The remaining major projects in the course ask you to complete writing that will ultimately help you complete the Recommendation Report. Nothing in the course should seem like busywork to you, because everything builds into the culminating recommendation report.
The Sequence of Technical Writing Projects in the Short Guide provided a brief explanation of the connections. This page explains more fully.
Topic & Pitch Presentation
Following the details on the Recommendation Report Overview, you should have chosen a topic for your recommendation report that focuses on a specific situation that you can easily observable. For instance, you might have identified some slippery and dangerous stairs like those in the image, and your report will explain how you recommend to resolve the issue. You can review the Recommendation Topic Examples page to see topics that work and topics that need to be revised.
You have also completed a Pitch Presentation, which gives a brief overview of your project. If you have followed all the advice, you should have a tight statement of your plan. Now you’re ready to embark on the next step of the sequence.
Instructions
The instructions project supports the research that you will do for your recommendation report. You need to gather two kinds of research for your recommendation:
- primary research, which is information you collect, such as observations and surveys, and
- secondary research, which is information other people have collected, such as books are articles.
Markel and Selber’s Chapter 6 (“Researching Your Subject”) discusses these two types of sources in detail. You will conduct your secondary research as you normally would, searching for outside books, articles, and other sources that will support your project.
Your instructions project relates directly to the primary research you will conduct. The instructions you write are critical to ensuring that your primary research is accurate and uniform. You will follow these general steps:
- Decide on the kind(s) of primary research that will demonstrate the situation you are examining and its impact.
- Write an instructions document that outlines exactly how to conduct and record your data.
- Use the instructions to guide your primary research, following the instructions as you collect your data.
Technical Description
The technical description project asks you to write a piece that you can incorporate into your recommendation report. Your report must include details on the objects or relevant processes involved. For instance, if you are discussing a situation related to recycling glass containers on campus, you’ll need to talk about how the recycling process on campus works.
For your technical description project, you will write a description of an object or process related to the situation you are examining in your recommendation report.
Recommendation Report
Your recommendation report identifies the situation you examined, outlines your research methods and findings, explains the possible options, draws conclusions about each option, and finally makes a recommendation to your audience. You will incorporate information from the previous projects as you write your recommendation report:
| Project | How It Contributes to Your Recommendation Report |
|---|---|
| Topic and Pitch | Details from your topic and pitch can be used in different sections of your report’s front matter and Introduction. |
| Instructions | Primary data you gather and the methods you used to gather that data will be discussed in the Research Methods and Findings section of your report. Include the full Instructions document in the report appendices. |
| Technical Description | The object or process your describe can be part of your explanation of the situation or part of the discussion of possible options. You will probably find that you need to describe more than one object or process in your report, so you can apply the process from the Technical Description project as you compose additional information for your recommendation. |
Photo Credit: Slippery stairs by Henry Söderlund on Flickr, used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.