Final Project – Recommendation Report
Markel, M. (2015). Technical communication (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Chapter 18: Writing Recommendation Reports
Pages 469-489
CHAPTER 17 DISCUSSED informational reports: those in which the writer’s main purpose is to present information. this chapter discusses recommendation reports. A recommendation report also presents information but goes one step further by offering suggestions about what the readers ought to do next.
here are examples of the kinds of questions a recommendation report might address:
• what should we do about Problem X? What should we do about the increased cost of copper, which we use in manufacturing our line of electronic components?
• should we do function X? Although we cannot afford to pay tuition for all college courses our employees wish to take, can we reimburse them for classes directly related to their work?
• should we use technology a or technology b to do function X? should we continue to supply our employees with laptops, or should we switch to tablets?
• we currently use method a to do function X. should we be using method b? We sort our bar-coded mail by hand; should we buy an automatic sorter?
Each of these questions can lead to a wide variety of recommendations, ranging from “do nothing” to “study this some more” to “take the following actions immediately.”
understanding the role of recommendation reports
A recommendation report can be the final link in a chain of documents that begins with a proposal and continues with one or more progress reports. This last, formal report is often called a final report, a project report, a recommenda- tion report, a completion report, or simply a report. The sample report beginning on page 488 is the recommendation report in the series about tablet comput- ers at Rawlings Regional Medical Center presented in Chapters 16 and 17.
A recommendation report can also be a freestanding document, one that was not preceded by a proposal or by progress reports. For instance, you might be asked for a recommendation on whether your company should offer employees comp time (compensating those who work overtime with time off) instead of overtime pay. This task would call for you to research the subject and write a single recommendation report.
Most recommendation reports discuss questions of feasibility. Feasibility is a measure of the practicality of a course of action. For instance, a company
might conduct a feasibility study of whether it should acquire a competing company. In this case, the two courses of action are to acquire the competing company or not to acquire it. Or a company might do a study to determine which make and model of truck to buy for its fleet.
A feasibility report is a report that answers three kinds of questions:
• Questions of possibility. We would like to build a new rail line to link our warehouse and our retail outlet, but if we cannot raise the money, the project is not possible. Even if we can find the money, do we have government authorization? If we do, are the soil conditions appropriate for the rail link?
• Questions of economic wisdom. Even if we can afford to build the rail link, should we do so? If we use all our resources on this project, what other projects will have to be postponed or canceled? Is there a less expensive or a less financially risky way to achieve the same goals?
• Questions of perception. Because our company’s workers have recently accepted a temporary wage freeze, they might view the rail link as an inappropriate use of funds. The truckers’ union might see it as a threat to truckers’ job security. Some members of the public might also be interested parties, because any large-scale construction might affect the environment.
using a Problem-solving model for Preparing recommendation reports
The writing process for a recommendation report is similar to that for any other technical communication:
• Planning. Analyze your audience, determine your purpose, and visualize the deliverable: the report you will submit. Conduct appropriate secondary and primary research.
• drafting. Write a draft of the report. Large projects often call for many writers and therefore benefit from shared document spaces and wikis.
• revising. Think again about your audience and purpose, and then make appropriate changes to your draft.
• editing. Improve the writing in the report, starting with the largest issues of development and emphasis and working down to the sections, paragraphs, sentences, and individual words.
• Proofreading. Go through the draft slowly, making sure you have written what you wanted to write. Get help from others.
In addition to this model of the writing process, you need a problem- solving model for conducting the analysis that will enable you to write the recommendation report. The following discussion explains in more detail the problem-solving model shown in Figure 18.1.
Using a Problem-Solving Model for Preparing Recommendation Reports
identify the Problem or Opportunity
What is not working as well as it might, or what situation can we exploit?
Establish Criteria for Responding to the Problem or Opportunity
For example, any solution to our problem must reduce the number of manufacturing defects by 50 percent and cannot cost more than $75,000.
Determine the Options
list the possible courses of action, from doing nothing to taking immediate action.
Study each Option according to the Criteria
Analyze each option by studying the data on how well it satisfies each criterion.
Draw Conclusions about each Option
For each option, determine whether (or how well) it satisfies each criterion.
