A 40-page report lands Friday; the brief is due Monday. Reading everything costs the weekend — but deciding from nothing costs the grade. Summarizing text is the middle skill: extractive compression that keeps decisions sound. This guide teaches the manual method that works with any tool (including ours), plus the summarize-vs-paraphrase line students cross at their peril.
Part of the word counter guide. Compress long text in the summarizer tool (length control, local); polish wording with the grammar checker.
The extractive method (5 steps, any text)
- Read the intro + conclusion first: thesis and verdict frame everything; 80% of summaries fail from skipping this orientation.
- Mark one sentence per section: the claim each section exists to make — highlight, don't copy yet.
- Compress 10:1: 40 pages → 4 pages of marked claims; then 4 → 1 page of connected prose in your own sentences.
- Preserve numbers and caveats: figures, dates and limitations survive compression; adjectives and anecdotes mostly don't.
- Cite the source: every summary links its original — summaries inform decisions, citations defend them.
- Length control: briefs get 5% length (executive), study notes 20% (retention), literature reviews 10% with critique added.
- Local-first privacy: our summarizer runs extractive compression in-browser — sensitive reports never upload, unlike many server-AI tools that impose free-tier caps and retain data (check current terms — limits change).
Summarize vs paraphrase (the academic line)
| Technique | What it does | Cite? |
|---|---|---|
| Quote | Exact words, marked | Always |
| Paraphrase | Same ideas, your sentences | Always |
| Summarize | Compressed main points | Always |
| Common knowledge | Established facts | No |
Students: paraphrase without citation is plagiarism even with changed words — summarizing inherits the same rule. Bloggers: summarizing competitors' posts then outranking them requires adding original value (data, tests, examples), not just shorter words. When in doubt, cite; citations cost nothing and protect everything.
Meeting and lecture notes (live summarizing)
Summarizing live — meetings, lectures, calls — adds speed pressure the desk method skips. Technique: capture verbatim decisions and numbers only (everything else paraphrased later), mark speaker names per claim, and flag follow-ups inline with [TODO + owner] so the summary drives action. Within 2 hours, compress raw notes 3:1 while memory is fresh; after 24 hours, half the context evaporates and compression quality collapses. Students: lecture notes summarized same-evening retain dramatically better than weekend batch jobs — the 2-hour window is the whole game. Professionals: circulate one-page decision summaries, never raw transcripts; nobody reads 40 messages, everybody reads 10 lines with owners.
General writing guidance only, not academic or legal advice. Test with real readers; formulas ignore tone and expertise. SEO outcomes vary.