Text Summarizer Guide: How Extractive Summaries Pick Sentences
Learn how word-frequency scoring selects sentences and when an extractive summary works best.
What is the Text Summarizer?
This tool is extractive: it scores each sentence by how often its non-stopwords appear in the whole text, then returns the top sentences in their original order. It does not rewrite or invent new wording. Longer texts with a clear repeated theme summarise best; very short texts may simply return most of their sentences.
How to use it
- Paste or type your text into the box.
- Set how many sentences you want in the summary.
- Click Summarize and read the selected sentences in their original order.
Worked example
For the sample with 3 sentences requested, the tool returns, in original order: A garden needs sunlight, water and good soil to thrive. Good soil gives roots room to spread and holds the water plants need. With sunlight, water and good soil, even a small garden can flourish.
When does an extractive summary work poorly?
When a text covers many unrelated points with little repeated vocabulary, because no sentence stands out on frequency alone. In that case a human-written summary is a better choice.
Frequently asked questions
Does it write new sentences?
No. It is extractive, so it only selects sentences already in your text; it never rewrites or invents wording.
Why did it pick those sentences?
Each sentence is scored by the frequency of its non-stopwords across the whole text, so sentences that repeat the text's main terms score highest.