Please read this style guide before writing your reports.  It contains
some rules we have developed for formatting the reports to provide
some uniformity and to get the most important information right up
front.

The heading must include the date the report was completed, the name
of the FSILG visited, the date of the visit, and the names of the
reviewers, identifying the chair and the scribe.  Also list the names
of the representatives of the FSILG present for the review.  If the
FSILG brings more than 7 representatives, identify the principal
participants, and indicate the total number present.  A scanned copy
of the attendance sheet will be placed in your team locker to assist
you with spelling names correctly.

Section 1 must be just the overall finding.
Please use only one of the following three options, worded exactly
as below:
  Recommend Accreditation
  Recommend Accreditation with reservations
  Not Recommended for Accreditation

If the finding is not "Recommend Accreditation" include "A revisit
will be scheduled for next term."  Do not include any other text in
Section 1.  Do not list the reservations.  No other text goes in
Section 1, none at all.

Section 2 General comments, introductory paragraphs:

If the finding is not "Recommend Accreditation", you MUST begin
Section 2 with the text "The visiting committee has the following
reservations:" or "The visiting committee does not recommend
accreditation for the following reasons:" followed by a brief,
item by item list.

Do not go into great detail or make recommendations at this point;
just list the problems.  Use 3 lines or less to describe each problem,
giving enough detail to make it clear that the problem is serious
enough to rise to the level of a reservation (rather than just an area
needing improvement) or a reason for withholding a recommendation to
accredit.  Your report will be subject to review by the AILG Board,
who want to see this particular format.

If the finding is "Recommend Accreditation", the format of your
comments here is less strict.  Your report won't be subject to
review by the AILG Board.

Beyond the heading, the first section and the beginning of the second,
which have specific content, we don't want to be overly strict about
style, but do want an overall reasonably professional look.

The next subsection is "2A areas of excellence, ...".  Here's your
chance to point out the great things about the organization, to
list best practices, and to recommend the organization's ideas to
other members of the Community, when appropriate.

In the next subsection "2B. Areas needing improvement", describe the
actual problems, going into detail on those listed in General
Comments.  This is where you may make recommendations on how to solve
the problems listed as reservations or reasons for withholding a
recommendation to accredit.  List the most serious problems first,
providing additional detail for any that were listed earlier.  If you
wish to make recommendations, make the recommendation after describing
the problem.

The finding given in section 1 is our only recommendation to the
Dean's office.  Please do not make recommendations for action by MIT.
We make recommendations for operational changes only for our member
organizations.

IMPORTANT: Except for a plaintext report, you must include a page
break before Section 3 (Private Comments) and another page break
before Section 4 (Recommendations) to make it easy to separate these
sections.  You may wish to include the name of the organization again
at the top of each of these new pages.  If you format your report with
page numbers (optional), please do not use "n of m", since the report
submitted to MIT will have these additional pages removed.  Do not
include these sections at all if they are empty.

Visitors will find a folder of sample reports in the team's private
data repository.

Updated 8 September 2009