Formulate Recommendations Based on the Conclusions
Present your suggestions about how to proceed.
IDeNtiFy the PROBleM OR OPPORtUNity
What is not working or is not working as well as it might? What situation presents an opportunity to decrease costs or improve the quality of a product or service? Without a clear statement of your problem or oppor- tunity, you cannot plan your research.
For example, your company has found that employees who smoke are absent and ill more often than those who don’t smoke. Your supervisor has asked you to investigate whether the company should offer a free smoking- cessation program. The company can offer the program only if the com- pany’s insurance carrier will pay for it. The first thing you need to do is talk with the insurance agent; if the insurance carrier will pay for the program, you can proceed with your investigation. If the agent says no, you have to determine whether another insurance carrier offers better coverage or whether there is some other way to encourage employees to stop smoking.
eStaBliSh CRiteRia FOR ReSPONDiNG tO the PROBleM OR OPPORtUNity
Criteria are standards against which you measure your options. Criteria can be classified into two categories: necessary and desirable. For example if you want to buy a photocopier for your business, necessary criteria might be that each copy cost less than two cents to produce and that the photo- copier be able to handle oversized documents. If the photocopier doesn’t fulfill those two criteria, you will not consider it further. By contrast, desirable criteria might include that the photocopier be capable of double-sided copy- ing and stapling. Desirable criteria let you make distinctions among a variety of similar objects, objectives, actions, or effects. If a photocopier does not fulfill a desirable criterion, you will still consider it, although it will be less attractive.
Until you establish your criteria, you don’t know what your options are. Sometimes you are given your criteria: your supervisor tells you how much money you can spend, for instance, and that figure becomes one of your necessary criteria. Other times, you derive your criteria from your research.
DeteRMiNe the OPtiONS
After you establish your criteria, you determine your options. Options are potential courses of action you can take in responding to a problem or oppor- tunity. Determining your options might be simple or complicated.
Sometimes your options are presented to you. For instance, your supervi- sor asks you to study two vendors for accounting services and recommend one of them. The options are Vendor A or Vendor B. That’s simple.
In other cases, you have to consider a series of options. For example, your department’s photocopier is old and breaking down. Your first decision is whether to repair it or replace it. Once you have answered that question, you might have to make more decisions. If you are going to replace it, what features should you look for in a new one? Each time you make a decision,
Should we repair or
replace our photocopier? ---- Repairing it would -------Color would be useful, but we ---
not meet our long-term needs. can't justify the costs because
we do not use color often.
Replacing it would be -------- Black and white would be a ---- Copier A is good.
the better decision in the long term. much better value and meet --- Copier B excellent.
Should we look at color copiers? almost all our other needs. --- Copier C is good.
--- Copier D is unacceptable.
you have to answer more questions until, eventually, you arrive at a recom- mendation. For a complicated scenario like this, you might find it helpful to use logic boxes or flowcharts to sketch the logic of your options, as shown in Figure 18.2.
As you research your topic, your understanding of your options will likely change. At this point, however, it is useful to understand the basic logic of your options or series of options.
StUDy eaCh OPtiON aCCORDiNG tO the CRiteRia
Once you have identified your options (or series of options), study each one according to the criteria. For the photocopier project, secondary research would include studying articles about photocopiers in technical journals and specification sheets from the different manufacturers. Primary research might include observing product demonstrations as well as interviewing representatives from different manufacturers and managers who have pur- chased different brands.
To make the analysis of the options as objective as possible, profession- als sometimes create a decision matrix, a tool for systematically evaluating each option according to each criterion. A decision matrix is a table (or a spreadsheet), as shown in Figure 18.3. Here the writer is nearly at the end of his series of options: he is evaluating three similar photocopiers according to three criteria. Each criterion has its own weight, which sug- gests how important it is. The greater the weight, the more important the criterion.
As shown in Figure 18.3, the criterion of pages per minute is relatively unimportant: it receives a weight of 1. For this reason, the Ricoh copier, even though it receives a high rating for pages per minute (9), receives only a mod- est score of 9 (1 × 9 = 9) on this criterion. However, the criterion of color copy- ing is quite important, with a weight of 4. On this criterion, the Ricoh, with its rating of 10, achieves a very high score (4 × 10 = 40).
