Page 69 - AEI Postgraduate Handbook 2017-2018

2. Be Specific, Be Realistic

Your report should be practical and realistic. Your recommendations and justification for
those recommendations the most important parts of the report. They should be
substantial, specific and original.

In real time business situations, one will never have all the information one would like to
have. As such, resort to reasonable assumptions about unknowns, carry out the
appropriate analyses having made explicit those the assumptions are, and then make a
decisions based on such analyses. So too must be the manner you approach your
research project. There is no such thing as a complete report. Always supplement your
empirical with available secondary data obtained through library search. Library
research is always required in research.

Your recommendations must be specific. Broad generalisations help no one. If you
recommend a market penetrate strategy, justify it and tell what, why, when, where,
who, and how that strategy is to be implemented in your particle case. Where possible,
numbers, dollar estimates, ratios, percentages and other quantitative indices can ensure
you steer clear of generalities and vagueness.

Your recommendations should be realistically feasible. That is, organisation you are
studying must have the capabilities and resources to carry out you recommendations.
For example you need to specify clearly whether debt, stock or a combination of debt
and stock is to be used to obtain the capital to carry out your recommendations. Also,
do not ignore alternatives. Present the advantages and disadvantages of feasible
alternatives in such a way that it is clear that your interpretation of the evidence is
reasonable and objective.

3- STRUCTURE OF REPORT

The structure of the research report is based on a standard format which contains the
following sections:

1. Preface
2. Text
3. Supplement

The arrangement of these sections is subject to agreement between the student and the
supervisor(s).
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