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Chapter 58. RECOMMENDATION REPORT Activities for Recommendation Reporting See also "Activities & Groups." --- SPECIAL ACTIVITIES BUSINESS OR SCHOOL RECOMMENDATION REPORT: Make a business or school recommendation as a group, using the divisions of a group as mentioned in "3" below. As a group, develop your own group name and line of products or results. Then make a recommendation involving a real or imaginary work or school situation. Use the parts or divisions of a recommendation listed in this chapter.  If your instructor allows, you may develop a fictional and/or fanciful background and subject for your recommendation--e.g., inventing a fanciful or interesting company and possible solutions for strange, new, or unusual products or activities.  Be sure to use the two steps of creating criteria for evaluation, and applying them to several possible solutions, as these are integral to learning how to write a good recommendation report. PRACTICE OF THE PARTS--CIRCLE SENTENCING: Practice the parts or divisions of a recommendation using circle sentencing. Do this as a whole class. First, everyone should get out a sheet of lined paper and write "1. A problem/need our company/business has is that ____," and fill in the blank with an interesting, unusual, or silly proposal. Second, everyone should pass this paper to the next person clockwise or in his/her row, read the new paper in front of her, then write "2. Three possible solutions are to  ____," and fill in the blank (or have three solutions suggested by three different people). Third, continue passing the papers and adding one more sentence after each pass, using the steps shown in the "Organizational Outline" section of this chapter. The third one, for example, might be "3. Four criteria for evaluating the solutions are ____" (or have four criteria suggested by four different people).  Then continue on from there with evaluation of each of the solutions using the criteria, and reaching a final choice.  Finally, when all the steps are done, read some of the best papers out loud.     MARRIAGE RECOMMENDATION REPORT: Make a marriage recommendation report as a group. Break into groups of three to five people and choose group roles (coordinator, writer, reader, timer, and minutes keeper). Then, as a group, pretend you are planning who a friend or relative should marry.  You have three to four choices.  You must describe each, and then create a set of criteria for evaluating them.  Then you must apply the criteria to each one in turn, and reach a final decision about which potential partner is best, based on the criteria. Read the results aloud. ---     OTHER ACTIVITIES THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CHAPTER: As an individual or a group, read the chapter and take notes about it using one or more of the methods in "General Study Questions." ROUGH DRAFT: As an individual or a group, write a paper as described in this chapter.  Use the subtitles shown in the "Introduction" or the "Basics" section as subtitles of your rough draft, and write at least 50+ words in each body section.  If you are working as a group, you may, if your instructor allows, develop a fictional and fanciful background and subject for your rough draft. GROUP MAPPING & PLANNING: Divide into small groups of 3-4 people randomly.  In each group, one person each should volunteer to be       (i) the facilitator (the person helping everyone to do the work), (ii) the writer/recorder (who does the writing for the group), (iii) the reader/announcer (who reports the group's works to the class), and (iv) if there is a fourth, the timekeeper, the observer taking notes about the group's way of working, and/or the "social encourager"--someone who finds questions to encourage quieter members of the group.         The group should then follow these steps using a timetable given by the instructor, either in a small, close circle with the writer using pen or laptop, or at a segment of the whiteboard with the writer using a marker:      (A) What is the key or essence of this type of paper?  Brainstorm an interesting, fun idea (serious or silly) to write about.     (B) Then look at the "map" or blocks of how to build this type of paper, from introduction through the body sections to the conclusion.  The instructor can either project it on a screen or draw it on the board.  Then fill in the parts with 50-100 words for each main body section, and 20-50 for the intro and conclusion (depending on the instructor's directions).    (C) If your instructor suggests this, add a good made up illustration, graphic, or quotation or two to each section from an "expert" and give credit to your made-up expert.  (Note: Never add made-up detail or experts to a real paper.)    (D) Have your reader/announcer read your result to the entire class.    (E) After all groups have gone, then the "observer" in each group--or the facilitator--should answer three brief comments on how the group process happened: "What worked well," "What didn't," and "How could it be changed?"       GROUP CRITIQUE OF A LATER DRAFT: If your class has a paper all of you are preparing for grading, gather in a group to critique each other's developed drafts:       (A) Simply pass the papers to each other; your paper preferably should be checked by three other people.   (Some instructors prefer that you make several copies, distribute them to your group members, take the copies home that you receive, and comment on them there.)      (B) Write comments for each other.  To do so, use a a set of grading guidelines (or "rubric"): for example, "How are the contents," "How is the organization of parts," "Do paragraphs work well," and "How well have editing errors been corrected?"  Preferably, you can use the guidelines your instructor applies when grading.         (C) For each question or requirement in your guidelines, write one or more comments.  Your comments should be substantial and specific (more like a complete sentence, and more specific than just "Nice!" or "Needs work").  Your comments also should be positive or helpfully constructive: when positive, they should offer specific praise of a particular part, detail, or method; when constructive, they should offer specific advice about what to add or do to make the paper better.         (D) Add a final positive or constructive comment about how you think the average reader of this paper might respond to it, and/or how the paper could be changed or fixed for a stronger or more positive response from its audience.   (E) After receiving your comments from others, take them home.  Review what they have written.  Remember that your readers are not commenting on you as a person, but rather on how easily (or poorly) they have been able to read your paper as its audience members.  Pay attention in particular to comments that may have been repeated by more than one of your readers. For a wide variety of other activities and exercises, go to "Activities & Groups." --- Return to top.