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

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