 Lecture 27, As-Salaam-Alaikum. Welcome to the virtual university's course on business and technical communication. In today's lecture, we will look at feasibility reports, we will look at the typical writing situations in which you could be required to write a feasibility report and also the questions that your readers are most likely to ask. We will look at a superstructure for feasibility reports and this will include the introduction, the criteria, the different criteria would be things like the two different ways of presenting the criteria, the importance of presenting criteria early, the sources of your criteria, the four common types of criteria and then we will look at the method of obtaining facts and an overview of alternatives. We will also look at the evaluation. We will talk about choosing carefully between the alternating and divided patterns of evaluation and how to dismiss obviously unsuitable alternatives and the fact that you should put your most important points first. Today, we will also look at in the superstructure, we will be looking at the conclusions, recommendations. We will have a look at some sample outlines, a planning guide and some sample feasibility reports. Let us have a look at the typical writing situations, when you want need to write a feasibility report, what kind of situation will it be, when will you be required to write such a report. Now, you have to keep in mind that all feasibility reports share one essential characteristic. They are written to help decision makers choose between two or more sources of action. So, whatever it is, people who have to make a decision or make a decision, they will only read a feasibility report when they want to choose between two or more sources of action. Even when a feasibility report seems to focus primarily on one course of action, the readers are always considering a second course and that second course could be to leave the things the way they are. If it seems that a feasibility report is only focusing on one action, it is making a feasibility report that whether this action is right or not, whether it is desirable or not, then the focus is on one thing and it is making a feasibility report. The second alternative is to not do this and leave the things the way they are. So, that is also a second decision. One simple example of leaving things the way they are, as opposed to choosing an action given in a feasibility report would be, for example, to replace the parts of a machinery from metal parts to plastic parts. If, for example, there is a machine in which metal parts are being used and you have made a feasibility report that these metal parts should be removed and used for plastic parts. So, whether it will be feasible to replace the plastic parts or not. So, you have one option in which you can put new plastic parts in it. But the second option is to leave the old metal parts the way they are. So, that is one example of leaving things the way they are, to continue the use of metal parts in an existing machinery or a shape or a sailboat, whatever it is. In many situations, however, your readers will already have decided that some change is necessary. And that is why they are reading or making feasibility reports. Because they have an idea of the importance of bringing a change. And then they will be choosing between two or more alternatives to change the existing situation. So, if your readers clearly do not know that they have to change the old thing or not, then their two options will be to adopt or keep the new thing or the old thing. But many times, your readers will know for sure that we have to reject the old thing and we have to adopt the new thing. So, obviously, in those new things, we will consider two or more things that are better than them. Which action is more desirable, which is more feasible. As your readers think about the choices they must make, they focus, they ask many questions. From situation to situation, these basic questions remain the same. But there will be many questions that will arise in the reader's mind. And although they remain the same, there will be some questions that will arise in some readers' minds and some questions that will not, depending on what the situation is. But the basic questions will remain the same. And that is what makes it possible for one superstructure to be useful across nearly the full range of situations in which people produce the same or prepare feasibility reports. Because most people preparing feasibility reports are looking at a common set of questions that will be asked by the readers. So, although in situation to situation, people's questions will change a little, they will raise questions in their minds. They will make some difference, some people will make some difference. But generally, there will be only one type of questions and that is why by keeping those questions in mind, we can easily prepare a superstructure. We can have a general idea of what will be the parts of feasibility reports and what is their importance and needs. Because every part of the report is answering a specific type of question. The questions that readers will ask most often are why is it important for us to consider these alternatives? Are the criteria that have been taken in mind? Are they reasonable and appropriate? Are the facts reliable? What are the important features of the alternatives? How do the alternatives stack up against the criteria that has been presented? What overall conclusions do you draw from the alternatives? And what do you think we should do? So these seven questions are the key questions that are generally asked by the readers. Now, coming to the first question, why is it important for us to consider these alternatives? Decision makers ask this question because they want to know why they have to take a decision in the first place, why they have to make a choice in the first place. The decision makers want to know why they have to make a choice in the first place, why they have to make a choice in the first place, why they have to make a choice in the first place. Your readers will need a detailed explanation of the problem to appreciate the importance of considering alternatives. They may not need a detailed explanation of the problem if they are very, very familiar with the problem. But generally they will need some kind of an explanation of the problem so that you can convince them or you can show to them why considering an alternative course of action is necessary or feasible. So basically if the readers are not familiar with the problem, then you may want to outline the problem. However, if they are familiar with the problem, then they may see the importance of considering the