Infographic: Article Summary Writing Tips

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

How and Why to add an Article Summary to each Post.

Have a look next time you do a search. In addition to seeing the heading, you can also see a few sentences about what is next.

This is where you can expand on the heading by giving reasons why people should read on, by enticing readers with some juicy anticipation of what is to come.

Can you see how you can make good use of those few introductory sentences?

Why do we need to have an article summary after each heading?

Apart from the heading, these few sentences are what will make people click and read on.

Try to keep it short, a bit like a Twitter post, so the main ideas are visible.

I try to write a short article summary or at least some of my more interesting points early on in my posts as I use them when posting to Pinterest, Scoop-it and other social media sites like LinkedIn Groups.

These then get shared to other social media sites such as Facebook and Facebook Pages along with the summary.

So the few minutes it takes to carefully write these summaries are well rewarded with interesting posts all over the social web.

One of the main reasons for having a gripping article summary is that it appears in RSS feeds and subscriber emails (a lot of exposure here). My autoresponder, Aweber, allows me to automatically send each blog post out to my subscribers as it is published.

This is a photo of a section of the email Aweber sends out automatically – you can design the format of this broadcast and each time, the article summary is included.

Thanks to Ezine Articles Newsletter Blog for some of these great tips and the infographic.

Article Summary Writing Tips Infographic

This is an extract from the Ezine Articles blog.

Article Summary Writing Best Practices

• Restate: Don’t quote; summarize! Restate the main discussion topic of the article.
• Don’t Dawdle: Get straight to the point.
• Inform: Present only relevant, non-self-serving information about the article.
• Transparency: Let readers know exactly what they are going to find in the article.
• WIIFM: Clearly identify how readers will benefit from the article.
• Exclusive: Highlight what’s unique about your article.
• Activate: Use present tense and active language for added clarity and urgency.
• Good Grammar: Use proper spelling, syntax, and punctuation.
• Compel: Provide a clear call-to-action directing readers to read the article.
• KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid – don’t overcomplicate your summary (see Don’t Dawdle).
• Second Person: Use more “you,” “your,” and “yours” to help readers place themselves in the article.

EzineArticles’ Editorial Guidelines Highlights

Don’t include:

• Your Author Name
• The Article Title
• HTML Tags
• Paragraph Breaks
• Blatant Self-Promotion
• Microsoft Smart Quotes
• Money Symbols, e.g., € Or £
• A Website URL or Email Address

So there you have it, a few good pointers that will help you get your articles clicked and opened.

I know these article summary hints generate results when implemented.