recommendation report 11

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Project Overview

Writing in the workplace is most often done collaboratively. In this final project of the semester, you will work collaboratively in order to compose and present an effective, accurate and well-designed report that encourages your audience to take action. To be successful, you’ll need to apply all the skills you’ve developed in the previous three projects:

  • Analysis of audience and purpose
  • Composition for a specific audience and purpose with a tailored writing style
  • Creation and integration of visuals
  • Engagement in significant research

The project involves three major components: writing a report, presenting the report, and team collaboration. Each of these components is described below.

Written report

The specific kind of report that you will be writing for this project is a Recommendation Report. This kind of report presents a detailed understanding of a problem, and then recommends a solution to this problem. The recommendation report hinges on research. You will thoroughly research the problem and then provide research that persuades your audience that the solution you recommend is the right one for the given situation. Research for the recommendation report works to prove to the audience that the recommended action is an achievable, workable, and appropriate for the problem given the practical constraints (i.e., resources, budget, time, personnel, etc.). Recommendation reports address the following questions:

  • What problem are you going to solve?
  • How are you going to solve it?
  • Is it practical to pursue this solution?
  • What are benefits of the solution?
  • How much will the work cost?
  • When and how will you complete the work?

Again, the answers to these must be based on research. Thorough research gives the audience the information they need to fully understand the problem and assess your solution.

See the end of this assignment description for one possible structure for your recommendation report. You don’t need to follow this format exactly, but you can use it as a guide to make sure that you’re covering what should be included in your report.

Download Recommendation Report Rubric

Presentation

A persuasive presentation is key to making a successful recommendation that would result in action. Your team should create and present a final presentation (in Powerpoint, Google Slides, Prezi, or some other digital presentation medium) that outlines your report, including a description of the problem, description of the solution, and plans for implementation. The presentation format should follow the format of the written report with rhetorical choices to edit content and facilitate maximum audience impact.

Collaboration

Successful collaborative writing is a major objective of the project. You will be asked to consider your work habits and the implications of those habits when working collaboratively. When assigning duties within your teams, you should leverage team member strengths (e.g. math skills, attention to detail, writing skills, visual design skills, strong organizational skills, etc.) and interests (interest in learning more about design, interest in practicing concision, etc.). You should also build into your workflow ways to negotiate work habits like procrastination or perfectionism to ensure that all team members complete work on time and up to the teams specifications. Specific deliverables through the project will encourage you to think actively about good collaboration practices. These include

  • A Team Charter that asks you to be both critically reflexive and honest with the team about your work habits, and to think through how the team will work together.
  • A work plan to help you set group-internal deadlines on the way to your final submission
  • Team Progress Reports designed to keep you on track and identify potential problems
  • End-of-semester Team Evaluations that help you reflect on the effectiveness of the team’s collaboration efforts

Project Timeline

  • In the first week, you’ll get into teams and focus on setting up a successful collaboration.
  • You’ll have three weeks to compose a full draft of your report.
  • You’ll have one week to revise for the final draft.

Project goals

The project involves three major components

  • writing the recommendation report itself
  • preparing a presentation to deliver the main results of the report
  • practicing collaboration and teamwork skills needed for successful team writing

The goals for each of these project components are as follows:

  • Report
    • Understand and apply the conventions of a report
    • Address a specific problem and develop realistic potential solutions to that problem
    • Integrate evidence gathered from research to support an argument
    • Use data visualizations to integrate data in support of an argument
    • Apply the stylistic conventions of professional writing to craft an effective argument
    • Apply principles of document design to create a visually appealing document designed for readability
  • Presentation
    • Use visual design principles to develop appealing and appropriate slides
    • Practice effective presentation skills
  • Collaboration
    • Work as a team to collaboratively produce a successful formal report

Deliverables

You will have several components to the team project:

  • Initial memo to the Instructor
    • explains the team’s planned course of action for the project
    • Includes Work Plan and Team Charter
  • Formal Recommendation Report
    • Skeleton outline
    • Pre-first draft with sources
    • First draft
    • Final draft
  • Presentation
  • Progress Reports
  • Self and Team Evaluations
  • Weekly preparatory assignments

Sample Format for Recommendation Report

  • Letter of Transmittal
  • Title Page
  • Table of Contents
  • Executive Summary
  • Introduction
    • Statement of purpose
    • Context/Background Information
  • Problem/Need
    • Description/documentation of problem or need
    • Description of the causes of the problem or need
    • Description of key criteria that any solution to the problem must meet (decision criteria)
  • Solution
    • Details of the solution
    • Benefits of the solution
    • Ways in which the solution satisfies decision criteria
  • Implementation
    • Schedule for implementing the solution
    • Budget
  • Call to Action
    • Underscore benefits of recommendation and ask reader to act
  • References