The infinitesimal increment of work done by a force, acting over an infinitesimal displacement, is the dot product of the force and the displacement.
The work done by a force, acting over a finite path, is the integral of the infinitesimal increments of work done along the path.
The work done against a force is the negative of the work done by the force.
The work done by a normal or frictional contact force must be determined in each particular case.
The work done by the force of gravity, on an object near the surface of Earth, depends only on the weight of the object and the difference in height through which it moved.
The work done by a spring force, acting from an initial position to a final position, depends only on the spring constant and the squares of those positions.
Because the net force on a particle is equal to its mass times the derivative of its velocity, the integral for the net work done on the particle is equal to the change in the particle’s kinetic energy. This is the work-energy theorem.
You can use the work-energy theorem to find certain properties of a system, without having to solve the differential equation for Newton’s second law.