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How To Write An Executive Summary
By Alan Leach
Writing an executive summary is often an afterthought to many which is not altogether surprising. After slaving away on that report with the boss breathing down your neck muttering deadline under his breath, the executive summary is often hastily penned at the last moment. While an executive summary is not hard to write, a good one does take time and effort, and needs to be planned carefully.
Before describing how to write an executive summary, the first point to clarify is the reason for writing it in the first place. Essentially, it is exactly what it says it is, a summary for executives to read. Many of these people don’t have the time or energy to wade through the whole report, and want to read a short and clear abridged version. Think of the executive summary as the report in miniature.
For this reason, steer clear of jargon. While you may want to impress with your technical expertise, many executives lack the technical knowledge required at a functional level and peppering your work with flowery wording will win you few allies. Ask a friend or relative unrelated to the company or industry to read it – if they can’t understand it, keep working on it till they do.
It should go without saying the summary needs to be written last. Even though it appears near the beginning of a report, it can’t actually be written first. How do you know what to write in the executive summary if you haven’t written the report yet!
Keep it short. More than two pages is no longer a summary! The very purpose of a summary is that it is a much abbreviated form of the whole report. Though it may vary slightly depending on the size of the overall report, aim for no more than 1/10th of the report as a whole. Generally, a one page summary should be sufficient to highlight the main points mentioned in more detail in the report itself.
Start each paragraph with the main point. The rest of the paragraph should merely provide supporting evidence or examples. Don’t hide key information tucked away in the middle of a paragraph. In doing so, always keep your reader in mind and think how easy it is to follow what you’re writing.
It’s important to cover all the sections of the report, but pay special attention to the recommendations. After all, it’s probably the reason for writing the report in the first place was to provide solutions to a problem. The reader wants to know what solutions have been recommended, rather than paragraphs of background as to the problem itself, of which management is likely to be already aware.
Don’t add extra information. If you haven’t mentioned in the body of the report, it is too late to suddenly add new information to the executive summary. If you have a sudden brainwave and think you found the perfect solution to the problem, better to add it to the main report before going back and mentioning in the executive summary.
Last but definitely not least, make sure the summary is error-free. Pay close attention to grammar, spelling and punctuation. An executive summary riddled with careless errors calls into question the author’s competence, leading to doubts over the very validity of the report as a whole.
While an executive summary is only a small part of the overall report, its importance outweighs its size. It’s therefore vital to make sure you put the time and effort into producing a summary that is all of the above – short, clear, correct and concise.
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