A lot of attention is paid to getting the lead right in a story. The headline in the news, the subject line in an email or the trailer leading up to a TV account all are designed to be short, punchy and grab your attention. That’s understandable, as the first goal of your communication is to get others interested in what you have to say.
Less is written about the ending. Yet it is equally (if not more) important in terms of what the reader gets out of your communication. You want them to walk away affected in some way by what you wrote.
To do that, you need to close with sharp language. Summarize your main point in a completely different way. Take extra time to come up with a new example to capture and highlight what you want the readers thinking about after they finish what you wrote.
Your conclusion is the last set of words they will see. Think about that. It’s where you get the reader to say, “Hmmm, that’s interesting,” or “boy, that seems really silly.” Nail the ending and you’ll have them musing the former rather than the latter way more often.
Less is written about the ending. Yet it is equally (if not more) important in terms of what the reader gets out of your communication. You want them to walk away affected in some way by what you wrote.
To do that, you need to close with sharp language. Summarize your main point in a completely different way. Take extra time to come up with a new example to capture and highlight what you want the readers thinking about after they finish what you wrote.
Your conclusion is the last set of words they will see. Think about that. It’s where you get the reader to say, “Hmmm, that’s interesting,” or “boy, that seems really silly.” Nail the ending and you’ll have them musing the former rather than the latter way more often.