Business Executive Summary

Include: 1. purpose (what the report, article, book etc. does—the report examines;

the author X discusses...)

2. essential points

3. conclusions/results

Leave out: 1. opinion (your own too) = unsupported/untenable/unarguable

assertions (something along the lines of “I like pizza”).

2. new/external data

3. points irrelevant to the central argument

4. examples

5. background

6. footnotes, etc.

7. jargon

8. remarks indicating that you’re writing a summary

PROCESS OF WRITING A SUMMARY

Read the material and highlight the main points. (clues: headings)

Watch for key words and highlight.

Watch for words that indicate main points:

1. words that enumerate: first, second, initially, next

2. words that express causation: accordingly, as a result

3. words that signal essentials: basically, crucial, foremost

4. topic sentences: often at end or beginning of paragraph

Watch for words that indicate nonessentials:

1. words announcing opinion: I think, I believe, in my opinion

2. words pointing out examples: for instance, such as

Organize the information into a draft summary. Read through the draft and delete what is unnecessary. Be sure you have included the results/ conclusions/main ideas.

Don’t piece your summary together from thinly disguised quotations from the text. In other words, don’t copy! Rather, your summary needs to read smoothly and the sentences should be logically connected . Do not use quotations, even those enclosed in quotation marks, in your summary—paraphrase! You need to put the edited version of the summary in your own words, if the author is someone other than you.

Papoulias – Fall 2014