How Do You Write an Executive Summary? Assignment Hippo
During your academic education, you might be assigned numerous assignments, for example, management reports, in which you need to write an executive summary. But first, let’s dive into what exactly an executive summary is. This term is that particular section that summarises the complete report, allowing your professor to understand what the report is about.
For instance, a 25-page business report can begin with a one-page executive summary. It includes the most important points from the conclusion, findings, recommendations, and other sections of the massive report. Our assignment help experts suggest that an executive summary should be written in a way that your readers can have an understanding of the complete assignment.
Format of an Executive Summary by AssignmentHippo
As stated earlier, the aim behind writing an executive summary is to provide the best understanding of the assignment to your professor. Therefore, it should be straight to the point and precise. Generally, the executive summary is written on a new page and should not exceed it. The format of an executive summary is comprised of the following:
- The subject is mainly the introduction of the assignment.
- Analysis and Methods represent
the methods you have used and your analysis. - Findings include data results.
- Conclusion – solutions to the problems discussed in the assignment.
- Recommendations – proposed recommendations to overcome the problem.
- Limitations – mention the limitations of the project you have selected.
Before proceeding, you can look at the example of an executive summary given below.
How to Write an Executive Summary
It is important to meet all length and content expectations, so be sure to review the specific directions for your assignment. Also remember that the executive summary can only be written after the full-length document is complete.
Tips for completing the executive summary from Laureate Education (2013) include:
- List all of the main points in the same order in which they occur in the paper that you are summarizing.
- Take each point and turn it into a sentence.
- Add additional sentences to clarify or explain each point.
- Add a short introduction and a short conclusion. Include the name of the article, report, etc. and the author(s) in the introduction.
- Check grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
- Check for plagiarism.
- Read the summary slowly and carefully to make sure it covers all of the main points clearly, yet concisely. Also, check to be sure it is interesting. You want to catch your reader’s attention.
- Set it aside. Let some time pass and read it again. Often, you will catch items that you did not see the first time.
For academic writing, be sure to include appropriate citations and a reference. This is typically not part of a business executive summary but should be included for purposes of this program.
Sometimes, university scholars are specifically asked to highlight the ways to implement their solutions which can be in terms of money, time, or any other resources. Moreover, they are required to include a paragraph that showcases the reflections of the topic. If you are a student and have been asked to write an executive summary for a project report, then you do not have to include recommendations in your assignment. There are a few essential steps that a student must consider while writing an executive summary. These steps are illustrated below by our experts who provide assignment help.
Executive Summary Comprises of These 5 Paragraphs
Each paragraph of an executive summary is to be written without headings. Here, paragraphs can be considered as the steps for preparing the executive summary.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
While writing this paragraph, you should be focused on the following points:
- A brief explanation of the business.
- Clear finding and explanation of the issue or opportunity of the report or assignment.
- Include the questions you are going to answer in the assignment.
- Briefly mention the secondary and primary research of data sources.
Example Of Introduction For Executive Summary
Paragraph 2: Analysis and Findings
It mainly discusses your analysis and key findings for your assignment. For example –
Paragraph 3: Recommendations
On the basis of your analysis and findings, you should discuss:
- The key recommendations.
- How do the recommendations solve your problems?
- Further conclusion.
Paragraph 4: Implementation
Please check the requirement of the assignment whether it needs the project plan section or implementation. Here, you must be focused on the following:
- Discuss the important elements required for the implementation plan including time requirements, people requirements, money requirements, and the ways to manage a project.
- Types of risks and the ways to manage them.
Paragraph 5: Reflection (If any)
Students must know that the reflection can vary between universities and assignments. If your task requires you to include one, then it is good to cover the following things:
- Key learnings
- Changes that have taken place in the real world.
- Advantages and disadvantages of this change.
So, these were the 5 important paragraphs that can surely help you in writing your executive summary. Lastly, never forget to test your executive summary once you complete it.
If you need further help in writing an executive summary for an assignment, then do speak to our experts at Sample Assignment.
This is a GOOD example of an executive summary from a marketing report.
| This report was commissioned to examine why the sales volume of Choice Chocolate has dropped over the past two years since its peak in 1998 and to recommend ways of increasing the volume.
The research draws attention to the fact that in 1998, the market share of Choice Chocolate was 37%. The shares of their key competitors such as Venus and Bradbury were 22% and 18% respectively. The size of the chocolate market then was $36 million. Over the next two years, although Choice Chocolate retained its market share the volume of sales in the whole market decreased to $29 million. Further investigations reveal that this market shrinkage coincided with an increase in health awareness amongst consumers who regard the milk and sugar ingredients in chocolate as negative; moreover, since the second half of 1999, an increasing number of rival ‘health candies’ had appeared on the market. These claimed to offer the consumers a healthy alternative. These factors appear to be the major causes of the decreased sales volume of Choice Chocolate. Slim Choice is the latest chocolate range put forward by the R & D Department of Choice Chocolate. The report evaluates this range and concludes that it would be an ideal candidate to meet the challenge presented by the market and could satisfy the new consumer demand since it uses significantly reduced milk and sugar ingredients and is endorsed by renowned health experts. According to 97% of the 2000 subjects tested recently, it also retains the same flavor as the original range. It is recommended: |
Terms of reference Statement of problem/ topic Formal language appropriate to report writing Key findings summarised Problem solution summarised Recommendations summarised |
