Goal: 
Find an issue that needs its summary updated, or that is missing an issue summary. Update or write a summary for the issue.
Skills required: 
Detailed steps: 
  1. Set up prerequisites: Log in from Common Prerequisites for Contributors.
  2. Find an issue to work on, with a preference for Drupal core issues. Issues that need summaries are tagged with Needs issue summary update. Choose an issue that has a smaller number of replies to start with (you can tackle an issue with more replies next time). Also, look for an issue title that you understand -- for instance, if you are not a programmer, and the title has a lot of programming jargon in it, you might choose a different issue.
  3. Visit the issue page by clicking on the issue title in the search results. If it already has an issue summary that follows the issue summary template and appears to be complete and up-to-date, pick a different issue. (To be helpful to others, you could also add a comment to the issue saying that the issue summary appears to be up-to-date, and remove the "Needs issue summary update" tag from the Tags field. See step 6 below for details on doing this.)
  4. Read the whole issue including the comments. You will need to figure out what problem has been reported, what the proposed solution is (if any), and the effects of the proposed solution on programmers and Drupal users (if any). If you don't understand the issue at all, pick a different issue. If you need some help understanding the issue, ask in Slack channel #contribute (see Getting help completing your contributor task).
  5. Edit the issue summary. The field containing the summary is below the comment form at the bottom of the issue page, inside of the Issue summary and relationships fieldset. Follow these steps:
    1. If the issue is not already using the issue summary template, copy and paste it into the top of your editing field. There are also alternative templates to use for special cases in the Special issue summary templates section.
    2. At the top of the summary, above the first heading, add a new line giving the most recent comment number, saying something like "Issue summary updated as of comment #23".
    3. Follow the models on the issue summary template to fill in the rest of the information. You will need to refer to the original issue report, as well as the comments, to figure out what the summary should say.
    4. Any portions that have not yet been decided on, you can fill in as "To be determined".
    5. Any areas that you are not sure about, fill in what you can and note what you are not sure about.
    6. If there are long discussions on particular comments that are relevant for the summary, link to those comments.
  6. Comment and update:
    • In the Issue metadata fieldset above the comment form, remove the "Needs issue summary update" tag from the Issue tags field.
    • Check to see whether the Title in the Issue metadata field is appropriate, and change it if not.
    • Write a Comment saying that you have just created or updated the issue summary.
    • Click Save at the bottom of the page to save your changes and your comment.