Chapter 14 — Development of Analytical Reports

Chapter 14 of Houp/Pearsall/Tebeaux's Reporting Technical Information, 9th ed. (New York: Allyn & Bacon, 1997), discusses the different types of analytical report and strategies for developing them. Accompanying the textbook, this chapter of the online instructor manual provides the following:

Chapter Objectives

• Understand the differences between analytical, recommendation, feasibility, and empirical research reports.

• Understand the role of analysis in these types of reports.

• Know the key contents and organization used in these four types of reports.

• Use a standard framework for reporting analyses, conclusions, and recommendations.

• Understand the meaning of the term feasibility.

• Know the report formats commonly used in these four types of reports.

• Understand the function of conclusions and recommendations in recommendation and feasibility reports.

• Use a reliable process for reporting and drawing conclusions on empirical research.

In terms of the applications of technical writing, chapter 14 is one of the most important chapters in Reporting Technical Information. If, through your guidance, students develop confidence in producing these types of reports, consider your semester a success.

You can build your entire course around the types of reports presented in this chapter. For example, students can write application letters and resumes for a job at a hypothetical technical research firm. Once hired, they can write a proposal to get that firm hired to do some technical research that would result in a recommendation, feasibility, or empirical research report. Along the way, they can write a progress report, inquiry letters, and other technical documents.

The hard part is implementing these powerful, practical applications in the college classroom. Few students work in environments where they typically recommend restructuring of the FACG Team, research alternate oil spill containment methods, or evaluate a salt water disposal system. During their semester in technical writing, few students will be able to design and run an empirical research report, nor can you be certain that they will be involved in research in another course. However, the exercises at the end of chapter 14 offer some possibilities; so will the writing projects discussed in the following pages.

One problem you may have with this unit may be your students' understanding of the report types. Chapter 14 rightly avoids too carefully distinguishing recommendation, evaluation, and feasibility reports. In the "real world," there just isn't any standardization as to what these reports are, what they are called, or how they differ. For the sake of clarity in your technical writing course, however, you may want to make some further distinctions:

• Recommendation reports — Emphasis is on a comparison of options, the decision having already been made to purchase the product, fix the problem, or take advantage of an opportunity. The recommendation report answers the question which one?

• Feasibility reports — Emphasis is on whether to attempt a solution to the problem, take advantage of an opportunity, or purchase a product. The issues are typically some combination of technical (can it be done technologically?), social (will people or organizations benefit?), economic (will it be profitable or can it be afforded?), and administrative (can it be done with existing personnel and within existing laws or regulations?).

In this view, the outcome of a feasibility report is a yes, no, or maybe The outcome of the recommendation report is a choice of one or more options. Using this approach, you start with a feasibility report—for example, would World Wide Web audio/video technology be useful to an organization? If the answer is yes or maybe, you proceed to a recommendation report—which web audio/video product is the best choice?

Here are some ideas for classroom activities to help students learn about analytical reports:

1. Give the initial quiz. Try giving the quiz at the beginning of your unit on analytical reports. It's a nice springboard into discussion of key aspects of this chapter. When students have completed the quiz and have turned it in, you can go through the answers with them as a group.

2. Apply the checklists. A good classroom exercise is to use the checklists at the end of the chapter to analyze the example analytical reports shown within the chapter. Students tend not to read the examples carefully. Also, they tend not to use the checklists when they are completing their own drafts and thus fail to include certain key components. Applying the checklists to the examples in the book may help in both these areas.

3. Show-and-tell analytical reports. Have students find and bring in recommendation, evaluation, feasibility, and empirical research reports to present to the class. This can be difficult, however, because these types of reports are usually unpublished and proprietary. Still, if you are just starting out as a technical writing teacher, this is a good way to build files of examples. Have students compare the structure of the reports they bring in to the structure shown in the textbook.

4. Unscramble scrambled analytical-report text. Take the text of a good analytical report, scramble the sections moderately, and then retype that text as one huge paragraph without any formatting. Get the class to discuss how to rearrange and format the text. (Get students to bring scissors and tape to class.) Or you can bring a computer and projector into your classroom, and have students tell you how to edit the scrambled text.

