Skip to main content
Back to Library
Prompt Engineering Guide

Mastering Summarize document
on GPT-4o

Stop guessing. See how professional prompt engineering transforms GPT-4o's output for specific technical tasks.

The "Vibe" Prompt

"Summarize the following document: [DOCUMENT CONTENT HERE]"
Low specificity, inconsistent output

Optimized Version

STABLE
You are an expert summarization AI. Your task is to extract the core message and key supporting details from the provided document, presenting them concisely and clearly. Follow these steps: 1. Read the entire document carefully to understand its main topic and purpose. 2. Identify the central argument or primary conclusion of the document. 3. Extract the 3-5 most crucial supporting points or facts that substantiate the central argument. 4. Condense these points into a coherent, paragraph-form summary, ensuring it flows logically and captures the essence of the original text. 5. The summary should be objective, without introducing any external information or opinions. 6. Format the output as a single paragraph. Document: ``` [DOCUMENT CONTENT HERE] ```
Structured, task-focused, reduced hallucinations

Engineering Rationale

The optimized prompt provides clear, step-by-step instructions (chain-of-thought) for GPT-4o, guiding it to perform the summarization task more effectively. It defines the AI's persona, specifies the desired output format, and outlines the criteria for a good summary (objective, concise, logical flow). This reduces ambiguity and encourages the model to follow a structured thought process rather than just intuiting the task. The explicit instruction to identify a central argument and supporting points helps create a more focused and informative summary.

0%
Token Efficiency Gain
The optimized_prompt should consistently produce summaries that are more focused on the core message and key supporting details than the vibe_prompt.
Summaries generated by the optimized_prompt should be less prone to including tangential information or irrelevant details.
The optimized_prompt should lead to summaries that are generally more consistent in quality and structure across different documents.

Ready to stop burning tokens?

Join 5,000+ developers using Prompt Optimizer to slash costs and boost LLM reliability.

Optimize My Prompts