134:, argues that executive summaries are used to present dumbed down arguments: "there is remarkably little adverse comment on the steep decline that has occurred since 1980 in the quality of government policy documents, whose level of argumentation and use of evidence is all too often inversely related to the quality of their presentation (in the style of corporate reports, complete with executive summaries and flashy graphics)."
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has argued that this process is often active rather than passive. In one study, centred on globalization, she found that policy makers face "pressures to adopt a simple reading of complex issues" and "to depoliticise and universalize all sorts of differences". She claims that "all research was framed
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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),
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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
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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".
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points. The partners' reports were supposed to look the same. The standardization of research occurred via vehicles such as executive summaries: 'executives only read the summaries' we were told". Similarly
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Report
Writing Skills Training Course - How to Write a Report and Executive Summary, and Plan, Design and Present Your Report - An Easy Format for ... of Exercises and Free Downloadable Workbook [
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It has been said that, by providing an easy digest of an often complex matter, an executive summary can lead policy makers and others to overlook important issues. Prof. Amanda
Sinclair of the
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There is general agreement on the structure of an executive summary for business use - books and training courses emphasise similar points. Typically, an executive summary will:
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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
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Executive summaries are important as a communication tool in both academia and business. For example, members of
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In common usage the term "executive summary" is a synonym for "summary" and has partially displaced that term.
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548:"Doing Critical Research for the Government of Australia By Amanda Sinclair"
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An executive summary was formerly known as a summary. It differs from an
435:"Guidelines for the writing of an executive summary to accompany reports"
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411:. Miami School of Business. Farmer School of Business. Archived from
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572:""The cynical state" by Colin Lays, Socialist Register 2006 p1-27"
499:"Texas A&M University Department of Agricultural Economics"
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An executive summary published by the US Department of State
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be written in language appropriate for the target audience
221:"Business Plan Outline - 23 Point Checklist For Success"
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be approximately 5-10% of the length of the main report
121:under pre-defined and generic headings, such as
80:only include material present in the main report
77:be written in the same order as the main report
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372:"Writing Guide: Executive Summaries"
71:consist of short, concise paragraphs
248:"Rough Guide to Business Planning"
149:Business plan presentation formats
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477:"Writing the Executive Summary"
439:Funding of Projects, Guidelines
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441:. Protein Research Foundation
321:. Universe of Learning Ltd.
315:Greenhall, Margaret (2010).
374:. Colorado State University
255:Greater Merseyside Changeup
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479:. York University, Toronto
106:Texas A&M University
27:, sometimes also called
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118:University of Melbourne
86:provide a justification
154:Introduction (writing)
178:writing.colostate.edu
83:make recommendations
74:begin with a summary
405:"Executive Summary"
616:Business documents
335:on 6 November 2012
264:on 16 January 2015
132:Socialist Register
25:management summary
578:on 6 October 2011
328:978-1-84937-036-3
130:, writing in The
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483:1 December
284:"Abstract"
268:16 January
160:References
128:Colin Leys
112:Criticisms
100:Importance
30:speed read
556:7 October
532:7 October
507:7 October
293:7 October
232:7 October
204:7 October
183:7 October
57:Structure
610:Category
144:Abstract
138:See also
47:abstract
35:business
582:14 June
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226:Forbes
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323:ISBN
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