Page 79 - نموذج

19
522 Writing Recommendation Reports

• What key terms are you using in the report? The introduction is an appropri-
ate place to define new terms. If you need to define many terms, place
the definitions in a glossary and refer readers to it in the introduction.

Methods The methods section answers the question “What did you do?” In
drafting the methods section, consider your readers’ knowledge of the field,
their perception of you, and the uniqueness of the project, as well as their
reasons for reading the report and their attitudes toward the project. Provide
enough information to help readers understand what you did and why you
did it that way. If others will be using the report to duplicate your methods,
include sufficient detail.

Results Whereas the methods section answers the question “What did you
do?” the results section answers the question “What did you see?”
Results are the data you have discovered or compiled. Present the results
objectively, without comment. Save the interpretation of the results — your
conclusions — for later. If you combine results and conclusions, your readers
might be unable to follow your reasoning and might not be able to tell
whether the evidence justifies your conclusions.
Your audience’s needs will help you decide how to structure the results.
How much they know about the subject, what they plan to do with the re-
port, what they expect your recommendation(s) to be — these and many other
factors will affect how you present the results. For instance, suppose that
your company is considering installing a VoIP phone system that will allow
you to make telephone calls over the Internet. In the introduction, you ex-
plain the disadvantages of the company’s current phone system. In the
methods section, you describe how you established the criteria you applied
to the available phone systems, as well as your research procedures. In the
results section, you provide the details of each phone system you are consid-
ering, as well as the results of your evaluation of each system.

in this book Conclusions Conclusions answer the question “What does it mean?” They
For more about evaluating are the implications of the results. To draw conclusions, you need to think
evidence and drawing carefully about your results, weighing whether they point clearly to a single
conclusions, see Ch. 6,
pp. 133–36. meaning.

Recommendations Recommendations answer the question “What should
we do?” As discussed earlier in this chapter, recommendations do not always
flow directly from conclusions. Always consider recommending that the or-
ganization take no action, or no action at this time.

Methods Results Conclusions Recommendations
What did you do? What did you see? What does it mean? What should we do?

19_MAR_67948_Ch19_512-562.indd 522 11/29/11 3:36 PM