Difference Between Executive Summary, Abstract and Synopsis

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF BALOCHISTAN

TOPIC: DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, ABSTRACT AND SYNOPSIS WHAT IS LITERATURE REVIEW

SUBM SUBMIT ITTE TED D TO: TO:

SIR SHEHZA EHZAD D BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

SUBMITTED BY BY:

KHALID KH KHAN M 10 MBA 1ST SEMESTER 

DATE:

19 SEPTEMBER, 2008

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, ABSTRACT AND SYONPSIS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY An executive summary is a report, proposal, or portfolio, etc in miniature. That is, the executive summary contains enough information for the readers to become acquainted with the full document without reading it. Usually, it contains a statement of the   problem, some background information, a description of any alternatives, and the major conclusions. Someone reading an executive summary should get a good idea of  main points of the document without becoming bogged down with details. An executive summary differs from an abstract in that an abstract is usually only about six to eight lines long. Its purpose is to inform the reader of the points to be covered in the report without any attempt to tell what is said about them. Covering no more more than than a page page in leng length th,, the the execu executi tive ve summ summary ary is long longer er and and is a high highly ly condensed version of the most important information the full document contains. Both the executive summary and the abstract are independent elements rather than a part of  the body of the document. Both are placed at the beginning of the document. With the possible exception of the conclusion and recommendation, the executive summary is the most important part of a report. As such, it should be the best-written and most polished piece of the document. This is because many readers may only look at the executive summary when deciding whether or not to read the entire docume document. nt. In some some compan companies ies,, the execut executive ive summar summaries ies are distrib distribute uted d so that that employees are informed as to what information is available, and interested readers may request the entire document. In short, you may expect that an executive summary will be read more frequently and by more people than will your entire document. Since the executive summary is a condensation, when creating it, you omit any  preliminaries, details, and illustrative examples. You do include the main ideas, the

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summary. Do not take a few sentences from key sections of the document and string them together. Rather, go over the entire document and make notes of the elements you consider important. From your notes, create a rough draft of the summary. Then,  polish what you have written until it is smooth and seamless without unnecessary wordiness. Do not include any introductory or transitional material. Finally, ensure that your executive summary is accurate and representative of your full document. It should not be misleading, but it should give readers the same impression as if they had read the entire report.

ABSTRACT An abstra abstract ct is a brief brief summar summary y of a researc research h article article,, thesis thesis,, review review,, confere conference nce  proceeding  proceeding or any in-depth in-depth analysis of a particular particular subject or discipline, discipline, and is often used to help the reader quickly ascertain the paper's purpose. When used, an abstract always appears appears at the beginning beginning of a manuscript, manuscript, acting as the point-of-entry point-of-entry for any given scientific paper or patent application. Abstraction and indexing services are avai availab lable le for for a numb number er of acad academ emic ic disc discip ipli line nes, s, aime aimed d at comp compil ilin ing g a body body of  literature for that particular subject.An abstract is a self-contained, short, and powerful statement statement that describes a larger work. Components Components vary according according to discipline; discipline; an abstract of a social science or scientific work may contain the scope, purpose, results, and contents of the work. An abstract of a humanities work may contain the thesis,  background, and conclusion of the larger work. An abstract is not a review, nor does it evaluate the work being abstracted. While it contains key words found in the larger  work, the abstract is an original document rather than an excerpted passage.

SYNOPSIS A synopsis is a brief overview of a report’s most important points, designed to give readers a quick preview of the contents. It’s often included in long informational reports dealing with technical, professional or academic subjects and can also be called an abstract. Because it’s a concise representation of the whole report, it may be

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ABSTRACT VS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, DIFFERENCES

These are the differences between Abstract  and Executive Summary: ABSTRACT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

NATURE

Abbreviated summary.

Unique selling point (USP).

AUDIENCE

Specialized (researchers) or mere readers.

Decision makers, e.g. corporate managers.

SCOPE

Informational, academic, administrative, and other general documents (thesis, articles, and  patents).