But a decision matrix cannot stand on its own. You need to explain your methods. That is, in the discussion or in footnotes to the matrix, you need to explain the following three decisions:
• why you chose each criterion—or didn’t choose a criterion the reader might have expected to see included. For instance, why did you choose duplexing (double-sided printing) but not image scanning?
• why you assigned a particular weight to each criterion. For example, why is the copier’s ability to make color copies four times more important than its speed?
• why you assigned a particular rating to each option. For example, why does one copier receive a rating of only 1 on duplexing, whereas another receives a 3 and a third receives a 10?
A decision matrix is helpful only if your readers understand your methods and agree with the logic you used in choosing the criteria and assigning the weight and ratings for each option.
Although a decision matrix has its limitations, it is useful for both you and your readers. For you as the writer, the main advantage is that it helps you do a methodical analysis. For your readers, it makes your analysis easier to fol- low because it clearly presents your methods and results.
DRaW CONClUSiONS aBOUt eaCh OPtiON
Whether you use a decision matrix or a less-formal means of recording your evaluations, the next step is to draw conclusions about the options you studied— by interpreting your results and writing evaluative statements about the options.
For the study of photocopiers, your conclusion might be that the Sharp model is the best copier: it meets all your necessary criteria and the greatest number of desirable criteria, or it scores highest on your matrix. Depending on your read- ers’ preferences, you can present your conclusions in any one of three ways.
• rank all the options: the Sharp copier is the best option, the Ricoh copier is second best, and so forth.
• Classify all the options in one of two categories: acceptable and unacceptable.
• Present a compound conclusion: the Sharp offers the most technical capabilities; the Ricoh is the best value.
FORMUlate ReCOMMeNDatiONS BaSeD ON the CONClUSiONS If you conclude that Option A is better than Option B—and you see no obvi- ous problems with Option A—recommend Option A. But if the problem has changed or your company’s priorities or resources have changed, you might decide to recommend a course of action that is inconsistent with the conclu- sions you derived. Your responsibility is to use your judgment and recom- mend the best course of action.
ETHICS NOTE
PReSeNtiNG hONeSt ReCOMMeNDatiONS
As you formulate your recommendations, you might know what your readers want you to say. For example, they might want you to recommend the cheapest option, or one that uses a certain kind of technology, or one that is supplied by a certain vendor. Naturally, you want to be able to recommend what they want, but sometimes the facts won’t let you. your responsi- bility is to tell the truth—to do the research honestly and competently and then present the findings honestly. your name goes on the report. you want to be able to defend your recom- mendations based on the evidence and your reasoning.
one worrisome situation that arises frequently is that none of the options would be a com- plete success or none would work at all. What should you do? you should tell the truth about the options, warts and all. Give the best advice you can, even if that advice is to do nothing.
writing recommendation reports
The following discussion presents a basic structure for a recommendation report. Remember that every document you write should reflect its audience, purpose, and subject. Therefore, you might need to modify, add to, or delete some of the elements discussed here.
Reports that are lengthy and complex are often written collaboratively. As you begin the project that will culminate in the report, consider whether it would make sense to set up a shared writing space, a wiki, or some other method for you and your team members to write and edit the report collaboratively.
The easiest way to draft a report is to think of it as consisting of three sec- tions: the front matter, the body, and the back matter. Table 18.1 on page 476 shows the purposes of and typical elements in these three sections.
You will probably draft the body before the front and the back matter. This sequence is easiest because you think through what you want to say in the body and then draft the front and back matter based on it.
If you are writing your recommendation report for readers from other cultures, keep in mind that conventions differ from one culture to another. In the United States, reports are commonly organized from general to specific. That is, the most general information (the abstract and the executive sum- mary) appears early in the report. In many cultures, however, reports are organized from specific to general. Detailed discussions of methods and results precede discussions of the important findings.
Similarly, elements of the front and back matter are rooted in culture. For instance, in some cultures—or in some organizations—writers do not cre- ate executive summaries, or their executive summaries differ in length or organization from those discussed here. According to interface designer Pia Honold (1999), German users of high-tech products rely on the table of con- tents in a manual because they like to understand the scope and organiza- tion of the manual. Therefore, writers of manuals for German readers should include comprehensive, detailed tables of contents.
