A recommendation is a proposed practical action — something that solves a problem or moves things towards a better position. It is also the part of a brief that most often sends the whole document back for rework.
Make the reasoning visible
Each recommendation should be logically derived from the information you have presented and the conclusions you have drawn. The reasoning that links the proposed action to the facts and findings should be plain on the page, so the reader can see how you got there without reconstructing it themselves.
Briefs come unstuck when the analysis says one thing and the recommendation quietly asks for another. A reviewer then has to work out which of the two is wrong — and the safest thing for them to do is send it back.
Give them a real choice
A single recommendation asks the reader to accept your judgement. Options let them exercise their own. Where there is cost, risk or a genuine choice, set out two or three options and recommend one.
- Test each option against the purpose of the brief, not against each other.
- Include the option of doing nothing, and be honest about what it costs.
- Count staff time as a cost. It is the cost most often left out.
A genuine option is one you could defend if the reader picked it. Filler options that exist to make a preferred option look sensible are usually obvious, and they cost you credibility.
Say it plainly
The APS is required to provide frank, honest and timely advice based on the best available evidence. On the page, that means stating risks plainly in the key points rather than softening them into the background, and recommending what the evidence supports even when it is not what the reader wants to hear. The advice is yours; the decision is theirs.
Start each action with a verb — note, agree, approve — and keep one course of action per recommendation.