Readability and Plain Language
Executive Reading Pass
Compress content for time-limited decision makers while preserving the decision, evidence, options, risk, uncertainty, constraints, and required context.
Free editable Markdown · Executive communications teams, analysts, and editors ·
Accessible HTML preview
Blank template
The downloaded file contains the same fields in editable Markdown.
Decision layer
- Decision required
- [Approve, choose, defer, monitor, or act]
- Decision owner
- [Role or group]
- Needed by
- [Date and reason]
- Current state
- [Two or three verified facts]
- Recommendation
- [One bounded action]
- Why now
- [Trigger or consequence]
- Requested next step
- [Named owner and action]
Evidence and options
- Decisive evidence
- [Claim, source, and relevance]
- Option A
- [Benefits, costs, constraints]
- Option B
- [Benefits, costs, constraints]
- Do-nothing option
- [Consequence and uncertainty]
- Key dependency
- [What must be true or available]
- Strongest risk
- [Likelihood, impact, mitigation]
- Important uncertainty
- [What is not known]
- What changes the recommendation
- [Threshold or event]
- Supporting analysis
- [Accessible source location]
Preservation checks
- The decision and deadline appear before background.
- The recommendation is distinguished from verified facts.
- Meaningful alternatives and inaction are visible.
- Cost, risk, uncertainty, and dependencies remain in the top layer.
- Numbers and claims retain traceable evidence.
- Specialist terms are defined without changing meaning.
- Actions have owners, dates, and success conditions.
- Reviewer restatement matches the full analysis.
How to use this template
- Identify the decision maker, required decision, deadline, current state, and consequence of action or delay.
- Extract the recommendation, alternatives, decisive evidence, uncertainty, cost, dependencies, and risks.
- Build a layered summary that removes repetition while keeping the decision logic intact.
- Link evidence and assign clear owners, dates, and escalation points.
- Ask expert and executive-context reviewers to restate the brief, then resolve meaning gaps.
Lead with the decision and current state
Open with what decision, approval, awareness, or intervention is needed, by when, and why it matters now. State the current situation using a small number of verified facts. Separate the recommended action from background so the reader does not have to infer the ask. If no decision is required, say what the reader should understand or monitor. Avoid an opening that announces the document topic but postpones its practical purpose until the conclusion.
Compress repetition, not consequential nuance
Remove duplicated history, scene-setting, process narration, and low-impact detail. Preserve the basis for the recommendation, credible alternatives, material cost, dependencies, uncertainty, and strongest risk. Use a table when options share exact criteria; use prose when relationships and qualifications matter. Translate specialist terms but retain necessary definitions. Do not hide unfavorable evidence in an appendix while the summary makes a confident claim. A reader should understand what could change the recommendation.
Create layers with traceability
Design a top layer containing decision, recommendation, evidence, risks, and next steps, followed by deeper sections or linked appendices. Give every important number and assertion a source trail. Assign each action an owner and deadline. Test the summary by asking a reviewer to restate the decision, reason, main uncertainty, and consequence of delay. If their account differs from the full analysis, the compression has changed meaning and needs revision.
See the fields in context
Fictional example: archive scanner replacement
North Pier Archive and its equipment figures are invented for this editorial exercise.
- Decision: Approve a fictional four-week pilot of a replacement scanner by 15 August.
- Evidence: Service logs show invented downtime, while staff interviews identify training as a separate constraint.
- Alternative: Repair the existing fictional scanner; lower initial cost but uncertain part availability.
- Uncertainty: Pilot throughput may not represent fragile materials, so no full-volume guarantee is made.
- Next step: The invented operations lead owns the pilot, measurement plan, and decision report.
Frequently asked questions
How long should an executive summary be?
Use the shortest length that preserves decision logic, evidence, risk, and action. A fixed word limit should not force removal of a decisive qualification.
Should methodology appear in the top layer?
Include methodological facts that materially change interpretation. Link to full details while keeping essential limitations beside the finding.
Can an appendix hold all uncertainty?
No. Uncertainty that affects the decision belongs in the summary. The appendix can provide depth, not conceal a material condition.
Who should approve the compressed version?
An editor should check clarity, and a qualified owner of the analysis should confirm that facts, conditions, and conclusions retain their meaning.