Solicited or unsolicited sales  proposals and bids (P&B).

PURPOSE

Give information. Ascertain the purpose of the whole document; give an overview or preview of its content.

Call for action. Persuade readers to buy on the recommended solution addressing the problem, namely, make your  unique selling point  (USP).

CONTENT

Mainly technical:

Mainly managerial (The 4 rules of   persuasion):

1. Pres Presen entt the the prob proble lem m and and scope; 2. Expo Expose se the the use used d methodology; 3. Repo Report rt obs observ ervati ation onss and and results; 4. Draw Draw conc conclu lusi sion onss and and recommendations.

1. Stat Statee outc outcom omes es and and  benefits; 2. Substa Substanti ntiate ate benefi benefits ts with with  proofs of concept; 3. Appl Apply y ben benefi efits ts to the the reader's particular; context (win themes); 4. Reco Recomm mmen end d a solu soluti tion on to to address the problem.

LENGTH

Short. Shorter than the executive summary.

Short. Longer than the abstract.

S

Technical, static, and more

Managerial, dynamic, and more

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As revealed by the side-by-side side-by-side comparison comparison above, above, the key difference between an abst abstra ract ct and and an exec execut utiv ivee summ summar ary y resid resides es on thei theirr anti antipo poda dall purp purpos ose, e, and and consequently on the format used to achieve this goal. Indeed, while the abstract  aims at convincing the reader  to go through the whole document  in order to quash his thirst of information, the executive executive summary, at the

opposite, aims at persuading the reader, who is supposed to be a decision maker, to take of forgo an action , whether usually buying a product, or approving another 

action.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY VS SYNOPSIS An executive summary is a fully developed mini version of the report itself, intended for readers who lack the time or motivation to study the complete text while a synopsis is a prose table of contents that outlines the main points of the report. So an executive summary is more comprehensive than a synopsis, often as much as 10  percent as long as the report itself. Unlike synopsis executive summary may contain headings, well-developed transitions, and even visual aids. It is often organized in the same way as the report, using a direct or an indirect approach.

WHAT IS LITERATURE REVIEW A literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical points of current knowledge on a particular topic. Most often associated associated with science-orien science-oriented ted literature, such as a thesis, thesis, the literature literature review usually precedes a research proposal, methodology and results section. Its ultimate goal is to bring the reader up to date with current literature on a topic and forms the basis for another goal, such as the justification for future research in the area. A good literature review is characterized by: a logical flow of ideas; current and

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A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or  relevant. According to Cooper  (1988) "  A literature review uses as its database reports of 

 primary or original scholarship, and does not report new primary scholarship itself. The primary reports used in the literature may be verbal, but in the vast majority of  cases reports are written documents. The types of scholarship may be empirical, theoretical, theoretical, critical/analytic, critical/analytic, or methodological methodological in nature. Second a literature literature review   seeks seeks to descr describe ibe,, summa summari rize, ze, evalu evaluate ate,, clari clarify fy and/or and/or integ integrat ratee the conte content nt of   primary reports". Undertaking a review of a body of literature is often seen as something obvious and a task easily done. In practice, although research students do produce what are called reviews of the literature, literature, the quality quality of these varies considerably considerably.. Many reviews, reviews, in fact, are only thinly disguised annotated bibliographies. Quality means appropriate  breadth and depth, rigor and consistency, clarity and brevity, and effective analysis and synthesis; in other words, the use of the ideas in the literature to justify the  particular approach to the topic, the selection of methods and demonstration that this research contributes something new. The originality of a research topic often depends on critical reading of a wideranging literature. The nature of these concerns, on one hand, immersing oneself in the topic to avoid the shallowness of quick and “dirty” research and, on the other, there is the need to identify the key ideas and methodologies from which some contribution to knowledge might be made. Without a systematic search and critical reading of the literature it would be very difficult to see how academic research

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the nature and character of the implications of a development you need to know the intellectual context of that development.