Executive Summary Writing Course

Available for groups as a self-paced online course, instructor-led virtual or instructor-led onsite training, and for individuals as a self-paced online course.

Download the Outline

Learn exactly how we structure this course to help you or your management team quickly become an advanced executive summary writer.

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The ability to summarize and synthesize lots of information into a coherent statement that highlights implications, not merely a recitation of facts, is essential in managerial and persuasive writing.

These summaries take many forms — briefs, scorecards, status reports, regulatory reports, client recommendations, meeting summaries, status updates, and business pitches.

They require keen thinking and planning, and skilled writing to enable your reader to understand complex information easily. Most professionals write executive summaries throughout much of their business writing.

This course teaches the optimal business writing process, provides broad-based business writing improvement, and teaches you how to write clearly and correctly.

The online self-paced course also includes a live one-on-one coaching session to review any executive summary recently written. Instructor-led courses include custom exercises based on the executive summaries the group typically writes.

INDIVIDUALS

$895

Online self-paced course available for individuals.

GROUPS

Online self-paced course and instructor-led training can be customized to match your needs. Group discounts apply.

Executive Summary Writing skills gained in this course:


  • Reduce writing time writing by at least 25%.

  • Apply an efficient process for planning and organizing detailed information and ideas.

  • Extract the most relevant information from a document and repurpose it seamlessly into another medium.

  • Improve clarity by using succinct, engaging, and correct language.

  • Write in clear, direct sentences with empathy.

  • Use correct grammar and punctuation to create polished and professional documents.

 

Individual written feedback and live coaching for every student

Personal feedback from an expert instructor takes any professional writing to the next level. To truly improve writing habits and create strong writing skills, both course instruction and feedback on actual writing are needed.

Our feedback includes both subjective and objective feedback, in addition to a personal grammar diagnosis and additional helpful resources.

Objective feedback:

  • Does the document have a clear purpose and objective?
  • Is the document based fully on the reader's perspective?
  • Does the reader have all the content needed (and none that is not needed) to achieve the business objective of the document?

Subjective feedback:

  • Is your tone too blunt or too timid?
  • Are your word choices clear and strong?
  • Can you cut any unnecessary words?
  • Are there any grammar errors?
View the Full Details in the Course Outline

Flexible training to meet your needs.

Online course for individuals or groups

Online, self-paced training allows individuals and teams to train on their schedule with 24/7 access to the course. This online training method has flexible deadlines which allows for groups across different time zones to all receive the same training.

Virtual instructor-led course for groups

Virtual training allows for highly engaging instruction, exercises, and discussion. Participants complete activities in breakout rooms with fellow students, break down writing individually, and are encouraged to participate in conversations and ask questions.

Onsite instructor-led course for groups

In-person training is highly interactive, with many individual and shared activities. Groups of customer service agents work together at your location to deconstruct messaging, deep dive into individual writing concerns, and more.

Schedule a call to find out more about group training options
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Certificate of Completion

Participants will earn a personalized certification of completion after finishing this course. This can be displayed on a LinkedIn profile, downloaded to print and hang, or mentioned in a résumé.

What is included in this course?

This executive summary writing course is split into several detailed lessons including video lessons and online resources.
Getting Started

An Introduction and Self-Assessment

This section outlines the necessary foundation for writing well. It introduces the training and project objectives. Share your specific course goals, and tell us about the typical documents you write.

Lesson 1

6 Steps to Writing Effective Executive Summaries

Learn our step-by-step process to write more effectively. In order to summarize well, a business writer needs to have a strong understanding of what the reader needs as well as the document's purpose.

You will be able to create better structure and help your reader take the desired action by summarizing what matters.

Lesson 2

Importance of Organization

Learn how to organize your information for clarity. This lesson includes tips and tricks on how to organize the beginning, middle, and end of your document and make it quick to scan.

We'll also illustrate actual executive summary writing and how to craft a "so what" summary that highlights what matters from mere backstory.

Lesson 3

Internal Documents

Colleagues depend on well-summarized information to act decisively. Learn how to write better internal documents.

Better communication inside your organization can lead to fewer meetings, higher productivity, and less chaos.

Lesson 4

External Documents

Learn best practices for when you need to write to external stakeholders. A writing mistake to a team member may be overlooked, but you can be sure it will be noticed by a new customer, supplier, or regulator. It is crucial you can communicate professionally and summarize well.

Lesson 5

Email Use and Structure

Email now accounts for over 25% of our time in the workplace. In this lesson, we teach you how to save time and better manage high email volume. You will learn how to structure emails to elicit the results you want.

Lesson 6

Strategy for Reports with an Executive Summary

Learn the optimal structure and sequence for a business report given your target market.

You will learn how to drastically improve a lengthy report's effectiveness by writing a focused and well-synthesized executive summary that enables readers to quickly glean the most important implications.

Lesson 7

Organization and Presentation

In this lesson, we share the best tips for organizing and presenting information, including graphical representations.

Good readability helps your target market/reader scan and easily absorb complex information. You will also learn how to format documents depending on their purpose, like project proposals, marketing plans, project overviews, etc.

Lesson 8

Clarity and Word Choice

By definition, executive summaries convey complex information. The goal is to make the complex clear.

