Unit II · Prompt Engineering
9. Writing and summarizing with AI
AI tools are very good at two things: writing text and shortening text. This chapter shows both.
AI-assisted writing
The key word is assisted. AI helps you write. You still decide what to say. A good process has four steps.
- Plan. Decide the topic, the audience and the length. Ask AI for an outline.
- Draft. Ask AI to write the first version from the outline.
- Edit. Read it. Fix facts. Add your own examples. Remove things you do not like. Ask AI to change the tone or the length.
- Check. Read it once more. Does it sound like you? Is every fact true?
Example prompt for step 1:
prompt
I need to write a 300-word article on "Solar power on college rooftops" for my college magazine. Give me an outline with 4 sections and one key point for each.
Example prompt for step 2:
prompt
Now write the full article from this outline. Simple English, short sentences, for first year students. Mention that Visakhapatnam gets about 300 sunny days a year.
Example prompts for step 3:
- "Make the second paragraph shorter."
- "Change the tone to be more exciting."
- "Add one line about cost savings in rupees."
- "Check the grammar and list the changes you made."
Other writing jobs AI does well
- Fixing grammar: "Correct the grammar in this text. Do not change the meaning."
- Changing tone: "Rewrite this message to be more polite."
- Expanding: "Expand these 3 bullet points into a paragraph."
- Translating: "Translate this to Telugu."
- Simplifying: "Rewrite this for a 12-year-old."
Summarization
A summary is a short version of a long text. It keeps only the main points. AI can summarise an article, a chapter, a research paper, a meeting or a YouTube video.
Paste the text (or upload the file) and ask:
prompt
Summarise this article in 5 bullet points. Then write a one-sentence summary. Keep the key numbers.
Types of summary you can ask for:
| Ask for | You get |
|---|---|
| "TL;DR in one line" | One sentence |
| "5 bullet points" | Key points |
| "Executive summary" | One short paragraph for a busy manager |
| "Summary for a 10-year-old" | Very simple version |
| "Key terms with meanings" | A glossary |
| "Questions this text answers" | Good for exam revision |
Tip: For long PDFs, use NotebookLM. It does not forget the start of the document, and it shows you where each point came from.
Be careful
- A summary can miss something important. For exams, read the original once.
- AI may add things that were not in the text. Ask: "Only use information from the text I gave."
- Do not submit AI writing as your own creative work without editing it. Teachers can tell.
Try it
This is Lab experiment 6.
- Ask ChatGPT or Gemini to write a 300-word article on "Why every engineer should learn to swim" (or any topic you like).
- Then ask it to summarise that same article in 3 bullet points and in one sentence.
- Try the same with a real article: copy any news article from The Hindu and summarise it.
- Paste a YouTube link into Gemini and ask for a summary of the video.
New words
- Assisted — helped; AI helps you, but you are in charge.
- Draft — the first rough version of a piece of writing.
- Edit — to change and improve a piece of writing.
- Tone — the mood of the writing: polite, formal, exciting.
- Summary — a short version with only the main points.
- TL;DR — "too long; didn't read" — a one-line summary.
- Executive summary — a very short summary for a busy decision-maker.
- Glossary — a list of words with their meanings, like this box.