Business Communication

Abstract

An abstract or executive summary comes immediately after the list of tables in the table of contents or on/after the title page itself. Normally, a report has either an abstract or an executive summary, based on the length of the report and expectations of readers. A company practice may be to have both an abstract and an executive summary with long reports. A summary: • Should give the context of the report • Should provide the most important findings, conclusions, and recommendations • Should act as a time-saver for busy management executives Usually, management reports use executive summaries instead of abstracts. An abstract is a summary of a report’s most important points. It can be either descriptive or informative and is generally written in about 200 words and in one paragraph. An executive summary gives a more detailed overview of a report than an abstract does. It can run into one or two pages. It presents the reader with a preview of the report’s findings, conclusions, recommendations, and impact on the company. Management executives sometimes need to know just the main contents of a report, specially its conclusions and recommendations, and a detailed synopsis in the form of an executive summary serves this purpose.