Report Writing Guide | W231 Template V2

Team Recommendation Report

Intro to Micro-ePortfolio & Home Pages

Overview

Included in a Recommendation Report

A Cover or Introductory Page
- tips on what to include with your cover page or Home page
An Executive Summary
Formal Introduction
Methodology Section
Analysis
Recommendations
Review of Literature
- In W231, we include a Review of Literature [ROL]. This is not standard in business reports. The ROL serves a unique purpose: it helps 200-level IUPUI students become familiar with Annotated Bibliographies and Review of Literature composing strategies for academic writing.
References
Appendices

Creating a Home Page

Your Home page functions like a Recommendation Report cover for a print document. It will verify rhetorical context: who, what, where, when, why, and possibly how.

SHOW ME HOW

Your Team Recommendation Report will follow standard genre expectations for recommendation report writing.

Typically a recommendation report will focus on a specific issue or project, share relevant information and research, then recommend steps related to the project purpose and goals.

Recommendation Reports: Genre Expectations

Refer to your textbook for standard practices and an example.
Refer to the ARP Booklet available on Canvas for unique W231 expectations for the team recommendation report.
Use this WIX website tutorial to review basics covered in your textbook, the ARP Booklet, and course discussions [This website is a support tool; it does not provide you with the depth and breadth of the textbook and ARP Booklet.]

Team Recommendation Report

Home Page

The HOME PAGE of your Recommendation Report website will provide your audience with context and purpose. It works like the cover page of a print-form Recommendation Report. Typically, HOME will include a: Title [which includes genre & scope], brief description of the project, prepared for, prepared by, W231 context, and date.

Be sure to include a TABLE OF CONTENTS with hyperlinks to key sections of the report.--moved to navigationpage

The cover will prominently feature the title of the report. The report title will comment specifically on the scope of the project as well as commenting on the genre.

Three examples of titles other team’s considered:

Ways Wisdom Tooth Can Attract Millennial Audiences: A Recommendation Report
Recommendation Report: Attracting Millennial Audiences to Wisdom Tooth Theatre
Wisdom Tooth Theatre Project: Recommendations For Cultivating A Millennial Audience Base

A quick note about titles in college writing

Every TITLE should be clear, detailed, and specific to your project. Typically, this will include genre and description. The genre might be an argument, study, analysis, or lab report. In addition the genre, college project titles will often contain the name of an expert, major figure, or title of an article you're analyzing, like "Analysis of Jeffrey Sachs The End of Poverty".

Yes: that means college paper titles are usually long--much like the titles you see in academic databases like EBSCO Host or ProQuest.

BUSINESS WRITING IS SIMILAR: Have Specific Titles. If it isn't unique to what you're writing, change it. The title should not be the sort of thing that could go on top of another student's report.

For your team report in W231, "Recommendation Report" is a poorly developed title. It does verify genre, but it does not comment on what is in the recommendation report, the scope, or who it is for. An example of a stronger title is: "Attracting Millennials to Wisdom Tooth Theatre: A Recommendation Report."

In addition to a clear, detailed title the HOME PAGE should state who the report is PREPARED FOR. This might be your client, or it might be for the Board of Directors your client works for. Clarify who you wrote the report for on the HOME PAGE.--moved to adjusting tone

Your audience choice will influence word choices and ways you comment on your client within the report. If you are writing to the client specifically and you want to mention the team-client interview, you might write: "When we met you at the Wisdom Tooth Box Office on September 23, you mentioned that attracting millennials is your number one concern." If you are writing for your client's boss or the board, you would be more formal when commenting on the interview: "When we met with Callie Burk, Marketing Director at Wisdom Tooth, she clarified that the theatre wanted to explore innovative ways to attract millennial audiences."

Be sure that you also include PREPARED BY, affiliation and the DATE.

Prepared by should include your team members' in alphabetical order by last name; this area can also clarify your affiliation--Fall 2019 IUPUI Business and Professional Writing Skills [W231] Student Writing Consultants or some variation of that.

Make sure PREPARED BY hyperlinks to your TEAM BIO page.

Some HOME pages might also include a TABLE OF CONTENTS. If your audience is not familiar with the parts of a recommendation report, you should include a table of contents with brief descriptions of the information provided under each section. Then, INCLUDE HYPERLINKS to your website pages to provide quick access to every page of the website.

Be sure to include a TABLE OF CONTENTS with hyperlinks to key sections of the report.

Specific Title with Recommendation Report in the Title
Prepared for
Prepared by
Date
Summary/overview
Context [IUPUI W231 Professional Writing Skill Team Project]
TABLE OF CONTENTS with hyperlinks to major sections

Your team is welcome to include other relevant information in the home page.

The HOME PAGE should be visually appealing and will often incorporate your client's corporate colors and logo. You can also use photos from your client's website to help create a uniform look. The IU Theatre example does a nice job including photos and colors from the client's web pages.

Just like other borrowed images, your team should CITE the borrowed information in your References and using APA format in the document. A hyperlink from the borrowed visuals to the client pages is an additional way to pay attribution to the original source of the materials.

If you used special software or a design program, like Dolphin, you should also include a line on the webpage saying how the report was created: Designed using Dolphin. If you're using WIX or Google Sites, they put their name on every page, so you don't need to duplicate that information.

MOVE TO RELEVANT PAGES

The website is designed as a support tool for your W231 experience. In addition to this ePortfolio of materials related to the Recommendation Report project, Gail Bennett composed an Applied Research Project (ARP) Booklet to help support students as they tackle the team report project.

Materials shared on this WIX website are:

In part, composed and designed by D.J. Oesch-Minor
In other instances, the materials are identified as adapted from W231 Canvas materials written by Julie Freeman
Other information is adapted from the W231 Applied Research Project Booklet Chapters 1-3 and Chapters 4-6
PLEASE READ the ARP Booklet provided on Canvas or accessible through the links provided here

As part of team formation, read Bruce W. Tuckman suggestions for "Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing." Tuckman's work provides a useful framework for looking at your own team. You can link to commentary on his work through MIT's human resources link:

https://hr.mit.edu/learning-topics/teams/articles/stages-development

After reading Tuckman, use materials shared under Canvas Modules to map out team tasks toward compiling the Team Formation Memo which will contain your team's topic proposal as well as the team's agreement related to policies and procedures to help keep your recommendation report on schedule.

A TEAM MEMO EXAMPLE

You can access a sample team memo by clicking on the hyperlink HERE or copying/pasting the URL into your browser

https://oeschminor.wixsite.com/w231reporttemplate/your-team-memo

ADD: Want to see previous student examples? (button) "click here"

PROFESSIONAL WRITING SKILLS

ENGLISH W231

Team Recommendation Report

Intro to Micro-ePortfolio & Home Pages

Included in a Recommendation Report

Creating a Home Page

Recommendation Reports: Genre Expectations

Team Recommendation Report

PROFESSIONAL WRITING SKILLS

ENGLISH W231

Team Recommendation Report

Intro to Micro-ePortfolio & Home Pages

Included in a Recommendation Report​

Creating a Home Page

Recommendation Reports: Genre Expectations

Team Recommendation Report

Included in a Recommendation Report