An executive summary is a brief overview of the report designed to give readers a quick preview of its contents. It contains enough information for a reader to get familiarized with what is discussed in the full report without having to read it. It can stand alone, of necessary, in conveying key points and conclusions.
Abstracts and Executive Summaries
Purpose
- Its main goal is to provide a condensed version of the content of a longer report.
- Frequently summaries more than one document
- Executive summaries make a recommendation based on the analysis
- An effective executive summary provided and overview of another document with a clear enough understanding
Kinds of summaries
- Standard summary refers other person’s work and brought forth for several purposes.
- Executive Summaries are written in an account to recommend a specific action
- Abstracts are summaries that highlights the major points of a long piece are termed as abstracts. Readers decide whether or not to read a longer text, by leading abstract.
Structure of an effective summary should be
- Title
- Introduction
- Problems
- Recommendation
- Conclusion
Steps to write an executive summary
- Write it after finishing report
- Summarize major section of report
- Frequently make use of transitional phrases to encapsulate the preceding information as the recommendation
- Provide analysis for the proposed action
- It should not no more than 1/10th length of the main report
- Use simple declarative sentences
- Keep it short and as complete as possible
- No need to cite references
- Avoid unnecessary technical material and jargon
Outcome
Reader would be able to make a decision, entirely based on the information provided in executive summary.
