Your final project in ENGL 115 will be to create a multimodal recommendation that proposes and argues for a solution to your group’s problem. We discussed multimodality in the previous chapter, so in this one we will discuss the recommendation side of the project.

A recommendation or proposal offers a solution to a problem. It might seek approval for that solution from the public or from someone in a supervisory role, or it may seek funding for the solution. A proposal might take many forms based on purpose and audience. For instance, if the proposal is to a supervisor or supervisory body such as LSUS administration, it would likely be in the genre of a formal report. If a solution is proposed for public approval, it would likely be in a genre more suited for public consumption. In any case, an effective proposal makes it clear that the future benefits of carrying out the proposed solution will outweigh the costs associated with doing so.

While proposals may be delivered in a variety of forms, there are some important considerations when inventing and delivering any form of proposed solution.

Need and Urgency

The first time anyone offers a recommendation, they often will argue why their solution is the best one for solving the problem. This should not be your first step in any recommendation that you write, nor should it even be your first argumentative move. Rather, you need to first convince your audience that the problem your solution addresses is in fact a problem and is a problem that is worth committing resources to solving. This establishes what is called the rhetorical exigence, i.e., it establishes a need for your audience’s concern. If your audience does not believe your solution resolves an actual problem, then they likely won’t be interested in your argument regardless of its merit or persuasiveness.

Showing that there is a need for your solution is all about considering your audience. If you want your audience to take your problem seriously, you need to demonstrate its urgency and show them how the problem impacts them. They might be persuaded by its potential effects on others, but they will be more interested in those parts of a problem that directly impact their positions, livelihoods, health, welfare, etc. Thus, it can be helpful to make a table containing two columns. In one column, list those things that your audience cares about. In the other, list the potential impacts of the problem you are addressing. Look for connections between the two lists for ideas on how to better establish an exigence that will connect with your audience.

Depending on your audience, you might need more or less detail in this section. However, you should at the very least summarize an explanation of the problem, the causes of the problem, and why it is urgent to solve the problem.

You will want to include a great deal of evidence here – however, for setting up the urgency of your problem, internet and library research likely won’t be very helpful, particularly if your problem is very localized and current. Rather, it’s likely that you will need to do some primary research in order to clearly show a need for your solution. So, consider doing surveys, conducting focus groups, or conducting interviews with impacted stakeholders. All of these have the potential to yield up-to-date, targeted evidence that will help show the seriousness of your problem.

Building a Quality Solution

One of the most important parts of any recommendation or proposal is to have a strong solution that makes sense to your audience. But how do you know what a good solution is? While the qualities of a strong solution will vary somewhat based on the problem, context, and audience of your particular situation, most persuasive solutions do have a few common qualities.

More on Specificity

Recommendations always require a great deal of specificity. You don’t want to be talking about your solution in the abstract, e.g., the solution is just a “good idea” or “the right thing to do.” Abstract solutions for real problems are often not persuasive enough for some people. They are not persuasive because your audience does not connect the abstractness of your reasoning to the specificity of the problem. Rather, you want to provide as much detail as you can in a way that it directly relates to the problem being addressed. Think about what your solution would actually look like if it were implemented in real life, and then describe that as well as you possibly can.

For example, imagine your problem is this: Fake news on social media causes young voters  (18-20) to vote based on false information. And your proposed solution is more in the realm of an abstraction, “we need to advocate for Truth in social media.” Assuming this solution is realistic or achievable, your audience must connect standing for the Truth (a good idea and the right thing to do) with solving a voting problem. The persuasiveness of the abstract solution is diminished for audience members who fail to connect it with reality of the problem. More specific solutions—even those may not seem realistic, achievable, and/or appropriate—would be to criminalize the posting of fake news on social media, to create a minimum age limit for social media use, or to raise the legal voting age to twenty-one. The more specific solutions, while possibly not good ones, at least offer a specific solution that directly addresses the problem.

Recommendation Structure

Usually, a traditional recommendation report will follow a structure similar to this one:

In this class, your recommendation won’t be in the form of a formal written report or as a traditional feasibility report; instead, it will be a multimodal project. Traditional feasibility reports are written for people with the power to make decisions about your problem. In this class, imagine that your project is to be written for and delivered to the general public. Were you to prepare a 10 to 20 page written report for mass emailing, for posting on a website or to social media, or to be printed and handed out in person, how many people do you think would actually read it? Further, would a written essay be the most effective way to convince a public audience that the problem is urgent and your solution is a good idea?

Your question in this project, then, is how to take the content that you would put into a written report and make it more successfully deliverable and persuasive for a general public audience. In a sense, the multimodal remaking of a traditionally written recommendation report is a problem in and of itself, and how you determine to compose and deliver your project is its own solution. Regardless of what modes you use, you should still follow a structure similar to the one listed above. And rather than having multiple-page sections for each item, each structural element of your proposal may be a portion of an infographic, a page on a website, or a specific sequence in a mini-documentary or Public Service Announcement.

Keep in mind that your purpose is slightly different when making a recommendation to a general audience. Instead of recommending a decision be made by people with the power to do so, your purpose is to convince the public to invest time, money, labor, goods, services, etc. into making your solution a reality. With a public audience your purpose is more about gaining approval and goodwill. So, you will want to emphasize the problem and need section and the solution section more than the implementation section.

Wrapping Up

Recommendations can take many forms. This chapter focuses on making recommendations for a public audience. But you will sometimes be required to make recommendations to supervisors, administrative bodies, and various other audiences with varying levels of expertise in and familiarity with your subject matter and varying levels of authority to implement your proposed solutions. In some instances, formats for your recommendations will be provided for you and will be very specific, this will especially true when tasked to write a feasibility report. And there will be occasions when you will need to use your best judgment.

In the latter case, keep in mind the advice given in this chapter. Focus on developing urgency and showing a need for your solution first, and remember that this is a persuasive section of your report as much as, if not more than, the solution itself. After establishing urgency and need, work to build a strong solution that is realistic, achievable, appropriate, and specific. These fundamental elements of problem-solution proposals offer a strong foundation from which to build your recommendation, proposals, and/or feasibility reports regardless of their genre, rhetorical situation, and modality.

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