TABLE 18.1 ELEmENTS OF A TyPICAL REPORT
SeCtiON OF the RePORt PURPOSeS OF the SeCtiON TyPiCal eleMeNtS iN the SeCtiON
front matter • to orient the reader to the subject • letter of transmittal (p. 479)
• to provide summaries for • cover (p. 479)
technical and managerial readers • title page (p. 479)
• to help readers navigate the report • abstract (p. 479)
• to help readers decide whether • table of contents (p. 480)
to read the document • list of illustrations (p. 481)
• executive summary (p. 483)
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Body • to provide the most comprehensive • introduction (p. 476)
account of the project, from the problem • methods (p. 477)
or opportunity that motivated it to the methods • results (p. 477)
and the most important findings • conclusions (p. 478)
• recommendations (p. 478)
back matter • to present supplementary information, • glossary (p. 484)
such as more- detailed explanations • list of symbols (p.484)
than are provided in the body • references (p. 486)
• to enable readers to consult the • appendixes (p. 487)
secondary sources the writers used
Study samples of writing produced by people from the culture you are addressing to see how they organize their reports and use front and back matter.
WRitiNG the BODy OF the RePORt
The elements that make up the body of a report are discussed here in the order in which they usually appear in a report. However, you should draft the elements in whatever order you prefer. The sample recommendation report on pages 488–511 includes these elements.
introduction The introduction helps readers understand the technical dis- cussion that follows. Start by analyzing who your readers are. Then consider these questions:
• what is the subject of the report? If the report follows a proposal and a progress report, you can probably copy this information from one of those documents, modifying it as necessary. Reusing this information is efficient and ethical.
• what is the purpose of the report? The purpose of the report is not the purpose of the project. The purpose of the report is to explain a project from beginning (identifying a problem or an opportunity) to end (presenting recommendations).
• what is the background of the report? Include this information, even if you have presented it before; some of your readers might not have read your previous documents or might have forgotten them.
• what are your sources of information? Briefly describe your primary and secondary research, to prepare your readers for a more detailed discussion of your sources in subsequent sections of the report.
• what is the scope of the report? Indicate the topics you are including, as well as those you are not.
• what are the most significant findings? Summarize the most significant findings of the project.
• what are your recommendations? In a short report containing a few simple recommendations, include those recommendations in the introduction. In a lengthy report containing many complex recommendations, briefly summarize them in the introduction, then refer readers to the more detailed discussion in the recommendations section.
• what is the organization of the report? Indicate your organizational pattern so that readers can understand where you are going and why.
• what key terms are you using in the report? The introduction is an appropriate place to define new terms. If you need to define many terms, place the definitions in a glossary and refer readers to it in the introduction.
Methods The methods section answers the question “What did you do?” In drafting the methods section, consider your readers’ knowledge of the field, their perception of you, and the uniqueness of the project, as well as their reasons for reading the report and their attitudes toward the project. Provide enough information to enable readers to understand what you did and why you did it that way. If others will be using the report to duplicate your meth- ods, include sufficient detail.
Results Whereas the methods section answers the question “What did you do?” the results section answers the question “What did you see or determine?”
Results are the data you discovered or compiled. Present the results objectively, without comment. Save the interpretation of the results—your conclusions—for later. If you combine results and conclusions, your read- ers might be unable to follow your reasoning and might not be able to tell whether the evidence justifies your conclusions.
Your audience’s needs will help you decide how to structure the results. How much they know about the subject, what they plan to do with the report, what they expect your recommendation(s) to be—these and manyother factors will affect how you present the results. For instance, sup- pose that your company is considering installing a VoIP phone system that will enable employees to make telephone calls over the Internet, and you conducted the research on the available systems. In the introduction, you explain the disadvantages of the company’s current phone system. In the methods section, you describe how you established the criteria you applied to the available phone systems, as well as your research procedures. In the results section, you provide the details of each phone system you are consid- ering, as well as the results of your evaluation of each system.
Conclusions Conclusions answer the question “What does it mean?” They are the implications of the results. To draw conclusions, you need to think carefully about your results, weighing whether they point clearly to a single meaning.
