what is an executive summary?

An executive summary is a brief overview of a longer report or proposal to summarize the main points and provide readers with an understanding of the document's purpose and content. In essence, an executive summary is intended to give busy executives a snapshot of the document in order to quickly decide whether or not they should commit time to reading and analyzing it.

The executive summary must be concise, yet it should provide enough detail that readers have enough information to understand the contents of the document. This means that the executive summary must include a summary statement, which serves as an introduction, along with key points such as objectives of the project, methodology used, results and analysis.

Typically, most executive summaries range from one page to three pages maximum. It should be written in an easy-to-understand manner to help busy professionals quickly comprehend what follows in the full report or proposal.

Before writing an executive summary, it is important for writers to craft an effective outline for what should be included in each section by considering who their audience will be and what components are important for conveying key points. Once all pertinent information has been gathered and formatted into sections within the outline, writers can then proceed with crafting readable sentences that follow typical business writing conventions without straying too far off topic with flowery language or jargon.