Notes

Letter or memo of transmittal (page 488): This document should be on top of your recommendation report. Markel provides clear instructions about the body of the letter or memo. Determine whether a letter or memo is appropriate for your report. If your report has been prepared for someone outside your institution or if you are a consultant, you should write a letter rather than a memo. If your audience is a member of your institution, you should write a memo.

Title Page (page 490): Your title page should be formatted in the same way Markel's is. Your report, of course, is prepared for its appropriate recipient (not Kim Martin).

Abstract (page 491): Your abstract should be formatted in the same way Markel's is. He provides detailed instructions. Your abstract should be no more than 250 words, should target your professional audience, and should be edited extensively for conciseness. Wordiness, redundancy, or loose sentence structure should never occur in an abstract. These problems, of course, should never occur anywhere, but an abstract is expected to be very carefully edited. The analogy that I often use is that writing an abstract is like condensing an important 160-character statement into a clear 140-character statement that you can tweet on behalf of an organization. Abstracts are densely phrased but also clear and concise. Notice that the abstract is the first page that contains page numbering. It is Roman numeral ii. Your "regular" page numbering begins with the executive summary, page 1.

Table of Contents (page 492): Your report should contain a table of contents just like this one. It should guide the reader to your executive summary, your introduction, your research methods, results, conclusions, recommendation, and references. Any headers you use in the methods, results or conclusion of your report should appear here, also, with the corresponding page numbers. Your report need not include appendices unless there is a clear reason for them. For instance, if you are using an internal document, such as a sales report that is not published, as a source, then the document should appear as an appendix. If you are using a survey as a source, then the survey itself and its results should appear as an appendix. If you are in doubt about whether your report needs appendices, I will be happy to help you reach a conclusion.

Executive Summary (page 493): As you have undoubtedly noticed, Markel provides extensive instruction about executive summaries. Yours should clearly respond to the concerns of your executive audience. For this reason, your executive summary should not be a cut and paste of your abstract, nor should it be a cut and paste of your introduction or letter of transmittal.

Introduction (page 494): I have little to add to Markel's instruction about the introduction. You might think of it as a pitch to your professional audience.

Research Methods (pages 496-499): You will notice that the author of this report has used "tasks" as an organizing principle for the report. Whether you make the same choice does not matter to me. Some people choose to use criteria to organize the report. Two ideas to abide by are that 1. the organizing principle you choose here will follow throughout the results and, possibly the conclusions, and 2. this section describes research methods only--it does not provide results or interpret information. Whenever you cite a source here, whether through paraphrase, summary, or direct quotation, use the guidelines of your citation style.

Results (pages 500-506): Markel is clear in his instructions here. Again, however, if you have chosen an organizing principle other than "tasks," just continue it here in your headings. You will notice that this section includes many figures--tables, charts, photographs. I do not require that you include figures. However, when the information you are presenting invites a figure of some sort, I will expect it to be there. For instance, if you are comparing two products based on criteria, I can't imagine that paragraph form would serve you best. The most important point to remember here, from my perspective, is that results present data. Results do not interpret data. Whenever you cite a source here, whether through paraphrase, summary, or direct quotation, use the guidelines of your citation style.

Conclusions (pages 507-508): This section is the first in the body of the report to interpret data or to make judgments about its implications for your institution. The most common mistake that I see in recommendation reports is interpreting data or making judgments in the results section. Whenever you cite a source here, whether through paraphrase, summary, or direct quotation, use the guidelines of your citation style

Recommendations (page 509): I have nothing to add to Markel's instructions. However, remember that there are instances in which your conclusion about the best option may not match your recommendation. For instance, in the example I provided you about replacing or repairing computers in LA344, I may conclude that replacing the computers is the most effective option. I will want this conclusion to be clear; however, budget constraints may force me to recommend repairing them. The report itself will demonstrate that the current budget constraints will actually cost the institution more money in the long run, and the report may be used to demonstrate this circumstance. (I am making up this scenario; the computers in LA344 are new, just so you don't conclude that I am airing institutional dirty laundry.) I doubt that you will run into a scenario such as this one, but I use it to help you understand the difference between the conclusion and the recommendation.

References (page 510): This page links your citations in the text to a works cited page so that a reader with questions can easily find your sources. Please remember that this is not an annotated bibliography. Only references should appear here. If you are using MLA style, then instead of the header "References," the header "Works Cited" should appear here. Your references should be formatted exactly as your citation method suggests.

Appendices (page 511): Your report will not necessarily include appendices. See instruction under "Table of Contents," above.