5. Group-brainstorm a hypothetical analytical-report project. Another classroom possibility is to plan a hypothetical recommendation or feasibility report together as a class. Start with the terms college, community, or workplace and have them think of problems or opportunities. (Analytical reports don't always focus on problems—they can also focus on opportunities for improvement.) Get students to define the audience, purpose, and scope of the project that they select. Have them define the criteria and the information gathering that the project will necessitate; have them consider the types of conclusions and recommendations they might reach.

   You can use this same activity for the empirical research report: define the research problem; consider the requirements of the literature review; sketch out the methods, equipment, and facilities for the actual text; imagine the results and conclusions.

6. Oral presentations on analytical-report projects. Consider having students do brief 3- to 5-minute oral reports on their analytical report projects. This works as a group-brainstorming exercise, helps students who are stumped for a project idea, and just generally raises the energy level of the class.

Here are some discussion questions related to this chapter:

Recommendation Reports (pages 423-443)

• Discuss the style, order, elements, and support the author of the report which appears on pages 424-438. How are these effective in supporting the author's recommendations?
• Discuss the early presentation of conclusions in the recommendation report which appears on pages 439-443. How does the author present and offer options? What impression do you have of the author's credibility and professionalism? Why?

Feasibility Studies (pages 444-476)

• In what ways does the feasibility study which appears on pages 452-475 differ from the recommendation reports? How does the author support her conclusions?
• What kinds of support does the author provide? Is it convincing?

Empirical Research Reports (pages 476-487)

• What is the function of the review of literature in an empirical research report?
• How does the author of an empirical research report support the goals, design, methodology, and findings of research?

The following are some suggestions for journal entries related to this chapter:

Recommendation Reports (pages 423-443)

• What sorts of subjects from your major or career could be presented effectively as recommendation reports?
• In what ways could you present recommendations convincingly? Consider style, order, tone, factual proof, and audience.

Feasibility Studies (pages 444-476)

• In what ways do feasibility reports require a different approach from recommendation reports? In what ways are they similar?
• In what ways is an author of a feasibility report professionally accountable for recommendations and conclusions? How can an author support these effectively?

Empirical Research Reports (pages 476-487)

• What reports of empirical studies have you read? What seemed effective about them? Ineffective?
• In many ways, the presentation of empirical research indicates membership in a professional discourse community. What kinds of information, style, and knowledge indicate membership?

The following are topic ideas related to this chapter. Remember that for most of these ideas, you'll need to do some substantial narrowing before the topic will be usable:

Recommendation Reports (pages 423-443)

• On the basis of a study of campus parking problems and patterns, recommend a change.
• On the basis of a study of slow processing of requests in a state or university office, recommend a few methods of processing.
• On the basis of a study of crowding in campus cafeterias, recommend changes in hours and options for service.

Feasibility Studies (pages 444-476)

• The university wants to know whether new on-line registration procedures will make early enrollments higher and therefore easier to plan for.
• The university wants to know whether night courses will meet the needs of the student population.
• A restaurant chain proposing a new store located near campus wants to whether its location, service hours, and food products will be attractive to the student population.

Empirical Research Reports (pages 476-487)

• Design, conduct, and report a study of first year college students to correlate retention with SAT scores.
• Design, conduct, and report a study of late night users of library study areas to determine their reasons for using the facility.

As teachers, we want our students to get experience writing reports that focus on problems, compare solutions, analyze data, draw conclusions, and make recommendations. But how to implement real or realistic scenarios in which they can gain this experience? Here is a range of project ideas (these suggestions are generic for analytical reports rather than any specific type), including ideas for collaborative projects:

1. Write an analytical report recommending a product. Have your students find or envision a specific audience with a specific problem or specific need for a specific product. Have the students then gather comparative data on three or four leading products in that category and then recommend one. This is the classic Consumer Reports-style report; your students will find plenty of data for a project like this. Products need not be the only focus of this project: for example, a student could compare and make recommendations about graduate schools.

   To turn this into a collaborative project, suggest that student teams organize themselves into these roles:

   • Manager. Selects a product for discussion, assigns roles, establishes meetings, establishes a timetable for activities.
     
   • Team members. Each researches different versions of the product and prepares notes on companies in the manufacturing area which produce it.
     
   • Moderator. Conducts the meeting to discuss and comment on the findings of each team member.
     
   • Scribe. Takes notes of the meeting.
     
