0.1% per day.

What is still open

After a long discussion, the holes matter more than the outcome.

Prompt

Collect only what is unresolved in this text: questions left unanswered, points where opinions diverged, and the data missing before a decision can be made. One per line, with no retelling of what was already agreed.

Before

We more or less landed on the dates, but who pays for hosting never got settled. Legal has not looked at the appendix yet, they promised this week.

After

• Unresolved: who pays for hosting. • Missing: legal review of the appendix.

Everyday reading

Reading you do before you spend money or start a job: summarise two hundred customer reviews into pros and cons, and turn a how-to with its steps buried in paragraphs into a numbered list you can follow.

Reviews into pros and cons

Two hundred reviews of a hotel, and you are booking tonight.

Prompt

Merge these reviews into two lists: what is praised most often and what is complained about, most frequent first. Next to each point note how common it is. Ignore one-off gripes and anything that reads as a planted review.

Before

Hotel was amazing, breakfast top!!! / Breakfast good but it is noisy by the pool at night. / The pool bar makes sleep impossible, we asked to move rooms.

After

Praised: the breakfast — in almost every review. Complained about: night noise from the pool bar — in roughly every second one.

Guide into steps

A long how-to article with the steps buried between paragraphs.

Prompt

Turn this text into a numbered list of steps: actions only, in the order they are performed. Drop the explanations, the stories and the asides, but where a step does not work without a condition, keep that condition on the same line.

Before

Before changing the filter, always shut off the water at the riser — otherwise you will flood the flat below. Then unscrew the housing with the special spanner, usually supplied in the box.

After

1. Shut off the water at the riser (otherwise the flat below floods). 2. Unscrew the housing with the supplied spanner.