Recommendations Recommendations answer the question “What should we do?” As discussed earlier in this chapter, recommendations do not always flow directly from conclusions. Always consider recommending that the organization take no action or no action at this time.
Methods Results Conclusions Recommendations
What did you do? What did you see or determine? What does it mean? What should we do?
Writing Recommendations
As you draft your recommendations, consider the following four factors:
Content. Be clear and specific. if the project has been unsuccessful, don’t simply recommend that your readers “try some other alternatives.” What alternatives do you recommend and why?
tone. When you recommend a new course of action, be careful not to offend whoever formulated the earlier course. do not write that following your recom- mendations will “correct the mistakes” that have been made. instead, your recom- mendations should “offer great promise for success.” A restrained, understated tone is more persuasive because it shows that you are interested only in the good of your company, not personal rivalries.
form. if the report leads to only one recommendation, use traditional para- graphs. if the report leads to more than one recommendation, consider a num- bered list.
location. consider including a summary of the recommendations—or, if they are brief, the full list—after the executive summary or in the introduction as well as at the end of the body of the report.
WRitiNG the FRONt MatteR
Front matter is common in reports, proposals, and manuals. As indicated in Table 18.1 on page 476, front matter helps readers understand the whole report and find the information they seek. Most organizations have estab- lished formats for front matter. Study the style guide used in your company or, if there isn’t one, examples from the files to see how other writers have assembled their reports.
letter of transmittal In the letter of transmittal, which can take the form of a letter or a memo, the writer introduces the primary reader to the purpose and content of the report. In addition, the writer often states who authorized or commissioned the report and acknowledges any assistance he or she received in carrying out the project. The letter of transmittal is attached to the report, bound in with it, or simply placed on top of it. Even though the letter likely contains little information that is not included else- where in the report, it is important because it is the first thing the reader sees. It establishes a courteous and professional tone. Letters of transmittal are customary even when the writer and the reader both work for the same organization. See page 488 in the sample recommendation report for an example of a transmittal letter in the form of a memo.
Cover Although some reports do not have covers, reports that will be han- dled a lot or that will be exposed to harsh environmental conditions, such as water or grease, often do. The cover usually contains the title of the report, the name and position of the writer, the date of submission, and the name or logo of the writer’s company. Sometimes the cover also includes a security notice or a statement of proprietary information.
title Page A title page includes at least the title of the report, the name of the writer, and the date of submission. A more complex title page might also include a project number, a list of additional personnel who contributed to the report, and a distribution list. See page 490 in the sample recommenda- tion report for an example of a title page.
abstract An abstract is a brief technical summary of the report, usually no more than 200 words. It addresses readers who are familiar with the techni- cal subject and who need to decide whether they want to read the full report. In an abstract, you can use technical terminology and refer to advanced concepts in the field. Abstracts are sometimes published by abstract services, which are useful resources for researchers.
Abstracts often contain a list of half a dozen or so keywords, which are entered into electronic databases. As the writer, one of your tasks is to think of the various keywords that will lead people to the information in your report.
There are two types of abstracts: descriptive and informative. A descrip- tive abstract—sometimes called a topical, indicative, or table-of-contents abstract—describes the kinds of information contained in the report. It does not provide the major findings (important results, conclusions, or recom- mendations). It simply lists the topics covered, giving equal emphasis to each. Figure 18.4 is a descriptive abstract from a report by a utility company about its pilot program for measuring how much electricity its customers are using. A descriptive abstract is used most often when space is at a premium. Some government proposals, for example, call for a descriptive abstract to be placed at the bottom of the title page.
An informative abstract presents the major findings. If you don’t know which kind of abstract the reader wants, write an informative one.
The distinction between descriptive and informative abstracts is not clear-cut. Sometimes you might have to combine elements of both in a single abstract. For instance, if there are 15 recommendations—far too many to list—you might simply note that the report includes numerous recommendations.
See page 491 in the sample recommendation report for an example of an informative abstract.
Table of Contents :
The table of contents, the most important guide to navigating the report, has two main functions: to help readers find the infor- mation they want and to help them understand the scope and organization of the report.
A table of contents uses the same headings as the report itself. There- fore, to create an effective table of contents, you must first make sure that the headings are clear and that you have provided enough of them. If the
Abstrac
t “Design of a Radio-Based System for Distribution automation” by Brian D. Raven A new survey by the maryland Public service commission suggests that utilities have not effectively explained to consumers the benefits of smart meters. the two-year study of 86,000 consumers concludes that the long-term benefits of smart meters will not be realized until consumers understand the benefits of shifting some of their power usage to off-peak hours in response to the data they receive from their meters. the study presents recommendations for utilities and municipal governments to improve customer understanding of how to use the smart meters effectively.
Keywords: smart meters, distribution systems, load, customer attitudes, power consumption, utilities, maryland Public utilities commission
table of contents shows no entry for five or six pages, you probably need to partition that section of the report into additional subsections. In fact, some tables of contents have one entry, or even several, for every report page.
The following table of contents, which relies exclusively on generic headings (those that describe an entire class of items), is too general to be useful.
table of contents introduction.........................................1 This methods section, which goes from
materials ......................................................................3 
methods.......................................................................4 Results........................................................................ 19
Recommendations .............................................. 23
References ............................................................... 26
Appendixes ............................................................. 28
.For more-informative headings, combine the generic and the specific:
Recommendations: Five Ways to improve information-Retrieval materials used in the calcification study
Results of the commuting-time Analysis
Then build more subheadings into the report itself. For instance, for the “Recommendations” example above, you could create a subheading for each of the five recommendations. Once you have established a clear system of headings within the report, use the same text attributes—capitalization, boldface, italics, and outline style (traditional or decimal)—in the table of contents.
When adding page numbers to your report, remember two points:
• The table of contents page does not contain an entry for itself.
• Front matter is numbered using lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii, and so forth), often centered at the bottom of the page. The title page of a report is not numbered, although it represents page i. The abstract is usually numbered page ii. The table of contents is usually not numbered, although it represents page iii. The body of the report is numbered with Arabic numerals (1, 2, and so on), typically in the upper outside corner of the page.
See page 492 in the sample recommendation report for an example of a table of contents.
list of illustrations A list of illustrations is a table of contents for the fig- ures and tables. List the figures first, then the tables. (If the report contains only figures, call it a list of figures. If it contains only tables, call it a list of executive Summary The executive summary (sometimes called the epitome, executive overview, management summary, or management overview) is a brief condensation of the report addressed to managers. Most managers need only a broad understanding of the projects that an organization undertakes and how they fit together into a coherent whole.
An executive summary for a report of under 20 pages is typically one page (double-spaced). For longer reports, the maximum length is often calculated as a percentage of the report, such as 5 percent.
The executive summary presents information to managers in two parts:
• background. This section explains the problem or opportunity: what was not working or was not working effectively or efficiently, or what potential modification of a procedure or product had to be analyzed.
• major findings and implications. This section might include a brief description—only one or two sentences—of the methods, followed by a full paragraph about the conclusions and recommendations.
An executive summary differs from an informative abstract. Whereas an abstract focuses on the technical subject (such as whether the public is tak- ing advantage of the data from smart electric meters), an executive summary concentrates on the managerial implications of the subject for a particular company (such as whether PECO, the Philadelphia utility company, should carry out a public-information campaign to educate customers about how to use their smart meters).
See page 493 in the sample recommendation report for an example of an executive summary.
Writing an Executive Summary
Follow these five suggestions in writing executive summaries.
use specific evidence in describing the background. For most managers, the best evidence is in the form of costs and savings. instead of writing that the equipment you are now using to cut metal foil is ineffective, write that the equip- ment jams once every 72 hours on average, costing $400 in materials and $2,000 in productivity each time. then add up these figures for a monthly or an annual total.
be specific in describing research. For instance, research suggests that a com- puterized energy-management system could cut your company’s energy costs by 20 to 25 percent. If the company’s energy costs last year were $300,000, it could save $60,000 to $75,000.
describe the methods briefly. if you think your readers are interested, include a brief description of your methods—no more than a sentence or two.
describe the findings according to your readers’ needs. if your readers want to know your results, provide them. if your readers are unable to understand the technical data or are uninterested, go directly to the conclusions and recommendations.
ask an outside reader to review your draft. Give the summary to someone who has no connection to the project. that person should be able to read your sum- mary and understand what the project means to the organization.