In this lesson, you will learn the tested tools to eliminate bloat, write clear and direct, and easy-to-understand sentences.

Lesson 9

Style and Tone

Style and tone change depending on the type of document or project plan you are writing and your reader. An internal memo or email is different than an external letter or report.

In this section, we provide a comprehensive overview of how to convey confidence and emote an executive voice that presents you as a skilled professional.

Lesson 10

Grammar and Syntax

Identify your particular grammar and punctuation errors and learn tactics to avoid these embarrassing mistakes.

These go beyond simple tips and tricks. These are proven grammar and syntax strategies that will make your writing correct and professional.

Final Document Review

One-on-One Coaching Session

The course concludes with a live one-on-one coaching session with your instructor.

During this session, you will review one of your entire documents with your instructor, and verify your ability to summarize anything well in writing. You can ask any lingering questions.

This live coaching call helps to solidify the information learned during the course so you can apply your new knowledge to future writing.

View the full course outline and list of included resources

What will writing look like after this training?

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Complex information is summarized well.
time-icon
Writing time is significantly reduced.
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Well-organized, relevant content is included.
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Designed and formatted to be easy to read.
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Next steps are clearly outlined.
writing-icon
Writer’s block is avoided through planning.
readability-icon
Tone and readability is considered.
persuasion-icon
Persuasion is clear and effective.
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Competent, clear, and professional.
grammar-icon
Grammar errors are identified and corrected.

This course’s expert instructors

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Janet D'Angelo

Janet is a business writing and marketing instructor, consultant, author, and public speaker with more than 20 years of experience working with individuals, small businesses, and corporations to develop all facets of business communication includes business plans. She writes and speaks extensively on business writing and marketing writing and has been a featured speaker at numerous business and education conferences in the U.S. and abroad. Janet taught analytical writing, marketing writing, proposal writing, and general business writing courses at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

She enjoys gardening, yoga, hiking, and exploring the endless beauty of the New England seacoast where she lives on the South Shore of Massachusetts.

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Grace Cuddy

Grace has extensive experience in Instructional Solutions' online English courses and also works with individuals and groups from several international companies across Europe as a business writing coach. She is an expert in business writing and loves to help students and management teams remove unnecessary details from their writing to help meet their company objectives.

She is bilingual in English and Spanish and has a keen sensitivity to global writing. She has a strong background in corporate communication and management plan and successfully developed cross-functional writing and communication processes in a large corporate team. She has also helped professional engineers and firms develop professional training programs.

She enjoys yoga, travel, and dance. She splits her time between New York City and Madrid.

She is bilingual in English and Spanish. She enjoys yoga, travel, and dance. She splits her time between New York City and Madrid.

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Elisabeth O'Quinn

Elisabeth has a unique combination of business and business writing acumen, with an extensive background in effective writing, editing, and marketing.

She has supported a wide range of businesses, writing blog articles, white papers, elevator pitches, and editing business documents. She has supported many of our clients with rave reviews of her writing feedback, helping countless participants with effective communications.

Elisabeth lives in Georgia with her cat and rescue pup. In addition to writing, she loves traveling with her twin sister, learning German, and creating watercolor prints.

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Katie Almeida Spencer

Katie is an experienced Business Writing and English as a Second Language instructor, business writing coach, content writer, and teacher trainer. She taught Business Skills and Academic Writing at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

She is very skilled at evaluating both the substance and language of business documents. Her writing critiques, instruction, and coaching have received stellar evaluations from our clients at Chartis Consulting, DuPont, Shell, Southern Middlesex Opportunity Council, and the World Wildlife Fund, as well as our clients with the Federal Government.

She holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Rhode Island and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her areas of expertise include business writing and technical report writing, proposal writing, customer loyalty, and non-native writing.

Course feedback and testimonials

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I often have to summarize complicated information and explain large loss coverage to people who are under stress. I will apply this training to all of my letters, emails to customers, communication with colleagues, and my reports.

Senior Claims Adjuster
Kemper Corporation
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The written comments were much more detailed than I expected, and I appreciate the time taken to provide that level of feedback and instruction.

Anonymous
Lincoln Financial Group
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Great instructor who was extremely knowledgeable. She made complex executive summaries seem very easy and the tips she provided can be easily implemented. Excellent class!

Director
USAA
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This has helped me to better plan and structure my writing - and also helped me to think more about whom I'm writing to in my emails/reports.

Director, Customer Success
Aegis Industrial Software Corporation
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Thank you very much for your insightful comments. I actually appreciate the fact that you "nitpicked" my exercises. Your comments and suggestions are of great value, and I can only benefit from your professional advice. What a great resource to go back and be able to refer to. 

Account Executive
FedEx Services
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The course provides amazing guidance when it comes to proper writing.

Consultant
Defense Trade Solutions
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Thank you again for helping me gain clarity in my business writing, and for all the tips on managing all the information I gather on a daily basis. These courses are invaluable.

Business Analyst
USAA

Become a better executive summary writer.

Sign up today or schedule a discussion to become a stronger writer.

INDIVIDUALS

$895

Sign up today and start learning how to become a better writer.

GROUPS

We offer customized and flexible online, virtual, and onsite courses, workshops, and classes that match your company’s writing needs.