alternatives. If you just remind them of the situation, then you don't need to give a detailed explanation of the problem. So if the readers are already familiar with the problem, then you just have to remind them. But if you feel that the readers are not able to see the problem or if they are not familiar with the problem, then you will have to give a detailed explanation of the problem. Now coming to the next question that readers will most likely ask. Are your criteria reasonable and appropriate? When you are preparing a feasibility report, then the readers will surely ask whether the criteria you have taken to make a feasibility are appropriate, reasonable or not. And to help your readers choose between the two or more alternative courses of action, you must evaluate the alternatives in terms of specific criteria. You will keep some criteria and you will evaluate them so that the readers can know which course of action is better and which is not better. You will be able to tell them some things when you compare them. In work situations, people want that the criteria you have kept should reflect the aims and needs and goals of the organization that you are writing the feasibility for. So whatever the aims of that organization are, your criteria should be related to them. Another very important question is, are your facts reliable? The readers will read your facts, you will see the criteria you have kept, and the facts you have uncovered, or the facts you have researched, they will want to know whether these facts are reliable or not. You have not made them from your side or if you go and check them out, you will get some other answers. So they want to know if your facts are reliable before they take any action based on those facts because if your facts are not reliable and if the decision makers take any action based on those facts, then they will have a lot of chances of loss. What are the important features of your alternatives? Something that readers really want to know so that they can understand your detailed discussion of the alternatives. They want you to present an overview that highlights the key features of each alternative that you are presenting. If you are giving them more than one or two choices and they are telling you the key features, then the readers will want to get an overview in which they can know the key features of each alternative so that they can easily compare them and make a decision. Then readers want to know how the different alternatives that you have presented, how they stack up against your criteria. You had kept some of the criteria of each alternative and you matched them. And at the heart of a feasibility study is your evaluation of the alternatives in terms of your criteria. You kept the criteria. You said that if we use plastic parts, then these are the things. If we use metal parts, then these are the features. Now the readers will want to know that the different alternatives match your criteria. If you want to be strong, then you have compared the elements of both plastic parts and metal parts. If you want to have more parts in life, then you have compared those things. If you have said that you do not like them, then you have compared those things. You have compared those things. You have compared the chances of liking them, etc. Based on that, based on the evaluation of the different criteria of your alternatives, the readers want to know your results, what you find out. They also want to know the overall conclusions that you draw about the alternatives. Based on your detailed evaluation of the alternatives, you will reach some general conclusions about the merit of each option that you are exploring. So, whatever your general evaluation is, based on that, you will say whether one type of parts is better than the other. Decision makers need to know your conclusions because these overall judgments form the basis for their decision. When you give your conclusions, when you tell the research, the facts that you have seen, those people who have used plastic parts in their machinery, how many percent of them have to face specific type of problems that have been used by metal parts, those are not the problems they have faced, but perhaps some other problems they have faced, etc. When you compare all those things, then the readers will also want that you give them some conclusions so that they can make their decisions based on those conclusions. Basically, they want to know what they should do and they are looking to you as the feasibility report writer to tell them. In the end, because your readers must choose one course of action or the other course of action and you are the expert on the subject because you have written the feasibility, you have done all the background research, they want you to help them by telling them what you recommend. They want your conclusion and they want your recommendation as well. The conclusion is that this part is better, this part is better, this part is better. Now they want you to tell them what they should do for their betterment, for their job, for their work, for their production, for their choice, they are looking to you to tell them. Let us have a look at the superstructure of feasibility reports as we mentioned briefly in the introduction. To answer your readers' questions about your feasibility studies, you can use a superstructure that has seven elements, the introduction, the criteria, the method of obtaining facts, the overview of different alternatives, evaluation, conclusions and recommendations. Of course, you may combine the elements in many different ways, depending on your situation. Like we said, there are seven parts, but you can combine some of them with each other. It is not necessary to look at your situation that these seven chapters or these seven sections are different. They are combined many times. For example, you may integrate your conclusions into your evaluation or you may omit a separate discussion of the criteria if you feel that they don't need any special explanation. So depending on the situation, depending on the need, you can either omit or integrate specific sections of the report. But whether to include each of the seven items or seven elements, the decision will be based upon your understanding of your purpose, audience and situation. The better you understand your audience, your purpose and your situation, you will decide which sections you want to omit or integrate. In the remaining part of this lecture today, we will explain how you can develop each of the seven elements to create an effective feasibility report. Let's have a look at each of the sections in turn and see how each section can be developed and how you can actually