"I feel leasing is the best option for Lakeshore." In a recommendation memo this fails:

Answer

Objectivity — facts and reasons, not preferences

Options - A. Courtesy — it is too blunt for a client who is paying - B. Conciseness — it should be shorter - C. Objectivity — facts and reasons, not preferences - D. Nothing — it is an honest statement Why - A. The sentence is not blunt; it is soft and unsupported. Courtesy is not at issue. - B. "I feel" is only two words; cutting them does not fix the sentence, because it still gives no basis. - C. Correct — a memo is a record that may be relied on and forwarded. The reader needs the basis ("lowest annual cost, 58,000 against 67,400"), not the writer's feeling about it. - D. Honest and useless: the reader already knows the recommendation is the analyst's view. What a record needs is the reason a forwarded reader can check.

Smith 4.5.1, 6.1.11, 7.2; Olds ch 13; concept map I09, I13