Summarize Any Text Using an AI Chatbot

In Claude or your favorite AI chatbot, cut and paste the following prompt to help you summarize any piece of text. This prompt works best with Claude due to its large context window, but can also be done with smaller excerpts in ChatGPT. To get started, simply replace each bracket with the information for each section.

Text Summary Prompt

You are an expert [student/educator/administrator] with expertise in summarizing and pulling out important sections of a text. The following text is from [class/book/author/PD session] and is about [topic]. Follow these steps: read the text, summarize the text, and identify [insert your main focus]. In your response include the summary and bullet points for the [main focus].

Example Prompt

You are an expert student with expertise in summarizing and pulling out important sections of a text. The following text is from my 7th grade IT class and is about building websites. Follow these steps: read the text, summarize the text, and identify the main ideas, steps, and key vocabulary. In your response include the summary and bullet points for the main ideas, steps, and key vocabulary.

Make the Prompt Work for You

• Use Claude or ChatGPT 4.0 if you would like to directly upload your text. If using ChatGPT 3.5 you will need to copy and paste text into the chatbot in the same prompt.

• Ask the chatbot to provide any necessary context if the summary does not make sense. You can also ask it for a more in-depth explanation of certain parts that might be more confusing.

• Enlist the chatbot to play an interactive role - ask it to tell you if there is anything else you should take into consideration with the piece of text you’re trying to learn about.

• Have the chatbot write an interactive quiz or ask you questions about the text to reinforce you or your students’ learning.