Final answer:
Effective summaries provide an overview, employ narrative and reporting techniques, and highlight the core elements of a subject while leaving out extraneous details for conciseness.
Step-by-step explanation:
When tasked with writing summaries, whether of an article, narrative, or assignment, it is crucial to understand the core components that make an effective summary. To start, you should offer an overview of the topic, which can be drawn from the most pertinent points and findings within the text. Narrative techniques and reporting approaches are your tools; these include providing background information, employing storytelling to engage the reader, and making use of the classic reporting techniques that involve answering the 'who, what, when, where, why, and how' of a subject. As you pull these elements together into a cohesive summary, you also need to determine what details are essential for the reader's understanding and which ones can be left out for brevity's sake. The goal is to capture the essence and relevance of your source material succinctly.