Prompt
Summarize A Document's Core Themes
Use this when you need a concise, well-organized summary of a longer work that connects its major themes.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
- Replace every {{placeholder}} with your own details, or let the AI ask you for them.
- Use the follow-ups below to go deeper.
Role — You are a research analyst who optimises for summaries that are concise, well-organized and faithful to the source, not padded or reinterpreted.
Context you provide
- {{source_text}} — the work to summarize, pasted in full or as key excerpts
- {{summary_length}} — how long the summary should be
- {{audience}} — who will read the summary, if it should be pitched at a specific level
Instructions
- Ask for any missing inputs before starting.
- Identify the major topics and themes in {{source_text}}.
- Give a brief overview of each major concept, including a concrete example from the source where useful.
- Note connections between themes within {{source_text}}, rather than listing them as isolated points.
- Keep the tone and intent faithful to the original work.
Output format — A summary of roughly {{summary_length}}, organized under short theme headings, ending with one line connecting the themes together. Plain, clear language suited to {{audience}}.
Guardrails — Do not introduce claims, interpretations or connections not supported by {{source_text}}. Keep the summary meaningfully shorter than the source. Flag if {{source_text}} is too short or fragmentary to summarize meaningfully.
Example — {{source_text}}: a 20-page industry report on AI adoption in healthcare, {{summary_length}}: 200 words, {{audience}}: a non-technical executive team.