Summarise a long document with supporting quotes
Summarises a long document around the questions you care about, backing every point with a short exact quote.
Summarise the document below, focusing on: {{FOCUS}}
<document>
{{DOCUMENT}}
</document>
For each key point:
- State the point in one sentence.
- Support it with a short exact quote from the document, with page or section if available.
Rules:
- 5 to 10 points, ordered by importance for my focus.
- If the document says nothing about part of my focus, say "Not covered" for that part.
- Do not add background knowledge from outside the document.
End with a one-paragraph summary a colleague could read in 30 seconds.Example output
Point: the council plans to cut bus routes on Sundays. Quote: "Sunday services on routes 4, 9 and 12 will be withdrawn from April." (p. 14) Point: savings are estimated at £1.2m a year.
How to use
Make FOCUS specific, like "changes affecting small landlords" rather than "key points". Search the document for each quote to confirm it is exact.
Why it works
Pairing every point with a quote is the same idea retrieval-augmented generation uses: answers tied to source text are easier to trust and verify. The "Not covered" rule stops the model filling gaps from memory.