Phil Druker/Department of English/ University of Idaho

 

Conclusions and Recommendations
Phil Druker, Department of English,  University of Idaho

 

 Here's some information about writing the most important parts of many project reports:

Conclusions:

Drawing conclusions is the main goal of writing your report.  For readers, the conclusion section often becomes the focal point of your report.   This is the part of your report readers read to understand the meaning of the whole report.  For some readers, it may be the most important section.  Nearly all reports need a conclusion of some type.

Your conclusions need to be based on the evidence you present in the body of your report.  When writing conclusions, consider these points:

1.      Keep them relatively short (usually one or two paragraphs).

2.      Keep the level of technicality relatively low.

3.      Emphasize what the report means.

-- Focus on the main results and what they mean.

            -- Pull the analyses of your results together.

            -- Interpret the overall meaning of your results for the reader.

            --Explain the inferences you want readers to draw from your report.

4.      Add no new details.

5.      Do not merely summarize the report.

6. Give an overall interpretation of the report.

                      ►►            Emphasize what it all means                                      ◄◄
►► Emphasize the main idea/s you want your reader to remember/understand◄◄

For reports with an executive summary, the conclusion section should be short.

 Conclusion Sample

Recommendations:

If your report leads to recommendations, you should include this section.  Sometimes, recommendations appear in the conclusion section; other times the recommendations form a separate section.  You need to consider what you want to emphasize.

In a recommendation section you should answer these questions:

bullet

   What do you want the reader to do?

bullet

    What action(s) should be taken?

To make your recommendations work, you should:

  1. Base your recommendations on your conclusions.

  2. Keep them simple.

  3. Use a list for emphasis if you have two or more recommendations.

  4. Consider tone.  Remember that reports do not make decisions; people do.
    ** Use “should,” “recommend,” or similar terms.

Recommendation Sample

 

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