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Recommendation Assignment The recommendation report culminates your research on your business problem

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Recommendation Assignment

The recommendation report culminates your research on your business problem. It is a

persuasive paper that presents your final recommendation and the reasons supporting it. In our

scenario, you provide this short report to management/ board for review prior to presenting your

persuasive oral presentation. This assignment covers the report’s content, organization, and

format.

Content

The audience for your report and presentation is your company’s Board of Directors and upper

management. Your purpose is to persuade them to approve your recommendation.  This

audience and both of your mutual purposes affect your message in three important ways. 

 

• The board and management will want to know how the issue impacts the company and

why they should approve your recommendation.  You must show your mutual goals

align, so they feel confident approving your recommendation.

 

• The Board and Management must know the recommendation is feasible and practical and

will not be unreasonably expensive or time consuming.  The report should provide a brief

description of how the recommendation would work in your company, but should not

delve into detailed stages and factors of implementation. 

 

• The board and management do not want to make a decision that might later reflect

unfavorably on the company and themselves. They want to be satisfied that you have

made them aware of all risks. Your research must include one main argument against

your recommendation along with your rebuttal to this counter-argument. You must

provide evidence of a thorough investigation completed without bias and presented as an

ethically complete argument.

Organization

Your language will be persuasive but remain reasonable and appropriate for a board report. 

Organize your report with the following elements in the following order:

1. Introduction Section: brief context for your topic: a description of the company’s

line of work and its size, the effect of the problem on your company, the cause of

the problem; your report’s purpose; and an overview of your main headings. 

2. Recommendation Section: a mini-introductory paragraph with a summary of the

three primary supporting assertions from your introduction. 

3. Assertions Subsections: discussions of the three reasons supporting your

recommendation, supported by on-point and relevant research. Relevant research is

recent (no later than six years old), relates directly to the assertion, and is usually

paraphrased. Use direct quotes very rarely, if at all.  Do not discuss in detail how

the recommended option WILL work or will be implemented; rather, include  published research that shows the option has worked for competitors or similar

businesses in the past.  

4. Counterargument and Rebuttal Section:  the ONE main opposition to your

recommendation and your rebuttal to this argument supported by research;

counterarguments would generally concern costs, resources, and time.  

5. Conclusion Section: brief statement recapping the main ideas of the paper,

reiterating your recommendation and its benefits to the company, and providing a

memorable takeaway.

6. Reference List Page: An APA-formatted reference list that includes only works

cited in the report.  The reference list is on a new page; no annotations necessary.

Format

              Follow the short paper format provided for this assignment.  Your headings, citations

and reference list should follow APA format.  Be sure to double-space, use Arial twelve point

font and one inch margins. The body of the report (items 1-5) should be 3--5 pages and you

must cite at least 5 different references in the text.  The main headings of the report are

centered, bold and are titled (1) Introduction, (2) Recommendation, (3) Counterargument and

Rebuttal, and (4) Conclusion. The only subheadings that will appear in the paper are your three

supporting reasons (assertions) for the recommendation, located in the Recommendation section.

Sub-headed sections are bold and aligned with the left margin.

Your language will be persuasive but remain reasonable and appropriate for a board report. As

the last major paper of the semester, your Recommendation Assignment should demonstrate

careful editing, organization using topic sentences and consistent application of APA formatting

techniques. Relevant content alone is not enough to score a satisfactory grade; persuasive

organization, APA formatting techniques, and writing elements comprise sixty per cent of all

available points.

Conclusion: Goals for Recommendation Assignment

           As you can see, the content and organization of the report are closely aligned to your

oral presentation to the board, except that the report provides more detail. Writing the report

allows you to organize your thoughts before presenting them; reading the report allows the board

and management to consider the information so they will be well informed when asking

questions and approving the recommendation after your oral presentation.

 

Please Note:

the use of topic sentences

paragraph breaks to organize material

citations in each reason/assertion for the recommendation

two paragraphs in Counter/Rebuttal section (one paragraph for each)

a well-formatted reference list