Writing Executive Summaries
Condense a report's key findings and recommendations.
Examples
- The main finding is...
Key rules
- An executive summary condenses a report's key findings and recommendations for busy readers
- Keep it to about one page
- Put the most important conclusions and actions first
Common mistakes
- The report covers many topics and has lots of data. → The main finding is that customer retention fell by 12%. We recommend a loyalty scheme, which would cost £40,000.
Use cases
- Board reports
- Project summaries
- Government and policy briefings
💡 Tip: Write the summary last, so it reflects the final report accurately.