An executive summary, sometimes referred to as an executive report, is a much shorter document that appears before a longer paper or report. It exists so that readers can become familiar with the information in your longer paper more quickly. Essentially, the executive summary or report is a condensed version of the full report. Refer to the instructions in your courseroom for how your instructor wants your executive summary formatted and what your instructor would like to see in it.

An executive summary is not the same as an abstract because an abstract is simply a short orientation to a much larger work. Additionally, an abstract in APA is only 150-250 words in length, whereas an executive summary may be several pages.