The ability to compose concise and informative executive summaries is a necessary writing skill for business students as they prepare for employment. As such, executive summary assignments have recently become a mainstay in the MGT 111 course curriculum, affording students generous amounts of practice with this common business writing task. Historically, writing has been an important element in the MGT 111 curriculum; however, during the past five years, there has been a significant shift in the kind of writing assignments MGT 111 students can expect. Recognizing the importance of short, multiple writing assignments that can be developed and refined over the long term of the semester, MGT 111 faculty implemented the executive summary assignments in a concerted effort to more effectively meet the writing needs of FSB students.
The executive summary is a "stand alone" document, functioning as a précis or an abstract to a longer published article, which highlights the critical claims and/or central arguments in the article in an effort to afford an executive a "quick read" and enable business decisions based on the information culled from the text. Currently, most MGT 111 students are required to write three executive summary assignments that correspond with the stated curricular elements of the course; namely, leadership, business management, and marketing. While many MGT 111 sections also require a final, team-written "research" paper, the executive summaries are unique in that they provide a continuous writing activity that helps students learn how and when to use business prose in "real world" applications.
To craft a successful executive summary, students must be aware of the rhetorical situation in which they are writing and reading. One of the most difficult aspects of the executive summary assignment is identifying the essential information expressed in an article. If the article is read repeatedly, carefully, and with an eye to detail, the executive summary will be much easier to write.
When writing an executive summary, students must always account for three rhetorical elements: audience, purpose, and arrangement. Neglecting to account for any one of these elements could result in an ineffective summary. Consider the following excerpt taken from one of Professor Ron Schloemer's Executive Summary Assignments:
Assume you are a recent Miami grad working as a consultant in the Human Resources (HR) area of a major corporation. The HR manager, Rod Summers, has been asked by the CEO to design a leadership-training program for mid-level management. He has been asked to specifically address the communication skills required of managers at all levels. Accordingly, he has asked you to research the latest articles on the subject, summarize them, and give him your reaction to what you have read.
In the above scenario, two audiences are identified: 1) the CEO of a major corporation; 2) HR manager Rod Summers. The challenge, then, is to be able to write the executive summary in such a way so that both audiences will be satisfied. The CEO, who does not have time to conduct her own research, has asked Rod Summers, the HR manager, to research the latest articles on communication skills required of managers. Rod Summers, also a busy person, has passed the task on to you. Thus, in summarizing a long article, you can account for both of these audiences by using professional language, by writing clear and direct sentences, and by summarizing only the most relevant aspects of the article.
As a general "rule," you should work to avoid expressing your own personal opinion on the article's contents. On the other hand, sometimes you might be specifically asked to evaluate the article. For instance, the HR manager described above has asked you to provide a personal reaction at the end of the summary—a reaction that may be helpful to Rod when he reports back to the CEO. In short, you must always account for the needs of your audience, which in this case is multiple. Reading carefully is the best way to ensure that your executive summary is written to the specifications of your audience.
Executive summaries provide concise summaries of longer documents that may contain information pertinent for a company. They are usually written for executives who are too busy to read the longer article, and, therefore, rely on other members of the company to provide written summaries of the article's most relevant and important information. The above example clearly defines the purpose of the executive summary: to provide summaries of articles that "specifically address the communication skills required of managers at all levels." Thus, when writing your summary, you would only be concerned with an article insofar as it addresses this one topic. You should deem all other aspects of the article irrelevant and should refrain from discussing them in any detail.
Though executive summaries may serve different purposes - depending on who they are written for and why they are written—all executive summaries should be able to function as "stand alone" documents. In other words, your audience should be able to capture the full meaning of the document without having to read the article.
Executive summaries require that the writer be aware of the conventions of this particular writing task. Summaries are seldom longer than two pages, double spaced. Anything longer would defeat the overall purpose of an executive summary; that is, it would not serve to provide a busy executive with a brief and concise summary of a longer document.
It's important to remember that there is more than one format for executive summaries, and that these formats will frequently vary among companies and executives. However, our experience shows us that two formats that are the most prevalent in the workplace:
Below you will find the link to the sample assignments from Ron Schloemer's MGT 111 course. One assignment directs the student to use a narrative format, while the other asks for a memo format.
Last modified on 4/2/08 | Content maintained by HWI
