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