An executive summary is typically the first section of a business plan, report or project, and summarises all of the content, highlighting the key points. You should check the guidance in your module handbook to see if this section is a part of your assignment. It is usually written for nontechnical people who don't have time to read the main report. Once you have determined what is the most essential information in your business plan or report, you must format that information in a clear, concise way. The end result should be an executive summary that serves as an introduction to your report, but that can also stand on its own as an overview.
Writing a conclusion is an important part of any piece of writing. It is often possible to get a good picture of an assignment by looking briefly at the conclusion. However, writing one can be quite difficult. This is because it can often be hard to find something interesting or useful to say. Conclusions should be attractive and interesting but often they are rather dull and "formula written".
Although formulae for writing conclusions are tempting to use, it is always best to avoid set phrases such as "Therefore, let us conclude that..." which are clichés, and do not help to end your work in the best light.
Trzeciak and Mackay (1994) observe a number of useful "ingredients" that form part of a conclusion. Again, as with introductions, it will not always be necessary or desirable to include all the elements they mention. However, you will probably want to use some of these in some combination, in order to conclude your work.
Pallant (2009), meanwhile, sees the conclusion slightly differently. She argues that the conclusion should "leave (the reader) with a clear impression that the purposes of the essay have been achieved". Pallant sees five basic ingredients of a conclusion as follows, though these will not always be used in the same conclusion:
These recommendations probably apply more to discussion essays than they do to other kinds of assessed writing at university. For example, if you are writing a business plan or discussing a law scenario, or answering an examination question, you may not need the above elements, unless the question specifically asks you for them or unless it is known that it is expected of you in the discipline you are working in.
However, you will generally need a final section to indicate that you are 'rounding off' the discusion. Always be very careful to check what the conventions are in the discipline you are working in, and ideally, it is best to look at examples of past students' work so that you can see what you are aiming for.
When writing longer pieces of work, it is still very important to observe some of the principles mentioned previously. For instance, you will still want to ensure that your conclusion really does conclude, and does not just go off at a tangent to discuss something that is unrelated to the thesis. Some people believe (mistakenly) that a conclusion is the place for you to relax and 'say whatever you want'. This is incorrect. If you do this, you will be likely to be marked down.
There are also likely to be some key differences in your approach when writing conclusions. Certainly, conclusions will be even more important in a dissertation or thesis, purely because of the length of the piece. Among the differences you will notice are the following: