How long is an executive summary word count?

Writing an executive summary will help your audience quickly understand the policy problem and proposed solution of your report. It is intended for a busy reader; and is a stand-alone, 1-2 page actionable document of no more than 1000 words.

How many words is the executive summary?

Typically, your executive summary should be a one-pager (one and a half pages at worst). To summarise a 3000 – 5000-word document into one page is no easy task, so you’ll need to: Present only the most important information (key insights, recommendations, etc). Write concisely – i.e. with brevity and completeness.

Does the executive summary count as a page?

Keep it short when writing an executive summary. It is often recommended that the maximum length of the summary not exceed one page. For some academic publications, the rule is that the executive summary should not exceed 10 per cent of the word count for the rest of the publication.

What is ideal word count of an executive summary?

The word count of the executive summary should be no more than 10% of the word count of the main report.

Is executive summary the same as abstract?

An abstract is a brief summary of a document, such as a journal article. An executive summary is a summary of a longer document. An abstract is not an excerpt from the main text but an original document that is self-sufficient without referring to the main text.

What’s the difference between an executive summary and an introduction?

An executive summary is essentially a compressed variant of the entire report, which could be 20+ pages long. An introduction, on the other hand, is simply a brief explanation of what to expect in the larger document and the reason for it.

Do you use acronyms in an executive summary?

My answer: As a general rule, do not use abbreviations or acronyms in an executive summary, but use your common sense. If you use an abbreviation in the executive summary, you need to spell it out again the first time you use it in the body of a long report, but not in a short document, such as a board paper.

How many words should be in an executive summary?

For some academic publications, the rule is that the executive summary should not exceed 10 per cent of the word count for the rest of the publication. In a business environment, where decision-makers are overwhelmed with information, the shorter the better.

What is the purpose of an executive summary?

An executive summary, or management summary, is a short document or section of a document, produced for business purposes, that summarizes a longer report or proposal or a group of related reports in such a way that readers can rapidly become acquainted with a large body of material without having to read it all.

Can you write an executive summary for a dissertation?

On a separate note – if you’re writing an executive summary for a dissertation or thesis, all of the concepts described in this post will still apply to you, however, you’ll include an additional paragraph about your methodology, and you’ll likely spend more word count discussing your analysis findings.

How to write a high impact executive summary?

To the first point, I’ll explain what the “most important” information is for each chapter shortly. To the second point (writing concisely), there are various ways to do this, including: Using simple, straightforward language. Using the active voice. Removing bloaty adverbs and adjectives. Reducing prepositional phrases. Avoiding noun strings.