You have written all your Internet Marketing Articles, you have drawn together all the facts and you've assembled all your arguments. Now there is only one task remaining, the final task standing between you and the publication of your articles - Writing the Summary. Have you ever surprised, what is the best technique I can employ to write an article summary? This commentary will guide you through some of the basics for writing a successful report summary to compliment your internet marketing articles.
1. Identifying what you want to summarize: Before you do anything, try to be clear about exactly what you mean by summary. If you read the dictionary definition, which says a summary is: "a shortened form of a report, summing up the main points ... without unnecessary formalities or delay." it gives your reading audience a 'short and snappy' re-cap, in other words, the summary does precisely what it says on the tin.
2. The point of a summary. You need to have an understanding as to why you need to write an effective summary, you must appreciate and comprehend how your readers will have.
For the most part, readers presented with a long, complex report, will not read it from start to finish. What they would prefer to do is, take a shortcut, minimize their effort, cut to the chase, get a flavor for the main point of the report. If they see the word "Summary" in the Table of Contents, ninety nine out of a hundred people will instinctively look there first. Far more importantly and especially, if their time is short, that may be the only place they decide look.
The sole purpose in creating a summary is to provide what basically amounts to a 'cheat-sheet' for your readers - a place to go to quickly where they get the gist of the report gain an understanding of the content and are presented with all the main points recapped in a careful and concise manner.
3. Be methodical. It you grasp this last point it makes the task of writing a summary so much easier. When you create your summary, you need to methodically review your report, section by section, and draw out the key points. Remember, you will probably need at least a couple of iterations before you have reduced everything down succinctly enough.
This methodical approach also offers you a great opportunity to proofread all of the section and perform any last minute modifications, editing and alterations.
4. What you should not include. Obviously, the summary is not the place to re-open a debate, trying to scoring one last point or over-sell your recommendation; and, it is without doubt, not the place to be bringing in any new material.
5. The back-to-front method. Writing the summary could, if you wished, be your starting point, not something you leave until last. By summarizing, you are effectively creating your report outline your key points are presented up front in a well thought-out, structured way.
Employing this method, all you have to do is include detail to the outline you've just created. On the other hand, it's quite probable, that as you fill in the detail you might make changes to the structure or sequence of the body of your report. If so, make sure part of your editing routine takes in to account of going back and making those changes in the summary, because it is so easy to overlook this element.
Two points to conclude. First, if done attentively and systematically, writing a summary is a comparatively simple task. Second, always adhere to the golden rule of summary creation: stay focused on developing a short and snappy re-cap of what you have written in the body of your report.
