Summarise without losing the nuance

Writing a short text involves choices. We can simplify a sentence, remove repetition or reorder paragraphs. Which details should remain visible? In our editorial work, we reserve space for reported conclusions and for the nuances that accompany them.

An example of presentation

Cochrane explains that its plain language summaries present findings and researchers’ confidence in them. We use this example to think about the structure of an accessible explanation.

Our editorial rule

When preparing a summary, we note separately:

• What the document reports
• The limitations it states
• Uncertainties our text needs to retain

This separation supports preparation. The final text can be connected paragraphs, using the words needed to locate the information.

Choose the wording

We prefer to explain a nuance where it matters rather than put every qualification at the end. If we change a word during editing, we return to the reference passage to check what our new sentence means.

Review a translation

The same care applies when moving between languages. We read the source and translation together. We check that their scope and open questions remain recognisable.

Explore both pointers

The Atlas entry provides a short preparation worksheet. The Research guide opens Cochrane’s explanation of its summaries. This path concerns our reading and writing method rather than assessing a particular treatment.