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【 阿波罗新闻网2007-09-20讯】
communication tip
"Writing an Executive Summary": An executive summary previews the main points of an in-depth report, it is written for non-technical people who don’t have time to read the main report.
Follow the steps written below to create an effective and meaningful executive summary:
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Plan to create a summary each time you write a business report exceeding four pages. Write the summary after you write the main report, and make sure it is no more than 1/10th the length of the main report.
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List the main points the report will cover in the same order they appear in the report.
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Write a simple declarative sentence for each of the main points.
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Add supporting and explanatory sentences as needed, avoiding unnecessary technical material and jargon.
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Read the summary slowly and critically, making sure it conveys your purpose, message and key recommendations. You want the readers to skim the summary without missing the main point of the report.
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Check for errors of style, grammar, spelling and punctuation. Ask a fellow writer to proof-read and edit the document.
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Ask a non-technical person to read the summary. If it confuses or bores them, the summary probably will have the same effect on other non-technical readers. Revise the summary to make it simpler to understand.
word/phrase
"Take a rain check": means to show inability to do something at the moment and say that you would like to do it at sometime later.
E.g. "I will take a rain check on that drink tonight if that is all right."
commonly confused
"Ambiguous, Ambivalent": Ambiguous means having more than one meaning, open to different interpretations. Ambivalent means having mixed feelings.
E.g. "The Minister gave an ambiguous answer when asked about the immigration bill."
E.g. "He was ambivalent when dealing with the conflicts between his mom and his wife."
do you know?
i About straw-man proposal: A "straw-man proposal", is a brainstormed simple business proposal intended to generate discussion of its disadvantages and to provoke the generation of new and better proposals. Often, a straw man document will be prepared by one or two people prior to kicking off a larger project. In this way, the team can jump start their discussions with a document that is likely to contain many, but not all the key aspects to be discussed. As the document is revised, it may be given other edition names such as the more solid-sounding "stone-man", "iron-man", and so on, etc.
The succession of names comes from the requirements document for the programming language Ada. In this document, the various stages were Straw-man, Wood-man, Tin-man and Iron-man. Later, another Ada document added the following sequence of men: Sand-man, Pebble-man and Stone-man.
In software development, a crude plan or document may serve as the straw-man or starting point in the evolution of a project. The straw-man is not expected to be the last word; it is refined until a final model or document is obtained that resolves all issues concerning the scope and nature of the project. In this context, a straw-man can take the form of an outline, a set of charts, a presentation, or a paper.
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