View All Pages

Recommendation Report: Assignment

Black woman typing on a notebook computer in a business settingYou research the kind of writing that you proposed in your Proposal Memo, explaining different perspectives on the genre, and then recommend the best strategies for composing it.

To find out how the kind of writing works, you will find online resources, interview people in the field, and analyze examples. You will use this same research as you work on your Poster Presentation.

To understand more about the connections among the Major Projects, read How the Major Projects Connect.

Recommendation Report Scenario

On a basic level, you are the primary audience for this report. Your goal is to learn about the characteristics of a specific kind of writing you will typically do in the workplace. It’s awkward to make yourself the main reader however, so as you plan your recommendation report, imagine yourself in the following scenario:

You are an intern at a company, non-profit association, or governmental agency (whatever makes sense for your career and field). Your supervisor, Christina Royal, wants to revise the way that a particular kind of writing is done in the organization. She asked you to investigate how the kind of writing is typically done, compare the alternatives, and make a recommendation to her for the best way for the organization to complete the kind of writing in the future. She has asked you to work on this project because she wants to hear the fresh perspective of someone outside the organization.

She has given you this specific list of information that she wants your recommendation report to include:

  • The purpose for the kind of writing—that is, you will identify and explain the situation that creates the need for this particular form of written communication, the purpose and occasion that calls this kind of writing into being, or the work that needs to be done and to which this text responds.
  • The audience or users of this particular kind of writing, including their knowledge, experience, and work environments, their motivations for working with the genre in question, how they perceive and use the text in question, and what they do with it.
  • The constraints at work on the writers and the readers of this kind of writing, including computing environments, documents, facts, and workplace objects, but also less tangible factors such as relations, beliefs, attitudes, traditions, images, interests, and motives that are in play in their organizations or workplaces.
  • The preparation needed to write this kind of writing, including how you would gather data and the research to complete the kind of writing.
  • The organization of the kind of writing, detailing the typical order for the document, any possible variation of the order, and any additional sections that may be added.
  • The contents of all sections of the kind of writing, describing the kind of information included in each of the sections.
  • The ethical issues that may impact the kind of writing.
  • A bibliography that provides documentation for all of the resources you have consulted. You may use the bibliographical format that is appropriate for your field. Here are some tools if you are unsure what to use:
  • An appendix that includes at least three examples of the particular kind of writing in question that you use to show the generic conventions, characteristics, features, and strategies that distinguish this genre. In the case of longer genres, you can link to the examples, but include excerpts in your report as relevant.

Project Requirements

Your Final, Finished Draft must meet these requirements in order to earn a B or better in this course:

Check the Textbook

Use this information from Technical Communication to shape your document:

  • Focus on Process: Recommendation Reports, on page 473.
  • A Problem-Solving Model for Recommendation Reports, Figure 18.1, on page 474.
  • Ethics Note: Presenting Honest Recommendations, on page 477.
  • Elements of a Typical Report, Table 18.1, on page 478.
  • Guidelines: Writing Recommendations, on page 480.
  • Tech Tip: Why to Make a Long Report Navigable and How to Make a Long Report Navigable, on page 483.
  • Guidelines: Writing an Executive Summary, on page 486.
  • Writer’s Checklist, on page 490.
  • Sample Report, Figure 18.8, on pages 490–513.
  • Focuses on a kind of writing from your Analysis of Writing in Your Field project that you have not written before, as proposed in your Proposal Memo.
  • Is a document in report format created in a word processor.
  • Covers all of the information listed in the Scenario section above.
  • Includes the following sections, in this order, in your report:
    • Front matter
      • letter of transmittal (p. 481)
      • cover (p. 481)—Not needed since this is an online submission
      • title page with a specific title (p. 481)
      • abstract (p. 481)
      • table of contents (p. 482)
      • list of illustrations (p. 483)—Optional, include if relevant
      • executive summary (p. 485)
    • Body
      • introduction (p. 479)
      • methods (p. 479)
      • results (p. 479)
      • conclusions (p. 480)
      • recommendations (p. 480)
    • Back matter
      • glossary (p. 486)—Optional, include if relevant
      • list of symbols (p. 486)—Optional, include if relevant
      • references (p. 488)
      • appendixes (p. 489)
  • Use professional design and formatting that does the following:
    • Makes information easy for readers to find and read.
    • Emphasizes important information.
    • Makes a good first impression as a polished, professional document.
    • Uses well-integrated and well-designed visuals to clarify the information.
  • Use accurate/appropriate grammar, spelling, punctuation, mechanics, linking, and formatting.

With examples and appropriate formatting, your report will likely be close to 15 pages long, though there is not a minimum or maximum page length. Write as much as you need to, but be sure to include all of the required information.

Activities Making Up This Major Writing Project

The following activities will all contribute to your Proposal Memo. You can complete all of them, or you can pick and choose. *Remember that the Final, Finished Draft is required in order to earn a B or better in this course.

Week of February 25

Week of March 4

Week of March 18

Week of March 25

Links for each week will be available beginning on the Monday of each week, in the Module Overview for that week.

Photo Credit: Woman working on a laptop by Rawpixel Ltd on Flickr Links to an external site., used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.