---
name: executive-summary-writing
description: Writing the three-part item entry — what it is, why it matters to us, what to do — so a digest is readable in two minutes.
when_to_use: You are writing digest or analysis entries for harvested research items.
tags: [research, writing]
---

# The three-part entry

Every item gets exactly three parts. The shape is the discipline: it makes the
omissions visible.

**What it is** — one sentence, what they actually did. Not what it enables, not
why it is exciting. If you cannot state the contribution in one sentence you
have not finished reading.

**Why it matters to us** — the named project, file or open question it touches.
If nothing applies, the item does not belong in the digest. That rule is what
keeps a digest from becoming a feed.

**What to do about it** — one decision, from a closed set:

```
read fully     worth an hour of someone's time
add to backlog a concrete change we should make
ignore         seen, judged, not for us
escalate       changes a plan we are currently executing
```

## Decide; do not hedge

"Consider evaluating whether this might inform our approach" is four words of
decision wrapped in ten of insulation. Write `ignore` or write `add to backlog`.
Being wrong in a specific direction is recoverable; being vague is not, because
nobody can tell later whether the call was right.

## Two minutes, total

Not two minutes per item — two minutes for the digest. Five items at three
sentences each is roughly the budget. If an item needs more, it is not a digest
entry, it is a reading note: link to it and keep the entry short.

## Frontmatter carries the ratio

```yaml
---
date: 2026-08-17
harvested: 23
surfaced: 4
---
```

Harvested-versus-surfaced tracked over time is how you notice selectivity drift.
A run that surfaces everything has stopped filtering; a run that surfaces
nothing for a week is either a quiet field or a broken harvest, and the counts
are what tell you which.