Hi, The sample answer includes recommendations to the board, from the notes i thought recommendations should always be avoid? Additionally, the sample includes details of the previous investment methods when we have only been queried about the new investment, would this not be a distraction?. sample answer also discusses the objectives, would the council not already be aware of these? There is also emotive language such as "dramatic", should this not be removed? Thanks
Hi - taking each of your points in turn: On Page 130 of our course notes, it states that a good conclusion should '... make recommendations, if appropriate'. So they shouldn't always be avoided. But the 'if appropriate' bit is important. Page 131 of the notes goes on to give more information on the use of recommendations. So for example, if the purpose of the communication is simply to provide information for the recipient to digest, then a recommendation would likely not be needed. The course notes also state that recommendations should be readily drawn from the information provided and be 'supported effectively by the main text'. What you are presumably referring to here is the suggestion that the recipients consider addressing the significant issues highlighted in the rest of the communication, which meets that requirement. Finally, we should note that the person asking for the communication has explicitly stated: 'Could you please explain ... the implications for the future'. Suggesting that they should consider doing something to resolve the current serious issues fits with this.
The communication from the CEO includes the following: 'the Treasurer’s report on the reserves over the last 10 years is rather confusing – so many numbers and so little explanation!' ... and ... 'Could you please explain for us what the numbers mean.' So we need to include information on what has happened in that previous time period in order to satisfy them in this regard.
The sample answer brings in the objectives in order to explain the extent to which each has (or has not) been met. Simply saying 'The first objective was met ... The second objective ... etc' without stating what those objectives were could well be confusing for the recipients. Far easier for them to understand by including what those objectives actually are. Otherwise, they might have to go away and look them up on a separate document - which they could find irritating to have to do. Bear in mind that investment policy is not the only thing that the group will be involved with. Indeed, the information provided in the question document indicates that it is only considered once a year - and so it seems reasonable that members would not necessarily remember all of the details of the objectives. There could also be members who have joined relatively recently and have not yet absorbed these details. Remember that for CP3 we need to ensure that the recipients are fully satisfied by our communication, and so should aim to make it as easy as possible for them to understand the points that we are communicating to them. Requiring them to remember things from quite a while ago, or to look something up from another document, would probably leave them less than satisfied - hence our communication is not meeting its objectives.
Yes, I can why 'dramatic' might be considered to be emotive - although it feels borderline: from a quick online search, standard definitions of a stock market crash will often use the word 'dramatic' in them. So yes, by all means avoid such words if you are uneasy about whether they might be considered to be appropriate or not. Bear in mind of course that sample solutions are not intended to be perfect, but rather 'good enough' to pass. The occasional sub-optimal word is very unlikely to make the difference between a pass or fail. Hope that has helped with this mock question.
