Lay summary template: fill-in-the-blanks for 100, 150 and 250 words

A lay summary template only helps if it forces you to say the four things a non-specialist reader needs, in the right order, and leaves you room to keep your real numbers. Below are three fill-in templates for common word limits, a worked fill-in, and a checklist to run before you submit.

Replace every [bracket] with your own facts. Do not leave a bracket in the final text. If you cannot fill one honestly (for example "who could benefit"), delete that sentence rather than guess.

Template A: about 100 words (journal plain-language box)

[Who or what] matters because [one plain reason]. We [what you did, in one verb phrase] in [where or who, with the number]. We found that [main result, with your exact number]. This [suggests / shows / is consistent with] [what it means, using your paper's own hedge]. [One short limitation, such as one site, one season, no control group.]

Five sentences at roughly 18 words each lands near 90 to 100. Cut the "why it matters" clause first if you are over.

Template B: about 150 words (many grant portals and journal summaries)

Background. [Problem in everyday words]. [Why it matters to people outside your field, only if your work supports it.]

What we did. We [method in plain steps]. [Who or what was studied, how many, where, for how long.]

What we found. [Main result with its number]. [Second result, if there is room.]

What it means. [Meaning, with the same hedge as your paper]. [What the study cannot show.]

Template C: about 250 words (funder public summaries)

Use Template B, then add three short parts after "What it means":

• Who might use this. [Named group, and the specific way they could use the result. Only claims your results support.]
• What happens next. [The next step in your project, in one or two sentences.]
• Key terms. [Up to three terms you could not avoid, each explained in a few words.]

Some funders want future tense for proposals and past tense for finished work. Check the call text before you write.

A worked fill-in of Template A

This example uses an invented study, written by us as a demonstration, not taken from a real paper.

Road verges are one of the few places left for wild flowers in farmland. We counted plant species on 40 verges in one county, half mown in summer and half left unmown. Unmown verges had 50% more species (27 against 18 on average). This suggests that mowing later could help wild plants, though we only studied one county in one year.

Every number comes from the invented abstract. The hedge "suggests" stays as "suggests", and the limitation is one sentence. Paste it into the free lay summary checker to see its word count and reading grade.

Checklist before you submit

• The word count is under the limit using the portal's own counting rules (some count hyphenated words as two).
• Every number matches your paper exactly. No new percentages, no "millions of people".
• Your hedges survived: "associated with" did not become "causes".
• Every acronym is spelled out or removed.
• Average sentence length is about 15 to 18 words; check the reading grade (grade 7 to 9 is the usual target for a general adult reader).
• Someone outside your field can explain it back to you.
• No participant details or unpublished data that your ethics approval does not allow you to share.

Want a first draft instead of a blank template?

If you would rather start from a draft, the $7 AI-written draft takes your own abstract and word limit and returns a summary that keeps your numbers and hedges, lists the jargon it replaced, and lists what your text does not say as blanks for you to fill. It is AI-written, so you must check it. A free chatbot can also do a first pass; the template and checklist above work with either. For more worked examples see lay summary examples, before and after, and for the method how to write a lay summary.