How To Summarize

If you want to know how I feel, I’ll summarize it in one word – terrible. Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the NHL.

The 1. _ of modern life is becoming faster every day. Most of us constantly come across more obligations and issues that need our attention. Thus, people have less and less time to read 2. _ reports. Very often the person who writes such reports is the only one who actually reads them.

When you start writing a larger document, it often helps to 3. _ your main points. For example, in your outline you can write down the headings and 4. _ of your report and main conclusions that you need to communicate. Outlining helps you stay organized when writing. It also helps you prepare for the presentation because you know your main points at all times.

Nowadays most reports have an 5. _ summary in the beginning of the document. An executive summary is a report, proposal, etc. in 6. _ that contains enough information for the reader to become 7. __ with the document without reading it. Usually it contains the statement of the problem, some background information and the major conclusions. It has no more than one page.

Some companies only distribute executive summaries to their employees, and then people who are interested in it may request a full document. It is important that all summaries and outlines 8. __ or stress your main points clearly. It means you are giving your main arguments a special weight.

You can achieve proper 9. _ by putting your main points into your executive summary, into your conclusions, in the beginning of the paragraphs, or simply by 10. _ them. However, be careful with underlining because if your report ends up being underlined from the beginning to the end, then underlining fails to 11. _ the purpose. In that way, it fails to 12. _ your main points.

Although highlight can refer to using a bright-coloured pen (usually yellow) to make parts of the text more prominent, it also means to emphasize. Finally, an 13. _ is a general summary of the subject. For example, you could say that “The treasurer gave the overview of the financial consequences of the recession”. The overview can also serve the purpose of an outline: it is a 14. _ map for your larger document.

In 15. __, when you need to write a long report, proposal or any other official document, keep in mind that writing an outline helps you navigate through the process, having an executive summary helps your reader decide if he or she needs to read it, and that proper highlighting or emphasizing of your points may make your document more efficient and easier to read. In the era when people have less time to read, those little tricks might win you some serious points at work!