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BUS 750/760-Business Internship Seminar/Applied Senior Project (UNH Manchester): Writing Executive Summaries

This guide will help you with your projects for Bill Troy's BUS 750/760 course.

Executive Summaries

"The executive summary is usually no longer than 10% of the original document. It can be anywhere from 1-10 pages long, depending on the report's length. Executive summaries are written literally for an executive who most likely DOES NOT have the time to read the original.

  • Executive summaries make a recommendation
  • Accuracy is essential because decisions will be made based on your summary by people who have not read the original
  • Executive summaries frequently summarize more than one document"

--Colorado State University: Writing @ CSU

Executive Summary Tips

"As its name suggests, an executive summary summarizes, or reviews the main points of, a longer document or report for a reader that does not have time to read the entire report. An effective executive summary analyzes and summarizes the most important points in the paper or report, and will often make a recommendation based on the analysis. Executive summaries are “stand alone” documents that are almost always read independently of the reports they summarize." --University of Maryland