AutoSummarize: I'm Unimpressed

In its Tools menu, Microsoft Word offers a function called AutoSummarize. I tested this function and it does not impress me.

I tried AutoSummarize on four documents: one business letter and four well-written essays. In one feature, AutoSummarize lets me choose the length of the summary. For example, it would yellow-highlight either 25% or 10% of the document. But neither 25% nor 10% summaries seemed to contain the essence of the document.

True, in one case, AutoSummarize selected the final sentence of the first paragraph, which is the essay's traditional place for a point sentence. But in the three other cases, AutoSummarize ignored the first paragraph, even where the document's point sentence was there.

I cannot recommend AutoSummarize as a quick way to shorten your reading time. Instead, I recommend that writers have an agenda as they read or skim a document. I suggest that the reading emphasize the document's key locations: the introduction, its point sentence, its subtitles, the first sentences of sections and paragraphs, and conclusion.
(Flesch Reading Ease: 43. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 10.9.)

Brians Errors

His name is Paul Brians.

His collection of common errors and confusables in English is at
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors

Visit that site, and I predict that it will explain at least one mystery that has tickled your brain. Do you ever wonder whether you should write "among the three children" or "between the three children"? Yes, you could consult your dictionary. But if you go to Brians Errors, you stand a good chance of wasting glorious minutes among hundreds of other linguistic questions.

Now here is mine. I wonder why Paul Brians did not title the page "Brians's Errors."