write an effective feasibility report. The questions that we looked at earlier, I told you that there were some questions that readers were most likely to ask. What was the importance of considering alternatives? Were the criteria reasonable and appropriate? Were the facts reliable? The important features of alternatives? How do the alternatives stack up against criteria? What are the overall conclusions? And what should the reader do? We have also seen the seven questions that readers ask the most. Now, these seven questions match up to the seven different sections of your feasibility report. So if you feel that any of these questions will not be asked, then keeping that in mind, you can tailor your feasibility report accordingly. You can delete the sections or whatever. The introduction answers to the importance of considering the alternatives. The criteria section talks about the fact that how the criteria are reasonable and appropriate. The method of obtaining facts answers to the reliability question. When you give an overview of the alternatives, then you are giving the important features of the alternatives. In the evaluation section, you are showing how the alternatives stack up against your criteria. And in the conclusion section, you're obviously giving your conclusions and you're telling the readers what they should do by giving your recommendations. In the introduction to a feasibility report, as I said, you should answer your readers' questions. Why is it important for us to consider these alternatives? The most persuasive way to answer this question is to identify the problem. Your feasibility study will help your readers to solve or the goal it will help them achieve. What is the problem or the goal that is significant from the point of view of your employer or client? Because they are the people who will be your readers. Significant goals could include reducing the number of rejected parts, increasing your company's production, reducing the number of rejected parts, reducing the number of rejected parts, reducing the number of rejected parts, increasing your company's productivity, etc. Whatever you want, whatever you think is your employer or client, you should address the problem that you are thinking of. Not that you are thinking of the problem that you are thinking of. Not that you are thinking of the problem that you are thinking of. Let's consider, take an example of Fawaz who wrote the introduction of a feasibility report that he prepared. Fawaz is a process engineer in a paper mill and he was asked to evaluate the feasibility of substituting one ingredient for another for one of the papers that the mill produced. He was asked to write a feasibility and he was a process engineer. He was asked to write a feasibility that we remove one ingredient from the paper and put another ingredient or not so that the paper is better. Fawaz started the introduction at present we rely on the titanium dioxide in our furnish to provide the high brightness and high in our paper. Now he talks about the problem. However, the price of titanium dioxide has been rising steadily and rapidly for several years. And then he says we now pay roughly $1400 per ton for titanium dioxide or about 70 per cents per pound. He now goes on to talk of a possible solution. This is the introduction part and he says some mills are now replacing some of the titanium dioxide in their furnish with silicate extenders. Because of the average price of silicate extenders is only $500 per ton well under half the cost of titanium dioxide the savings are very great. He is also giving a rationale for that possible solution. So, first he told the problem then he said that this can be one solution and then he said why this solution can be the one solution. To determine whether we could enjoy a similar savings for a 30 pound book paper I have studied the physical properties material handling requirements and cost of two silicate extenders Tricyl 606 and Xenolux 2060. He is now saying what he did to investigate the possible solution. The solution that was possible he told about other companies that other companies are doing this and this is their benefit. Then he told what he studied and what was the solution that could be a solution and what research he did because it is only because other companies are using it that it would not be correct. He will have to do his own research and he will have to see whether other companies are using it but whether you are using it or not. So, he has to investigate the solution and what are the benefits. So, he saw physical properties material handling requirements and cost of two silicate extenders. Generally the introduction of feasibility report and also most short ones should also include a preview of the main conclusions and perhaps the major recommendations. Fawaz in his introduction included his major conclusions. Let's have a look. I conclude that one of the silicate extenders Xenolux 2060 looks promising enough to be tested in a mail run. The possible solution also included two alternatives and they concluded that one of them looks better. So, obviously their recommendation would be to use that one. As another example let's consider the way Shazi wrote the introduction of a feasibility report that she prepared for the board of directors of the bank that employs her. First, we saw Fawaz and his board of directors asked for feasibility. She was asked to evaluate the feasibility of opening a new branch of the bank in a particular area of the city. She begins by announcing the topic of her report. Let's see how she started. She says this report discusses the feasibility of opening a branch office of Alshami Bank in Gulburg Lahore. Then after giving a sentence of background information about the source of the bank's interest in exploring this possibility Shazi emphasized the importance of such a feasibility study. She first announced the report. Then she said what is the background information and what is the interest of the bank and why they want to open this feasibility. Let's see how. In the past, Alshami Bank has approached the opening of new branches with great care which is undoubtedly a major reason why it has become the most successful small privately owned financial institution in Gulburg. Shazi also included her major conclusions. She said overall Gulburg offers an enticing opportunity but would present Alshami Bank with some challenges it has not faced before. She said that it is beneficial to open a branch in Gulburg but there will be some challenges and some problems which have not been faced by the bank before. The introduction of a feasibility report is often combined with one or more of the other six elements. We had seen seven elements in a superstructure of feasibility report. The other six elements are often combined with one or more of the other six elements. Another element of a feasibility report is the criteria. Criteria are the standards that you apply in a feasibility study to evaluate the alternative courses of action that you are considering. We will look at different things and we will decide whether you want to take an action or not. The criteria are different considerations. For instance, to assess the feasibility of opening the new branch office Shazi uses many criteria. These criteria may include the existence of a large enough market. There are so many people in that area who use the bank. It may include a good possibility of attracting depositors in the competition. The people who deposit money in the bank who already have money in the banks can withdraw from there and bring it to their bank. The likelihood that the profits on the deposit at the branch will exceed the expenses of operating it. It is obvious that when a branch is not open, there will be some expenses. We have to see that if it is beneficial to them the expenses of the branch will be fulfilled or not. Another criteria would be the reasonableness of the financial outlay required to open the office. How much will it cost? Whether the new branch is reasonable or not? Keeping all these criteria in mind, Shazi will look at whether it is feasible to open a branch in Gulberg or not. Now there are two ways of presenting criteria. You can devote a separate section to identifying and explaining them. Writers often do this. They often have a separate section where they identify the criteria and explain them. But they do this mostly in long reports or in reports where the criteria themselves are included. Or the other way could be to integrate your presentation of the criteria into other elements of the report. Fawaz did this in the following sentence from the third paragraph of his introduction. Let's have a look. Fawaz, if you remember, we saw a process engineer in a paper mill. He presented his criteria in a separate section. He said to determine whether we could enjoy a similar saving for our 30-pound book paper, I have studied the physical properties, material handling requirements and cost of the two silicon extenders. These were the three criteria listed here. Physical properties, material handling requirements and cost. He did not discuss the criteria in a separate section or in a separate section. When he explained these three criteria on the basis of their decision. For each of the general criteria named in the sentence, Fawaz had some specific criteria. For instance, at the beginning of his discussion of the physical properties of the two extenders, he named the three properties of the two extenders. Then he saw more specific categories, three different properties. He named them. All the criteria can have specific criteria that you do not have to consider. As we saw, Fawaz mentioned the criteria in the introduction at the beginning. There are three good reasons for presenting the criteria early on in your report. First, your readers know that the validity of your conclusions depends on the criteria that you have used to evaluate the alternatives and they want to evaluate the criteria themselves. They find out that whatever conclusions you are going to be making depends on these particular criteria and while they are reading your report, they can keep those criteria in mind to evaluate what you are saying as well. Secondly, your discussion of the criteria tells your readers a great deal about the scope of your study. When you tell your criteria in the beginning that you have seen these things, your readers will also be able to see the scope of your report. Thirdly, your discussion of the alternative course of action will make much more sense to your readers if they know in advance the criteria of your evaluation. If they already know that you have seen different course of action when you are considering pros and cons, what criteria you have used and if they already know what criteria you have used then it will be much easier for them to understand your evaluation. One section will be the sources of your criteria. Often the person who asks you to undertake a study will simply tell you what criteria to apply. It will be a lot of times that if you are told that you want to make a feasibility study, what criteria to keep in mind and what things to keep in mind to make a feasibility of taking action. However, in other situations your readers may expect you to identify the criteria based on the fact that you possess technical knowledge about the field that you are writing for. In some situations, the person who requested the feasibility report will tell you to make this report. You may not be able to identify the criteria because the readers who requested the feasibility understood you as a technical expert and are telling you to make the report and determine the criteria. Therefore, common types of criteria. As you develop your criteria you will find that it is helpful to know that it works. Criteria often address the criteria will be chosen, keeping in mind will the course of action really do what is wanted? You also need to keep in mind can we implement the course of action that will be recommended? Can we afford the course of action and is it desirable? These are the four things that you have to keep in mind and determine your criteria. Coming to the method of obtaining your facts. When you tell your readers how you obtain your facts, the question that your readers will most commonly ask themselves is, are the facts reliable? The facts that you have collected are the sources that are reliable or not? Are the information you are giving correct or not? So you need to show your readers that and you need to assure them that you have used reliable information, that you have used reliable sources so that the information that you are presenting can be a sound basis for making decisions. Depending upon the nature of your study, whether your study is library research, whether it's calls to manufacturers, interviews, meetings with other experts in your organization, surveys, laboratory research, all these would be the different ways of obtaining your data, the different sources that you tap in order to get your information. In different places, in different ways you can get your information. The amount of detail you need to supply about the methods of your obtaining facts depends upon your readers and situation. But in each case your goal is to say enough to satisfy your readers that your information is trustworthy. As much as you feel that by giving such information your