The Best ChatGPT Prompt to Summarize an Article: 3 Formats in One

Pick Your Style: Why One Prompt Gives Three Outputs

Most people ask AI to “summarize this article.” They get a generic paragraph that’s too long to remember and too vague to be useful. The problem isn’t the AI — it’s the prompt.

The ChatGPT prompt to summarize an article that actually works does something different: it forces structured output at three distinct depths. You don’t pick one summary — you get all three, because different situations demand different compression levels.

The tweet version (under 280 characters) captures the absolute core — what you’d remember a week later. The paragraph version adds key supporting points — what you’d need to explain the idea to someone. The teaching version flips the perspective — how you’d make a newcomer understand.

This layered approach works because each version requires the AI to think differently. Extreme compression forces prioritization. The teaching version forces clarity. Together, they catch what any single summary would miss.

The Base Prompt and How to Use It

The Layered Summary (PR030) is the foundation prompt in the Summarize Articles pillar. Copy the entire article text, paste it into ChatGPT or Claude, and let the prompt do its work.

The three outputs serve different purposes. Use the tweet version when you need to recall the core idea later, when you’re taking quick notes, or when you want to test if you truly understood. If you can’t remember the tweet version, you didn’t really absorb the article.

Use the paragraph version when you need to share the idea with others, when you’re building a reading log, or when you want the main argument with its supporting structure. This is your reference summary.

Use the teaching version when you want to actually learn the material. Research shows that explaining concepts to others — even imaginary others — cements understanding better than passive review. The teaching version forces you to articulate the idea in transferable terms.

Five Format Variations for Different Needs

The base prompt works for most articles, but certain situations call for adjustments. Here are five variations built on the same structure:

For academic papers: Add “Focus on methodology, findings, and limitations” to the prompt. Academic summaries need to preserve the study’s structure, not just its conclusions.

For news articles: Add “Include the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, why) in the paragraph version.” News has implicit structure; make it explicit.

For opinion pieces: Add “Distinguish the author’s claims from their evidence.” Opinion pieces often blur the line — good summaries make it visible.

For technical content: Add “Define any technical terms in the teaching version.” Technical summaries fail when they assume the reader knows jargon.

For longer documents: Use the Summary Ladder Method (C016) instead — it handles progressive compression better than the base prompt.

Example Outputs: What Good Summaries Look Like

Say you summarize an article about spaced repetition. Here’s what the three versions might look like:

Tweet: “Spacing out review sessions beats cramming — memory strengthens when you retrieve information just before you’d forget it. The harder the recall, the stronger the memory.”

Paragraph: “Spaced repetition is a learning technique where you review information at increasing intervals. Unlike cramming, which creates short-term memory, spacing forces your brain to actively retrieve information — and it’s the retrieval that strengthens memory. The key is timing reviews just before forgetting occurs. This ‘desirable difficulty’ makes learning feel harder but produces more durable results.”

Teaching: “Imagine you’re trying to remember a phone number. If you repeat it 10 times in a row, you’ll remember it for a few minutes. But if you repeat it once, wait an hour, repeat again, wait a day, repeat again — you’ll remember it for months. That’s spaced repetition. The ‘space’ between reviews forces your brain to work harder to recall, and that effort is what builds lasting memory.”

Notice how each version serves a different purpose. The tweet is a memory hook. The paragraph is an accurate summary. The teaching version uses analogy and builds understanding from scratch.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Mistake 1: Accepting the first output. AI summaries often include filler phrases like “This article discusses…” or “In conclusion…” Ask the AI to remove preamble and deliver just the content.

Mistake 2: Not verifying key claims. AI can misattribute, invent details, or miss nuance. For important content, use the AI for Reading hub’s accuracy check prompts to verify.

Mistake 3: Using the same prompt for different purposes. A bullet point summary serves different needs than a TLDR prompt result. Match your prompt to your purpose — learning, sharing, or quick reference.

Mistake 4: Summarizing without reading. Summaries are memory aids, not reading substitutes. If you haven’t read the original, you can’t evaluate whether the summary captured what matters. Read first, summarize to retain.

For more advanced summary techniques, explore the Executive Summary Prompt (C017) for decision-focused outputs, or the full Summarize Articles pillar for the complete toolkit.