Summarising long text safely
Unit ID: AIT-M05-U01 Estimated active time: 15-20 minutes
The main idea
A summary is a compression, so something is always left out.
The question is never whether material was discarded. It is whether the discarded material mattered, and only someone who read the source can say.
Why this matters
A summary is used by people who will not read the original. Whatever it omits has, for them, not happened.
Safe example
A long safe article becomes a five-bullet summary with caveats.
The caveats are the part that would have been dropped first without being asked for.
Better working habit
Ask the tool to list what may be missing or uncertain.
A closing section headed "what this summary leaves out" costs two lines and is usually the most useful part of the output.
What to watch for
Do not summarise private documents in an unapproved tool.
Length is not a reason to skip the privacy question. A long document usually contains more personal detail, not less.
Mini practice
Create a summary prompt that asks for missing-context notes.
Run it on a safe document and check whether the missing-context section names anything real.
Check yourself
Before moving on, answer:
- What did this summary leave out?
- Would a reader act differently if they had the omitted material?
- Was this document safe to put into the tool at all?