An executive summary is a brief report or piece of a longer business report or proposal. It is designed to provide a reader with a high-level summary of the information that follows. An executive summary is vital since it is intended to assist executives in deciding whether or not to proceed with the proposal. If they are interested, they will need to read the full report or proposal. Since the purpose of the executive summary is to make a good impression and attract attention, it should be as concise as possible while still providing sufficient detail for readers to understand what the report or proposal is about. Generally, executive summaries are one page long although this can vary depending on the report or proposal being submitted. Since the reader may not have time to read the full report or proposal, the executive summary must include all the necessary information for them to make an informed decision about its contents. This means including a clear objective statement, a short description of the report's or proposal's content, and a summary of the main points. The reader should also be able to determine how much effort is required to conduct a complete study of the issue at hand. This can be done by looking at the length of the report or proposal itself as well as the length of the executive summary. If the summary is too short, then the reader might think that they will have to go through a lot of work to read the rest of the report or proposal.