   • Editor. Writes up the discussion, summarizing the group's findings to support the recommendation.

2. Write an analytical report evaluating required courses. This is textbook exercise 4. Maybe students don't like some of the course requirements in their major—speech, foreign language, British literature, even technical writing? To do this report project well, they must research the requirements, define criteria, get data on the actual performance of these courses, and somehow evaluate these courses against the criteria. Students would have to interview instructors, deans, current students, graduates, and practicing professionals. This project has great potential but could turn into mere whining and unsubstantiated complaining. (With so much research, this project might be better for the team approach.)

   To turn this into a collaborative project, suggest that student teams organize themselves into these roles:

   • Manager. Selects required courses in a major for discussion, assigns roles, calls meetings, invites a departmental advisor to a meeting, establishes a timetable for activities.
     
   • Team members. Each researches the curriculum, industry need, and application of a different required course, taking notes for the meeting.
     
   • Moderator. Conducts the meeting to discuss and comment on the findings of each team member and to invite the comments of the advisor about each required course under discussion.
     
   • Scribe. Takes notes of the meeting.
     
   • Editor. Writes up the discussion, summarizing the group's findings to support the evaluations.

3. Write an analytical report on a campus problem. Writing about a campus problem (exercise 6 in the textbook) does not require students to think about pedagogy—but get set for multiple, obligatory reports on the campus parking problem. Again, lots of research, surveys, and interviewing will be necessary.

   To turn this into a collaborative project, suggest that student teams organize themselves into these roles:

   • Manager. Selects a campus problem for research and discussion, assigns roles, establishes meetings, establishes a timetable for activities.
     
   • Team members. Each researches a different view of the problem, interviewing, conducting surveys, and taking notes for the group meeting.
     
   • Moderator. Conducts the meeting to discuss and comment on the findings of each team member, organize the data, and to analyze the findings.
     
   • Scribe. Takes notes of the meeting.
     
   • Editor. Drafts the report, revises it to incorporate group suggestions.

4. Write an analytical report on academic programs, majors, graduate schools, or professions. Textbook exercise 8 suggests this range of possibilities. How about a study on the feasibility of a distance version of an academic course or a program featuring some hot new technology? How about an evaluation report on a major, such as engineering design graphics or instructional technology? How about a study and recommendation on three electrical engineering graduate programs? What about some sort of analytical report on a technical profession, such as those involving forestry science or petroleum engineering?

5. Write an analytical report on a problem or opportunity in the community or workplace. Students can research the feasibility of a science museum, an Earthday, a city market, or some civic service project. Working students might want to focus on a problem at work such as lack of a daycare facility or recycling program, or the possibility of telecommuting (working from home).

6. Write the beginnings of an empirical research report. Your students will probably not be involved in any direct empirical research or be able to conduct such research during their semester in technical writing. However, they can write the preliminaries of an empirical research report—specifically, the introduction, literature review, materials and methods section, and perhaps an expected outcomes section (to replace the results and conclusions sections).

   To turn this into a collaborative project, suggest that student teams organize themselves into these roles:

   • Manager. Selects and defines the research problem, assigns roles, calls meetings, invites a departmental advisor to a meeting, sets a timeline for activities.
     
   • Team members. Each prepares a different part of the research problem, each drafting one part of the report.
     
   • Research Liaison. Locates and invites a researcher in the field to take part in discussions, writes to thank the researcher of participation at the end of the project, sends the researcher a copy of the finished proposal.
     
   • Moderator. Conducts the meeting to discuss and comment on the findings of each team member, organize the data, and to analyze the findings.
     
   • Scribe. Takes notes of the meeting.
     
   • Editor. Drafts the report of the proposed research design, revises it to incorporate group suggestions.

7. Write a recommendation report on existing research. Another way to get students close to real empirical research is to have them review, summarize, and analyze the existing research literature on a topic. For example, your health-sciences and pre-med students could review the literature on caffeine, saccharine, and other substances thought to cause cancer. The analytical part of projects like these would be to make recommendations for further research, evaluate the research that has been done, or both.

The following point summaries focus on key points in this chapter of Houp/Pearsall/Tebeaux's Reporting Technical Information:

Sample Assignments

The following provides ideas for writing assignments related to this chapter of Houp/Pearsall/Tebeaux's Reporting Technical Information: