ENG 333 Communication for Science and Research

Jamie Larsen, Instructor

Activity - E-mail

1. Read the notes about stating limitations and assumptions (this is especially important in your abstract):

It is easy to fall into the pit of exaggerating when you are trying to convince someone of your recommendation. You want your Abstract (Executive Summary) to be believable, so you need to address inherent limitations and assumptions. You do not want your readers identifying these on their own. If they do, then they will go one step further and ask themselves why you did not see these delimiters to your proposal. This will ultimately hurt your credibility, and argument.

Limitations

Limitations can make your recommendations less valid, or valid only under certain conditions. Usually these arise because of time or money constraints. For example, in the following excerpt, time is obviously the limitation:

A campus store wants to know what kinds of clothing will appeal to college students. This proposal's current recommendations will last only as long as the style and fashion of the day are popular.

Once you identify a limitation, you can then state how you plan to handle the condition. In the above example, you could say something like, "Therefore, in my plan I provide for a periodic customer survey of students' clothing tastes in order to quickly adapt to changing styles."

Assumptions

Assumptions are statements whose truth you assume, and which you use to prove your final point. If they are wrong, then your conclusion will be wrong too. Almost all proposals require assumptions. You need to spell them out clearly for decision makers, or they will conclude that you are hiding them, or worse, unaware of them. The following is a clear statement of inherent assumptions that will affect a proposal:

To plan cars that will be built five years from now, a car maker will need to make certain assumptions about gas prices and the economy to determine what people will want, and be able to buy.

2. Work on identifying limitations and assumptions. This is an area that most people tend to ignore since there is a negative connotation with them. However, ignoring them can impact your credibility.

   Email to me which is a limitation, and which is an assumption (e.g., 1 A = limitation or assumption, etc.)

   1. Report on Ways to Encourage More Students to Join a Recycling Group

      A. I surveyed a judgment sample rather than a random survey.

      B. The recommendations are based on the attitudes of current students. Presumably, students in the next several years will have the same attitudes and interests.

   2. Report on the Feasibility of Building Hilton Hotels in Vietnam

      A. This report is based on the expectation that the country will be politically stable.

      B. All of my information is based on library research. The most recent articles were published two months ago; much of the information was published a year ago or more. Therefore, some of my information may be out of date.

   3. Report of Car Buying Preferences of College Students

      A. These recommendations may change if the cost of gasoline increases dramatically, or if there is another deep recession.

      B. This report is based on a survey of adults ages 20-24 in California, Texas, Illinois, Ontario, and North Carolina.

      C. Their preferences are based on the cars now available. If a major technical or styling innovation occurs, preferences may change.

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