WRITING AN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As part of some business assignments you may be asked to include an
executive summary for your work. This will usually form part of a report-style
assignment.
Your course team should provide guidance on the expected structure and
approach for producing your assignment, but these are some general tips on
how to produce an executive summary:
What should an executive summary do?
Provide a brief summary of the report by:
Informing the reader about the subject matter involved
Stating the key findings or arguments, and the conclusions of the report
Outlining any major recommendations made by the report
Mentioning any key limitations of the report
For some assignments it is expected that an executive summary will be
aimed at the management of a company, and so will be written with this
in mind
It is generally written in a consistent tense (i.e. if you begin by saying “this
report has…” then keep referring to it in the past tense throughout the
executive summary).
What shouldn’t an executive summary do?
Introduce the report (that is what the introduction is for!)
Explain or explore the topic, findings or conclusions
Talk about the report in a vague way (it should be very specific and
focused)
