REPORT WRITING LEARNING DEVELOPMENT | CTL
3 | © 2016 THE UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE
Executive Summary
The purpose of the Executive Summary is to outline what the overall purpose of the report, and as a
result (despite going before the table of contents), it is usually the last thing written (Munro, 2006). It
should clarify your report “question”, or point of focus, and will generally stipulate your theoretical
approach and your more significant findings (Edith Cowan University, n.d.).
adapted from Care, 2013.
Introduction
Unlike the executive summary, which gives an overview of the entire report, the introduction
contextualises your research and highlights its relevance. It often includes information on the
background of the report, its purpose, and the scope of your research (Edith Cowan University, n.d.). It
should also indicate key terms of reference that will be used throughout the report, and outline the
report’s structure.
Sample of actual student work. Permission to reproduce this work, for this purpose, was received from the student.
This annual report covers progress on the CARE Pathways program between
November 2011 and November 2012. The overall goal of Pathways is to increase
poor women smallholder farmer productivity and empowerment in more equitable
agriculture systems at scale.
The program builds on and is inspired by the vital roles that women play around the
world in smallholder agriculture, meeting the food and nutrition needs of their
households and contributing to economic development. The vision of the program is
one of empowered women smallholder farmers celebrated for their contributions to
achieving secure and resilient livelihoods and sustainable futures for their households,
communities and beyond.
This is being achieved by promoting women’s leadership and productive and
profitable engagement in intensified, sustainable agriculture value chains. In its first
phase, Pathways targets direct impacts on 150,000 poor women smallholder farmers
and 555,184 members of their households across six countries (India, Mali, Tanzania,
Malawi, Bangladesh and Ghana). The past 13 months have included a 10-month
inception phase and three months of active implementation.
The following highlights reflect CARE’s top line achievements during that period.
Overall, CARE has achieved nearly all milestones scheduled to be completed during
this period with other milestones ‘on track’ and a very limited set of delays. These
factors are discussed in detail throughout the report and in Annex A. Over the
reporting period, CARE has made substantial strides toward achieving the program
objectives.
The process has also yielded significant lessons both on what works for programming
for women smallholder farmers and on how CARE can best manage the global
program to maximize return on investment for all involved.
The purpose of this report is to analyse the decision-making framework of the
multinational food company,
Greenheart, which was subject to a takeover in 2001 and subsequently became
known as Greenheart Plus. Greenheart rates the pursuit of environmental
sustainability as the most important corporate objective, which threatened the
economic stability of the company. After the takeover, Greenheart Plus paid less
attention to environmental sustainability and more to economic sustainability. The
decision-making framework also changed with the advent of the new company.
This report utilizes a sociological perspective to identify two significant issues of the
company, and makes two recommendations to ensure effective decision-making of
the company in future.