Page 66 - AEI Postgraduate Handbook 2018-2019

analyses and recommendations should address the underlying problems and not their
symptoms.

2. Be Specific, Be Realistic

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

In real time 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 what 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 findings 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. For
example, if you recommend a market penetration 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, the organisation you are
studying must have the capabilities and resources to carry out your 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

66