Recommendation Reports

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Recommendation Reports

• English 421Spring 2004

2
The parameters of recommendation reports

• Recommendation reports are part of a loosely
  defined, but very important, category of reports
  in business writing.
• They can be called feasibility reports,
  recommendation reports, evaluation reports, or
  assessment reports, among other things.
• They all provide carefully studied opinions and,
  in most cases, recommendations.

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The parameters of recommendation reports

• Recommendation reports usually consider several
  proposed alternatives and then recommend one of
  them.

• A recommendation is based on whether the solution
  is technologically possible and whether it is
  practical (in terms of current technology,
  economics, social needs, and so on).

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The parameters of recommendation reports

• The recommendation report answers the questions
  What are the alternatives? And Which should we
  implement?
• Not only does it give a recommendation, it also
  provides the data and the reasoning behind that
  recommendation.

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Typical contents of recommendation reports

• The structural principle fundamental to
  recommendation reports is this you provide not
  only your recommendation, choice, or judgment,
  but also the data and the conclusions leading up
  to it.

• That way, readers can check your findings, your
  logic, and your conclusions and come up with a
  completely different view. But, more likely, they
  will be convinced by all of your careful research
  and documentation.

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Typical contents of recommendation reports

• Introduction
• Organization Problem
• This Report's Scope and Approach
• Recommendations
• Discussion of Alternatives
• Background -Criteria used for
  Evaluation -Application of Criteria to Each of
  the Alternatives
• Conclusion and Recommendations
• Supporting Documents

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Typical contents of recommendation reports

• See typical contents of the recommendation report
  for more information on each section.