How to Write an Executive Summary

Greg Turko is a policy analyst at the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and
Universities.

This is a concise and well-organized book—Should we expect anything
else?—that lends itself particularly well to being a quick, frequently
used reference source. Readers are provided with a definition of an
executive summary, the general mechanics of producing an executive
summary, and six specific examples of executive summaries (e.g.,
proposal summaries, instructions summaries). A short closing chapter
covers a number of style fundamentals for executive summary writing.

Readers should be aware that the authors define the term “executive
summary” very broadly. This means that the term is not restricted, as
it sometimes is in common usage, to the document that frequently
accompanies a long report. Thus, this booklet is applicable to a much
wider range of writing tasks such as briefing notes, the aide-mémoire,
and the precis.

This is a welcome handbook for those who have to prepare summaries of
longer documents for others, as well as for those who wish to prepare
“notes to file” for their own future use. The information revolution
has produced a massive increase in the amount of material with which
most people have to deal. The ability to summarize lengthy documents,
often for specific audiences with specific requirements, has now become
a key business-writing skill.