This course aims to improve your Business English writing skills by developing your use of vocabulary, grammar, understanding of different business writing genres, and your ability to write professional business documents. Skills learned in this course will be used in the cross-cultural communications course and help prepare you to produce the professional business documents in the Capstone project. After completing this course, you will be able to: - write business emails - write an executive summary - write persuasively in English - adapt content to purpose, context and audience - use appropriate style and tone of writing for business purposes
Elements of an executive summary
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Del curso dictado por The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
English for Effective Business Writing
104 calificaciones
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
104 calificaciones
Curso 2 de 5 en SpecializationInglés empresarial para personas no nativas
De la lección
Writing executive summaries
Welcome to Week 5! This week we will cover Module 5 where we introduce you to executive summaries and language skills you will use when writing persuasively. You will also be introduced to vocabulary and language skills common to business communications.
Conoce a los instructores
Sean McMinnSenior Insructor
Center for Language Education
Kin TangInstructor
Center for Language Education
Delian GaskellInstructor
Center for Language Education
Hello, let's talk about what goes into what is many would say is the single most
important part of a business proposal, the executive summary.
Why is the executive summary so important do you think?
Well surprisingly enough, once you've submitted your proposal to your client,
the executive summary is often the only part of the proposal that will be read
by the majority of the decision makers.
So it's important to get the key elements of the summary just right.
By the end of this video, you will be able to
articulate the different elements of an executive summary.
So what is an executive summary?
First, the term executive summary is a bit of a misnomer.
It's called a summary but
actually it doesn't really summarize the rest of the proposal.
Instead try to think of an executive summary as an overview of the proposal.
In this summary you should be providing brief information about what the content
that matters would be to anyone who would read it.
From the chairman of the board to a junior business associate.
This means the content will focus on organizational issues and
outcomes not technical content and language that can confuse some readers.
Think carefully about only including content that matters to provide a clear
overview of your proposal.
Save the nitty gritty details for the business proposal itself
which will more likely attract a more technical audience.
The next element to focus on is the potential clients needs.
This means clearly articulating and
perhaps reminding them of the problem they're experiencing.
And showing them the benefits of solving this problem.
An executive summary should attract the clients interest by showing
you understand the specific problem they are experiencing and
it's affecting their profitability or productivity.
This will be unique for each executive summary that you write.
After this you should motivate the client to take action.
To get this problem solved by showing them that will there will a significant benefit
or payoff to solving this problem or meeting this need.
Okay.
So let's talk about how to make this more real.
Let's look at an example of how you could attract a potential clients Interest.
By focusing on their specific need or problem.
Then hold that interest by reminding them of the benefits of solving this problem.
Imagine you are writing the executive summary for
a proposal you've developed for a busy city hospital
that wants to make it's staff patient interactions more time and cost efficient.
First you'd want to attract any reader's attention by articulating
the problem this hospital is solving, or facing, sorry.
Pause this video now and take a few minutes to read
through the beginning of the executive summary for this proposal.
First, we would remind the client of the problem they're solving.
So here we write physicians and nurses working in your hospital have indicated
the current process for recording cases is awkward, time consuming and inaccurate.
As you explain to us the current process is an outdated one which operates
with a number patches in additions that have been created in-house to
deal with the mute emergencies as they have appeared over the years.
In these first two sentences, you're showing the client that you're aware
they're dealing with an aging operation system
that's creating problems when the staff needs to update patient records.
So we write next simplifying the process of updating case files,
entering patient care notes, and documenting treatments can save
Smithson Hospital hundreds in hours and thousands of dollars every week.
In fact, we estimate it can save your physicians a total of 150 hours weekly and
your nursing staff a weekly total of 1,850 hours.
After you've attracted the audience attention and
shown your awareness of their problem, these sentences are where you
keep your audiences attention by given them an overview of the benefits
that would be of solving the problem rather than simply ignoring it.
So the benefits of solving problems caused by this aging computer system
are clear and to the point.
It would help them save a lot of money and provide both the doctors and
nurses with more time to deal with their patients
rather than wasting time inputting data into this troublesome system.
Hopefully this would inspire your potential clients to continue reading so
they have an idea of how to solve this problem.
Pause this video again so you can take the time to read through these key sentences.
The next key element to any executive summary is to provide an overview of how
you propose to solve the problem your client is experience.
This should provide just enough detail to answer any general questions they may have
about the recommendation while being general enough that you do not alienate or
confuse any readers whose background or
technical knowledge to understand what you are proposing is lacking.
Remember, try to tie in your recommendation to the problem the company
is experiencing and
be clear about how your proposed system would actually address the problem.
This may seem obvious, but proposal consultants have pointed out again and
again, that the majority of business proposals they read,
simply describe a product or service.
Rather than clearly making a recommendation that is obviously
tied to the problem.
As you provide an overview of your recommendation,
this is also your opportunity to explain how your proposal and your company is
different from the other companies who are also submitting proposals.
Don't expect your potential client to be able to simply read between the lines to
know how unique your proposal is,
you need to make this clear especially in your executive summary.
And finally the last major element in your executive summary is to keep in mind is to
clearly address the practical aspects of the proposal.
Perhaps how much money it will be needed to reinvest it versus the benefits
that will be attained.
Some basic information about the schedule you propose to implement your
recommendation.
And finally you could indicate whether or
not you can meet any specific technical or considerations your client may have.
Remember you don't need to go into detail for these practical issues, but
you do need to address the issue of cost versus benefit, and briefly
explain the schedule you're proposing in order to solve the company's problem.
But the details for these matter should be found later in the proposal.
Remember that you want to emphasize what you can do for your potential client,
how you're unique from the others who may also be sending proposals to this client.
This should be the key element throughout the entire executive summary.
Well, I hope after reviewing the information in this lecture,
you feel a bit more comfortable in your ability to articulate the key elements
in an executive summary for
your successful business proposals, and thank you for watching.
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