Single-document and multi-document summarization techniques for email threads using sentence compression

TitleSingle-document and multi-document summarization techniques for email threads using sentence compression
Publication TypeJournal Articles
Year of Publication2008
AuthorsZajic D, Dorr BJ, Jimmy Lin
JournalInformation Processing & Management
Volume44
Issue4
Pagination1600 - 1610
Date Published2008/07//
ISBN Number0306-4573
KeywordsEmail summarization, Enron, Informal media, Sentence compression, Trimming
Abstract

We present two approaches to email thread summarization: collective message summarization (CMS) applies a multi-document summarization approach, while individual message summarization (IMS) treats the problem as a sequence of single-document summarization tasks. Both approaches are implemented in our general framework driven by sentence compression. Instead of a purely extractive approach, we employ linguistic and statistical methods to generate multiple compressions, and then select from those candidates to produce a final summary. We demonstrate these ideas on the Enron email collection – a very challenging corpus because of the highly technical language. Experimental results point to two findings: that CMS represents a better approach to email thread summarization, and that current sentence compression techniques do not improve summarization performance in this genre.

URLhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306457307001768
DOI10.1016/j.ipm.2007.09.007