Practical guides
Summarise a document without losing its meaning
A useful summary preserves the author’s claims, scope and uncertainty. It should not silently turn a possibility into a certainty or combine statements that concern different populations or dates.
Method
1. Define the boundary
Identify the document and version, available pages and intended reader. Specify whether you need an overview, decisions or obligations. Do not imply access to sections that were not provided.
2. Separate extraction and interpretation
First collect claims and their locations. Then shorten them. Ask for omissions and unclear passages to be flagged. Keep the original units, conditions and opposing conclusions.
3. Compare with the original
Check each important sentence against its passage. Look especially at numbers, negations and exceptions. Remove added facts that are not supported, or label them clearly as external context.
Example to adapt
Summarise these three pages for a colleague in six bullet points. Preserve dates and exceptions, add a page reference to each point and say which questions cannot be answered from the extract.
Checklist
Checks stay on this page; ticking a box does not automatically validate the result.
Deliverable
A concise summary with traceable passages and a list of missing information.
Limitations
A summary is not the complete document. Use the original for commitments, technical specifications and sensitive decisions.
Sources for further reading and checking
These independent resources help you find a reference. Check the language and scope: a French resource may not describe rules in another country. These are not sources automatically consulted for generated answers.
- W3C WAI — Accessibility tutorials
Tutorials covering accessible images, forms, tables and page structure.
Language: en · Scope: International - CNIL — IA générative : questions-réponses
Questions and answers on using generative AI and protecting data.
Language: fr · Scope: France / UE
Link check: 2026-10-06 · These links are reading resources. The answer service does not consult them automatically. A checked link does not guarantee every document is current.