How to summarize an article quickly
Most articles bury a few load-bearing sentences under introductions, examples, and repetition. Summarizing is the skill of finding those sentences — and it can be largely automated.
The 30-second method
1. Open the free text summarizer below.
2. Paste the article, or import the PDF directly.
3. Choose how short you want the summary and read the key sentences it surfaces.
For most articles, a summary at 20–30% of the original length keeps every important claim.
What a good summary keeps
The main claim, the strongest evidence for it, and any conclusion or recommendation. Numbers usually survive; anecdotes usually don't. If the author says 'in other words' — keep the second phrasing and drop the first.
Summarizing for different purposes
A summary for your own notes can be telegraphic fragments. A summary for a literature review needs full sentences and a citation. An executive summary leads with the conclusion, not the background — decision-makers read the first line and skim the rest.
From summary to draft
Summaries pair well with the other writing tools: summarize a long source, paraphrase the summary into your own voice, then run the grammar checker on the result — a research paragraph in minutes.