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 a page of good prose is, analyzed logically, not something frozen but the vibrating of a bridge, which changes with every step one takes on it.”
    —Robert Musil (1880–1942)