Executive Summary - Typical Structure

Typical Structure

There is wide general agreement on the structure of a "typical" executive summary - books and training courses emphasise similar points. Typically, an executive summary will

  • be possibly 5-10% or so of the length of the main report
  • be written in language appropriate for the target audience
  • consist of short and concise paragraphs
  • start with a summary
  • be written in the same order as the main report
  • only include material present in the main report
  • make recommendations
  • provide a justification
  • have a conclusion
  • be able to be read separately from the main report
  • sometimes summarize more than one document

Read more about this topic:  Executive Summary

Famous quotes containing the words typical and/or structure:

    It was announced that the trouble was not “malignant.”... It was a typical triumph of modern science to find the only part of Randolph that was not malignant and remove it.
    Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)

    ... the structure of our public morality crashed to earth. Above its grave a tombstone read, “Be tolerant—even of evil.” Logically the next step would be to say to our commonwealth’s criminals, “I disagree that it’s all right to rob and murder, but naturally I respect your opinion.” Tolerance is only complacence when it makes no distinction between right and wrong.
    Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 2 (1962)