Here are a couple other resources that I like and that people might also find useful on approximately this topic (besides just the ârelated workâ you mention):
âYou should usually include an actual tl;dr/âsummary/âkey takeaways section right near the startâeven in most cases where you feel itâs unimportant or inappropriate.
(At least when writing for e.g. EAs. Sometimes when writing for mass audiences, youâll better engage people by deliberately not making it clear what youâre writing about or what youâll ultimately claim.)
Usually donât just have a section with that sort of name but where you actually just say âThis post will cover x, y, and zâ
I donât just want to know you say something about x, y, z; I want to know the core of what you actually say!
Thereâs a good chance youâwhoever you areâthink âThe key takeaways are too complex to be explained briefly before someone has actually read my introduction, how I explain the terms, etc.â Youâre probably wrong.
I kept thinking this for ~8 months, till finally the many many times I was advised to add summaries got to me and I started really trying to do that, at which point I realised it really was typically possible & valuable.
Here are a couple other resources that I like and that people might also find useful on approximately this topic (besides just the ârelated workâ you mention):
Honesty about reading
The value of content density
And here are my own quick tips on summaries, from Tips & readings on good writing/âcommunication, which are less useful than but somewhat complementary to this post:
âYou should usually include an actual tl;dr/âsummary/âkey takeaways section right near the startâeven in most cases where you feel itâs unimportant or inappropriate.
(At least when writing for e.g. EAs. Sometimes when writing for mass audiences, youâll better engage people by deliberately not making it clear what youâre writing about or what youâll ultimately claim.)
See Reasoning Transparency and Using the âexecutive summaryâ style: writing that respects your readerâs time
Usually donât skip this section
Usually donât just have a section with that sort of name but where you actually just say âThis post will cover x, y, and zâ
I donât just want to know you say something about x, y, z; I want to know the core of what you actually say!
Thereâs a good chance youâwhoever you areâthink âThe key takeaways are too complex to be explained briefly before someone has actually read my introduction, how I explain the terms, etc.â Youâre probably wrong.
I kept thinking this for ~8 months, till finally the many many times I was advised to add summaries got to me and I started really trying to do that, at which point I realised it really was typically possible & valuable.
Have you actually spent 5 minutes, by the clock, really trying to summarise the key takeaways in a way that will make sense to a reader who hasnât read the whole thing?
(There are some exceptions, e.g. for extremely short posts)â