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The purpose of consulting must be clearly understood, in order to effectively write a consultation paper. A consultation is an informed exchange of ideas, best practice and skills, usually conducted between a skilled practitioner in a given field or discipline, and a novice seeking to acquire discipline specific skills, as part of a learning, training or coaching process.
The act of consulting involves the offering of professional advice and information, and is commonplace within the political, medical, accounting and legal professions. It is also sought after within specialised business fields, such as investing, financial management services or international business.
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Consultation papers have a growing demand online due to the expansion of e-business and e-communication, as the preferred choice of conducting business and providing educational services. They may be set up online via social networking sites, text messaging, voice-conferencing and online forums.
Consultation papers may be written in response to a specific request for information that cannot be readily located by the individual through their own research. They are concise, tailored to meet the unique needs of the client.
To write a consultation paper, the protocols of the discipline in question must be taken into account. For example, when writing a medical consultation report, the diagnosis, demeanour and recommended treatment of a patient can be clearly communicated to a referring physician. As this example indicates, the audience for the consultation paper is a critical determinant of the choice of language, the format and the prioritising of the paper’s content.
Usually a consultation paper is a response to the diagnosis of a specific problem that pertains to the discipline in question. Medical, accounting, financial, legal and educational problems are just a few examples, indicating the wide use of consultation papers.
Consultation papers should provide a concise overview of the background or context of the stated problem, so that the solution recommended is more meaningful, particularly to a novice. Where the consultation has arisen as a response to the airing of a particular need by a client, the consultant should accurately state how the problem was presented to them and what the client’s request entailed.
Since consultation papers seek to describe, explain and provide a solution to a problem, they should be logically structured, clearly laying out the steps so that the recipient of the consultation can easily follow the process of explanation and how the consultant arrived at the proposed solution.
The readability of the consultation paper will be facilitated by consciously using straight forward, plain English. When technical terms or jargon terms are necessary, they should be clearly explained by use of endnotes or footnotes, combined with clear definitions, not taking for granted that the reader will be familiar with in-house concepts. Sentence structure should be guided by short compact sentences where possible, avoiding use of qualifying phrases and digressions which deflect from the main point. Formal language should be used only to promote accuracy and clarity of expression, but never to cloud the meaning of the communication.
When numerical or statistical data is part of the description of the problem or the recommended solution, it should be carefully laid out, so that a less knowledgeable individual can follow its significance. The use of data in a consultation paper should be restricted to essential knowledge and used sparingly, since it will in all likelihood, not be part of the client’s daily lexicon.
When the problem is concisely stated, the writer must convey a sense of control and confidence, so that the problem is not perceived by the client as insurmountable or beyond the competence level of the consultant to redress. At times, it will be appropriate for the consultation paper to refer to supporting literature, to show an awareness of helpful precedent where it exists. This method may help the client more readily accept the consultant’s advice as outlined by the paper.
The consultation paper should outline a series of steps to address the central problem. It is appropriate to outline a number of alternative solutions or scenarios when writing a consultation paper, to give a client choice and a sense of ownership of the issue and its outcome. Once the possible series of steps have been outlined, articulating how the consultant sees the best approach to meeting the challenge, reference can be made to the existence of additional evidence to demonstrate that they are well informed on the given subject and therefore their opinion will be of value to the client.
The consultation paper may have prices and fees listed to account for the costs associated with the recommended course of action. Where this is the case, the fee structure should be unambiguously expressed and clearly formatted. Consultants should be aware of the possible wider audience for their consultation paper, beyond the immediate client. When client’s are well satisfied with the quality of the consultation service provided, they may pass on recommendations to acquaintances. For this reason, the consultation paper should be conscious of this potential wider audience, and use an inclusive, gender and culturally sensitive approach.
In cased where the consultation process involves communication with a range of other stakeholders, it may be responsible and helpful to a client to provide a time line of action, to indicate when the process or project is expected to move through various stages of operation or project completion.
In summary, consultation papers should state the objectives of the consultation clearly, comply with industry Codes of Practice where they exist, make clear how the consultation paper relates to the broader consultative process, indicate inherent or associated risks attached to the recommended course of action where they exist, and state clearly how the consultation proposed recommendations will be measured and by whom.
The consultation paper should make clear what the avenue of communication and feedback will be, so that the client feels embraced and aware of how the consultant may be readily reached, at each step of the consultation process