An executive summary is a crucial component in both academic and business reports, typically comprising about 5 to 10% of the overall document length. It is designed for a specific target audience and is structured in short, easy-to-read paragraphs. It starts with a brief summary and follows the same sequence as the main report. The executive summary serves as a vital communication tool, providing an initial point of contact between the author and the reader. It has the power to influence their decision to proceed with reading the full report and plays a significant role in shaping their first impression. While it’s a valuable tool, it has been criticized for potentially oversimplifying complex issues, leading to overlooked critical points, and pressuring readers to adopt a simplistic view. It may also result in the standardization of research and arguments, which can degrade the quality of certain documents such as government policies.
An executive summary (or management summary, sometimes also called speed read) is a short document or section of a document produced for business purposes. It 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. It usually contains a brief statement of the problem or proposal covered in the major document(s), background information, concise analysis and main conclusions. It is intended as an aid to decision-making by managers and has been described as the most important part of a business plan.
An executive summary was formerly known as a summary. It differs from an abstract in that an abstract will usually be shorter and is typically intended as an overview or orientation rather than being a condensed version of the full document. Abstracts are extensively used in academic research where the concept of the executive summary is not in common usage. "An abstract is a brief summarizing statement... read by parties who are trying to decide whether or not to read the main document", while "an executive summary, unlike an abstract, is a document in miniature that may be read in place of the longer document".
In common usage the term "executive summary" is a synonym for "summary" and has partially displaced that term.
NL 
EN 
FR 
PT