readers will be satisfied that your information is trustworthy, that it is reliable. You need to give as much information about your methods. For example, Shazi, the banker, used some fairly technical procedures to estimate the amount of deposits that Shazi Bank would expect from a new branch in Gulberg. Now, deciding where to describe your methods depends on how many different techniques you have used. If you used one or two techniques you could describe each in a paragraph or section. If you used only one or two techniques you could describe each in a paragraph or section. But if you used several techniques for obtaining data each pertaining to a different part of your analysis you might mention each of them at the point at which you discuss the results that you obtained. If you mentioned them in different sections of feasibility and research, then how did you obtain this information and what are the results? Because if you share all the results and then share the results the audience cannot link them up. Coming to the next section which would be the overview of alternatives before you begin your detailed evaluation of the alternatives you must be sure to understand what the alternatives are. Obviously, when you tell different alternatives you must also keep in mind that your readers are clear which alternatives you are dealing with so it is important to give them an overview. Sometimes you need to devote only a few words to the task of giving this overview and sometimes you need a longer section. For example, imagine that you worked for a chain of convenience stores that has asked you to investigate the feasibility of increasing starting salaries for store managers as a way of attracting stronger applications for job openings. You are working in a chain of stores and you have been told that you should make a feasibility to increase the starting salaries of the managers so that we get better applications. Now your readers will now not require special explanation to understand the course of action you are assessing. However, you may sometimes need to provide extensive background information or otherwise explain the alternatives to your readers. For example, when Jahangir needed to write a feasibility of replacing his employer's company-owned building-wide telephone system, he helped his readers piece together the more detailed comments he made in his point-by-point evaluation of the systems. Jahangir had an example of Jahangir who had to replace the entire building-wide telephone system in his company. Now, for the ease of his readers, the detailed comments he gave are written as point-by-point evaluation. So, in this way, why are you making this? How much background information do you need? How much detailed information do you need? What are the different choices you are making? According to that, you will provide detailed information. If you are only telling that in a store, to attract new jobs, to attract new jobs, to give more salary to the managers, then you may provide detailed overview of the system. But if it is technical, like in Jahangir's example, he had to replace the entire building-wide telephone system, he would have seen different options and alternatives to replace the entire building-wide telephone system. He would have seen different alternatives to replace the entire building-wide telephone system. Now, coming to the evaluation section. The heart of a feasibility report is the detailed evaluation of the courses of action or the course of action that you have studied. In most feasibility studies, writers organize the evaluation sections around their criteria, which they have kept different criteria. To discuss a course of action, evaluations revolve around it. Evaluations are closely linked with it. The evaluation section is related to the course of action. The evaluation section is closely linked with it. For example, in her study of the feasibility of opening a new branch office of a bank, Shazi devoted one section to the size of the market, another to the competition, a third to prospective income and expenses and so on. We had seen what criteria they have considered. For their evaluation, we evaluated their criteria. After your evaluation comes the conclusions. Your conclusions are your overall assessment of the feasibility of the course of action that you have studied. You might present your conclusions in more than one place in your report. You could present your conclusions in two or three places in your report. I certainly mentioned them in a summary form near the beginning. And then wherever need be you mention the conclusions later on in the report. But they should come somewhere in the beginning so that your readers know up front what conclusions you are going to be drawing from your report. If you don't write them in the beginning, even while reading the report, the readers won't understand what conclusions you have drawn and they will have to think about what you want to say. But if you have already written in a summary form, it will be better to be prepared for your conclusion. And then finally, the recommendations. It is customary to end a feasibility report by answering the decision maker's expected question, what do you think we should do? Sometimes your recommendations will go directly to the course of action that you studied. You can say, do this or don't do this. At other times you won't be saying so directly but you will be suggesting some recommendations. You may also discover that you were unable to gather all the information you needed to make a firm recommendation. Many times it will be that you cannot give a firm recommendation because you may not have the full information and you will not be given any suggestions. In this lecture, we looked at some typical writing situations where you would write a feasibility report. We looked at the questions that we are most likely to ask. We looked at a superstructure for feasibility reports where we looked at the different elements of introduction, the criteria, the different ways of presenting criteria, their importance, the sources of the criteria, the four common types of criteria. We looked at the method of obtaining facts, overview of alternatives. Then we looked at the element of evaluation and the fact that we need to choose carefully between the alternating pattern and the divided patterns and what they mean. We talked about dismissing obviously unsuitable alternatives and putting the most important points first. We also looked at the importance of conclusions and recommendations. We looked at sample outlines, a planning guide and sample feasibility reports. If you have any questions, please feel free to email us. Until next time, Allah Hafiz.