The Sections of the Body of the Recommendation Report
The Recommendations section tells your readers what they should do. In this section, you discuss the options that your research and conclusions suggest and explain how the readers should proceed as a result.
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Obtain and review copies of the drafts of your group’s Methods, Results, and Conclusions sections before beginning this section. The interpretation in the Recommendations section should directly connect to the information in the three previous sections of the report.
Add the heading for your Recommendations section:
Add the word Recommendations as the heading at the top of the page and center the line.
Format the word so that it is clearly the heading for the page. You can use the built-in headings in your word processor.
For each option you have identified, add a matching subsection in your Recommendations section with details on the actions the reader should consider. Follow these guidelines for each subsection:
Identify the option by number and provide a brief statement of the action. Ideally your subheading should be approximately 1 line or less in length.
Format your subheading so that it is different from the paragraphs in the body and matches other subheadings in the report. You can use the built-in headings in your word processor. See the headings in the Recommendations section in the Sample Recommendation Report for an example.
Option Details
Provide relevant details under each heading, including the following information:
Explain the option, referring to your research to support your recommendations.
Add in-text citations for outside sources that you mention (for instance, books, websites, or videos) as you explain your findings, following these guidelines:
Make sure that any information you quote from your primary or secondary research is enclosed in quotation marks.
Follow the documentation style your group has agreed upon.
Review the information in your subsection, and chunk the information into short paragraphs. The exact number of paragraphs in each of subsections will depend upon the specific details of your research process. See the section on “Chunking” on the Document Design: More Design Principles page.