Guidelines for the Recommendation Report Your team’s target document is a collaboratively written recommendation report which comments upon the potential for either the construction and maintenance of a Web site (feasibility study) or revisions to an already existing page (usability study). This document should effectively mediate between the client’s needs and the course’s goals for this project. Your team’s work should reflect consideration of both the client’s desires and resources and the class’s criteria for the research and production of a professional recommendation report.
Your completed 1st Draft of the Recommendation Report is due Sunday, December 1st at 9pm. Students will read over the reports in preparation for in-class peer review on Monday, December 2. The final draft of your recommendation report is due by 6pm on Friday, December 6. Directions for Submission: You should bring the printed version of the project to ENAD 233. The electronic version (and all supporting files, if any) should be sent to me (and all team members) by 6pm also. Email my copy to jbay@purdue. du. Purposes The purpose of the report is to communicate directly to the client, both visually and verbally, feasible steps that its organization could take in order to better utilize the potentials of the Web for promotion, ecommerce, archiving information, or client relations. Your recommendations should focus upon a few well-researched options that the client could implement immediately. These options, however, also must enhance the client’s long-term Web communications plans.
Although you may need to pay some attention to logistical issues, such as ISPs, software programs, and the like, your report should not simply consist of a how-to manual for creating basic Web pages. Refer the client to such information and focus instead on recommendations espcially suited to the client’s goals and rhetorical context. It is expected that all teams will submit their report to the client upon completion of the project as a professional courtest and to reciprocate for the good will of the client in working with Purdue University students. Report sections
Your 7-9 page (not including appendices), single-spaced, full-blocked report should integrate visuals throughout and will have 7 main components: 1. Title page 2. Overview 3. Analyses 4. Recommendations * Description * Rationale * Plan 5. Cost Analyses 6. List of Resources 7. Appendices Description of report sections Your recommendation report, addressed directly to the client, must include the following sections. Title page Should include the title of the report, the client for which the report is produced, the authors’ names, and the date on which the report is submitted to the client. Overview
Should provide a brief description of the report, including a general analysis of the client’s needs and the team’s proposed responses to those needs. Analysis Should contextualize the report within the larger project. This section should provide a brief history of your field research. This discussion should contextualize your team’s research so that the client can better understand the process that your team followed in order to formulate its recommendations. Recommendations As mentioned above, your team should highlight a few manageable options that the client can implement in order to meet its long-term Web communication goals.
Whether you are conducting a feasibility or usability study, each of your recommendations should include the following 3 components: a description should explain to the client the steps or actions that you are advocating. Your description should provide specific details from your research in relationship to the client’s context and needs. a rationale should explain the why of your support of this particular action; explain to the client both why your team sees this action as feasible and how this action will benefit the client both immediately and in the long term. plan should describe to the client the specific steps necessary for the implementation and maintenance of this recommended action. Your discussion should also include a timeframe for these steps. Again, provide specific details from your field research. Cost analyses Should provide an analysis and estimate of the cost factors involved in your client’s implementation and maintenance of your team’s recommendations. In addition to your written summary, your team should provide this information to the client in the form of table(s) which break down the costs for each recommendation, as well as for all the recommendations combined.
Some cost factors to consider include personnel, hardware, software, internet access, maintenance, etc. List of sources Should reference all internal and external sources consulted throughout the research process including those sources related to costs and expenditures. These sources should be formatted following APA or MLA style guidelines (just be consistent). For instructions, consult Purdue’s Online Writing Lab. Appendices Should include documents that support and enhance your recommendations to the client.
Potential attachments include technical documentation, instructions, glossaries, illustrations of pages, a diagram of potential Web page layout, etc. May also refer to: * Addendum, any addition to a document, such as a book or legal contract * Bibliography, a systematic list of books and other works * Index (publishing), a list of words or phrases with pointers to where related material can be found in a document * Specifically, a text added to the end of a book or an article, containing information that is important to, but is not the main idea of, the main text
