A method for automatically summarizing text, comprising: (a) obtaining input text data defining a text that includes two or more tokens; (b) using the input text data to obtain part-of-speech, POS, data indicating parts of speech for tokens in the text, wherein the POS represents the grammatical functions the tokens play in the text; (c) using the POS data to obtain group data indicating one or more groups of consecutive tokens of the text and indicating, within each group, any tokens that meet a POS-based removal criterion, wherein the POS-based removal criterion is applicable to the POS to determine which token to remove from the text and which token to retain, comprising the steps of obtaining first group type data indicating one or more groups of consecutive tokens that have a first word group type including one of a verb group type, noun group type, preposition group tyoe and subclause group type, and indicating, within each group having the first word group type, any tokens that meet a first POS-based removal criterion applicable to groups of the first word group type; and obtaining second group type data indicating one or more groups of consecutive tokens that have a second word group type including one of a verb group type, noun group type, preposition group type and subclause group type, and indicating, within each group having the second word group type, any tokens that meet a second POS-based removal criterion applicable to groups of the second word group type and (d) using the group data to obtain summarized text data defining a summarized version of the text in which tokens in each group that are indicated as meeting the removal criterion are removed so that the number of tokens in the summarized version of the text is less than the number of tokens in the text. (a) obtaining input text data defining a text that includes two or more tokens; (b) using the input text data to obtain part-of-speech, POS, data indicating parts of speech for tokens in the text, wherein the POS represents the grammatical functions the tokens play in the text; (c) using the POS data to obtain group data indicating one or more groups of consecutive tokens of the text and indicating, within each group, any tokens that meet a POS-based removal criterion, wherein the POS-based removal criterion is applicable to the POS to determine which token to remove from the text and which token to retain, comprising the steps of obtaining first group type data indicating one or more groups of consecutive tokens that have a first word group type including one of a verb group type, noun group type, preposition group tyoe and subclause group type, and indicating, within each group having the first word group type, any tokens that meet a first POS-based removal criterion applicable to groups of the first word group type; and obtaining second group type data indicating one or more groups of consecutive tokens that have a second word group type including one of a verb group type, noun group type, preposition group type and subclause group type, and indicating, within each group having the second word group type, any tokens that meet a second POS-based removal criterion applicable to groups of the second word group type and obtaining first group type data indicating one or more groups of consecutive tokens that have a first word group type including one of a verb group type, noun group type, preposition group tyoe and subclause group type, and indicating, within each group having the first word group type, any tokens that meet a first POS-based removal criterion applicable to groups of the first word group type; and obtaining second group type data indicating one or more groups of consecutive tokens that have a second word group type including one of a verb group type, noun group type, preposition group type and subclause group type, and indicating, within each group having the second word group type, any tokens that meet a second POS-based removal criterion applicable to groups of the second word group type (d) using the group data to obtain summarized text data defining a summarized version of the text in which tokens in each group that are indicated as meeting the removal criterion are removed so that the number of tokens in the summarized version of the text is less than the number of tokens in the text.