WRitiNG the BaCk MatteR
The back matter of a recommendation report might include the following items: glossary, list of symbols, references, and appendixes.
Glossary and list of Symbols A glossary, an alphabetical list of defini- tions, is particularly useful if some of your readers are unfamiliar with the technical vocabulary in your report. Instead of slowing down your discussion by defining technical terms as they appear, you can use boldface, or some similar method of highlighting words, to indicate that the term is defined in the glossary. The first time a boldfaced term appears, explain this system in a footnote. For example, the body of the report might say, “Thus the positron* acts as the . . . ,” while a note at the bottom of the page explains:
*This and all subsequent terms in boldface are defined in the Glossary, page 26.
Although a glossary is usually placed near the end of the report, before the appendixes, it can also be placed immediately after the table of contents if the glossary is brief (less than a page) and if it defines essential terms. Figure 18.6 shows an excerpt from a glossary.
A list of symbols is formatted like a glossary, but it defines symbols and abbreviations rather than terms. It, too, may be placed before the appendixes or after the table of contents. Figure 18.7 shows a list of symbols.
References Many reports contain a list of references (sometimes called a bibliography or list of works cited) as part of the back matter. References and the accompanying textual citations throughout the report are called documentation. Documentation acknowledges your debt to your sources, establishes your credibility as a writer, and helps readers locate and review your sources. See Appendix, Part B, for a detailed discussion of documenta tion. See page 510 in the sample recommendation report for an example of a reference list.
appendixes An appendix is any section that follows the body of the report (and the glossary, list of symbols, or reference list). Appendixes (or appendices) convey information that is too bulky for the body of the report or that will interest only a few readers. Appendixes might include maps, large technical diagrams or charts, computations, computer printouts, test data, and texts of supporting documents.
Appendixes, usually labeled with letters rather than numbers (Appendix A, Appendix B, and so on), are listed in the table of contents and are referred to at appropriate points in the body of the report. Therefore, they are acces- sible to any reader who wants to consult them. See page 511 in the sample recommendation report for an example of an appendix.
sample recommendation report
The following example is the recommendation report on the tablet project proposed in Chapter 16 on page 436. The progress report for this project appears in Chapter 17 on page 454.
DATE: December 14, 2013
TO: Jill Bremerton, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer Rawlings Regional Medical Center
FROM; Jeremy Elkins,
Director of Information Technology
Eloise Carruthers,
Director of Nursing Rawlings Regional Medical Center
SUBJECT: Recommendation Report for the Tablet Study at RRMC
Attached is the report for our study, “Selecting a Tablet Computer for the Clinical Staff at Rawlings Regional Medical Center: A Recommendation Report.”We completed the tasks described in our proposal of October 6, 2013: familiarizing ourselves with tablet use by clinical staff in hospitals across the country, assessing RRMC clinical staff’s knowledge of and attitudes toward tablet use, studying different models for administering tablet use, determining the criteria by which we might evaluate tablets, and performing the evaluations.
To carry out these tasks, we performed secondary and primary research. We studied the literature on tablet use, distributed a questionnaire to RRMC clinical staff who own tablets, and interviewed Dr. Bremerton. Then, we collected and analyzed our data and wrote the report.
Our main findings are that the clinical staff who already own tablets are very receptive to the idea of using tablets in a clinical setting and slightly prefer having the hospital supply the tablets. We, too, think the hospital- supplied model is preferable to the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) model. Although the best tablets for our needs would be those designed and built for health-care applications, those are too expensive for our budget. Because reports on the technical characteristics of computer products are notoriously unreliable, we cannot be sure whether the many general-purpose tablets can meet our standards for ease of disinfection or durability, and we are not sure whether they have sufficient battery life.
We recommend one of two courses of action: reconsidering the cost criterion or testing a representative sample of general-purpose tablets for disinfection and the other technical characteristics and letting the clinical staff try them out.
We appreciate the trust you have shown in inviting us to participate in this phase of the feasibility study, and we would look forward to working with you on any follow-up activities. if you have any questions or comments, please contact Jeremy Elkins, at [email protected] or at 444-3967, or Eloise Carruthers, at [email protected] or at 444-3982.
