An executive summary, sometimes known as a management summary, is a short document or section of a document, produced for business purposes, that summarizes a longer report or proposal or a group of related reports, in such a way that readers can rapidly become acquainted with a large body of material without having to read it all. It will usually contain a brief statement of the problem or proposal covered in the major document(s), background information, concise analysis and main conclusions. It is intended as an aid to decision making by managers[1][2] and has been described as possibly the most important part of a business plan.[3] and they must be short and to the point. An executive summary differs from an abstract in that an abstract will usually be shorter and is intended to provide a neutral overview or orientation rather than being a condensed version of the full document. Abstracts are extensively used in academic research where the concept of the executive summary would be meaningless. An abstract is a brief summarizing statement ... read by parties who are trying to decide whether or not to read the main document, while an executive summary, unlike an abstract, is a document in miniature that may be read in place of the longer document.[4] There is wide general agreement on the structure of a typical executive summary - books and training courses emphasise similar points.[5][6][7][8][9][10] Typically, an executive summary will • be possibly 5-10% or so of the length of the main report[7][10] • be written in language appropriate for the target audience[6][10] • consist of short and concise paragraphs[6][10] • start with a summary[6][10] • be written in the same order as the main report[5][7] • only include material present in the main report[5][7] • make recommendations[6][10] • provide a justification[6][10] • have a conclusion[6][7][10] • be able to be read separately from the main report[5][6][7] • sometimes summarize more than one document[6]
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 15:03:22 +0000
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