# Consultancy Register

> How to write the MGT4897 report so it reads as a professional consultant's report to an airport COO while still meeting academic marking standards — the executive voice, analytical rather than descriptive prose, recommendation structure, claim calibration, British English conventions, table and figure discipline, and the AI-tell patterns that must be edited out. Use when drafting or revising any prose, and as the style authority before submission.

- Skill: `faaz17/consultancy-register` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add faaz17/consultancy-register`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/faaz17/consultancy-register/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Docs & Writing
- Author: Faaz17 (https://skillmd.com/u/faaz17)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/faaz17/consultancy-register

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# Register — consultant to a COO, marked by an academic

This report has two audiences at once, and the tension between them is the whole style
problem.

**The stated reader is the COO of Dubai International Airport.** They want a decision, the
evidence behind it, and the risks. They do not want a literature review.

**The actual marker is an operations management academic.** They want theory applied
correctly, sources cited, methods justified, and limitations acknowledged.

Both are satisfied by the same thing: **analysis that visibly drives a recommendation, with
the reasoning and the sources on show.** Neither is satisfied by description.

## The core distinction: descriptive vs analytical

| Descriptive (Pass) | Analytical (Distinction) |
|---|---|
| "Forecasting is important for airport operations." | "A one-million-passenger forecast error at DXB is roughly 2,700 passengers a day of misallocated immigration and baggage resource — recoverable within a season for staffing, unrecoverable for a terminal commissioned on the same number." |
| "Exponential smoothing was applied with alpha values of 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5." | "Higher alpha values fit the post-2022 recovery better precisely because they discount the collapse faster — which is a reason to distrust them as a basis for a 2036 capacity decision, not a reason to prefer them." |
| "DWC scored highest in the weighted factor model." | "DWC leads on land availability and long-run capacity, but its margin rests entirely on a 0.20 weighting for land constraint. At 0.10 the ranking reverses, so the recommendation is really a judgement that physical constraint at Al Garhoud outweighs near-term connectivity." |
| "TQM is a holistic quality approach." | "DXB's quality exposure is peak-hour variance, not average performance, which points to statistical process control on queue times ahead of a programme-level TQM rollout." |

Every paragraph should either advance an argument or be cut. At 2,500 words there is no room
for a paragraph that only sets up another paragraph.

## Paragraph architecture

Build each paragraph on this spine:

1. **Claim** — the point, stated first, in one sentence
2. **Evidence** — the computed figure or the cited source
3. **Analysis** — what it means, why it holds, where it is contestable
4. **Implication** — what the COO should do or conclude

The commonest failure is stopping after step 2. A number with no interpretation is a data
point, not an argument. The second commonest is stopping after step 3 — analysis with no
implication reads as academic exercise rather than consultancy.

## Writing to a COO

- **Lead with the answer.** Each section's first sentence states its conclusion. The
  reasoning follows. Do not build to a reveal
- **Quantify.** "Demand exceeds design capacity by roughly 38 million passengers by 2035"
  beats "demand will significantly exceed capacity"
- **Name the decision.** Recommendations should be actionable: what, by when, and what it
  depends on
- **Be honest about uncertainty.** An executive discounts a report that hides its
  assumptions. State the basis, give a range where a range is honest
- **No throat-clearing.** "This section will discuss…" wastes words the count cannot spare.
  Open with substance

## Calibrating claims

Match language strength to evidence strength.

| Evidence | Language |
|---|---|
| Figure given in the brief or a primary release | "DXB handled 95.2 million passengers in 2025 (Dubai Airports, 2026)." |
| Computed from the provided data | "The regression implies…", "On this basis the 2035 forecast is…" |
| Multiple independent sources agree | "The evidence indicates…" |
| Single credible source | "ICAO (2026) reports…" |
| Your inference | "This suggests…", "A plausible reading is…" |
| Assumption | "On the assumption that load factors hold…", "This model assumes…" |

Never write "clearly", "obviously", or "it is well known that" — they assert rather than
evidence. **Never present a forecast as a fact.** A forecast is a conditional statement, and
the conditions belong in the sentence.

## British English

Middlesex is a UK institution. Hold these throughout:

- `-ise` not `-ize`: organise, analyse, prioritise, emphasise, utilise
- `-our`: behaviour, labour, favourable
- `-re`: centre, metre
- programme (not program, except software), licence (noun) / license (verb),
  practice (noun) / practise (verb), enquiry, defence, fulfil, modelling, labelled,
  travelled
- Dates: 4 September 2026
- Currency: state the basis — AED or USD — and any conversion rate with its date
- Numbers: "95.2 million" in prose, full precision in tables

The brief itself is written in American English ("analyses", "prioritise" mixed with
"visualize", "Summarize"). **Do not copy its spelling.** Quote its wording where you quote it,
and write British English everywhere else.

## Structural conventions

- **Paragraph form** for argument. Bullets only for genuine lists — the three operational
  recommendations, the location factors, a list of assumptions
- **Third person.** "This report", "the analysis", "the recommended option" — not "I" or "we".
  The consultant framing tempts first person; resist it in the analysis. It is acceptable in
  a covering framing sentence if the module permits, but third person is safer
- Present tense for what sources argue; past tense for what was done ("three methods were
  applied"); conditional for the projection ("demand would exceed capacity by…")
- **Define every acronym at first use**: "Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International
  Airport (DWC)", "mean absolute deviation (MAD)"
- Numbered sub-sections (3.1, 3.2.1) — appropriate here and needed for appendix
  cross-referencing

## Tables and figures

The brief requires visuals **developed in MS Excel**, and rubric item 8 marks their use.

- **Number and caption every one**: "Table 3: Forecast accuracy comparison, DXB annual
  passengers, 2013–2025" · "Figure 2: Actual and forecast passenger traffic to 2036"
- **Refer to each in the text**: "Table 3 shows…". A figure nobody refers to is decoration
- **State the source** under each: "Source: author's calculations from Dubai Airports (2026)"
- Keep **summary** tables in the main text; full workings go to the appendices
- Table text counts toward the word count in Word — a further reason to keep workings in
  appendices

## Editing out AI tells

These patterns read as machine-generated to markers and to Turnitin's AI indicator.

**Vocabulary to cut:** delve, leverage (as a verb), robust, pivotal, crucial, seamless,
underscore, testament, landscape (figurative), realm, tapestry, myriad, plethora, navigate
(figurative), foster, harness, unlock, transformative, game-changing, comprehensive,
holistic, multifaceted, ever-evolving, rapidly evolving, strategic imperative, paramount.

**Constructions to cut:**

- *Rule of three* — "efficient, scalable, and sustainable". Real analysis rarely arrives in
  perfect triples. Use one precise adjective, or two, and vary
- *Negative parallelism* — "It is not just X, it is Y". Almost always padding
- *Superficial -ing analysis* — "…, highlighting the importance of…", "…, reflecting the
  growing need for…". These append an unearned conclusion to a fact
- *Vague attribution* — "experts suggest", "studies show", "it is widely believed". Name the
  source or delete the claim
- *Promotional register* — "stands as a testament to", "plays a vital role in". This is a
  report to an operator, not a press release. The temptation is acute when writing about
  Dubai — resist it
- *Em-dash overuse* — one per paragraph at most
- *Formulaic openers* — "In today's fast-paced aviation industry", "In an era of"
- *Hollow closers* — "Ultimately, success will depend on a range of factors"

**Rhythm:** vary sentence length deliberately. Uniform 20-to-25-word sentences are the
strongest AI signal of all. Put a short sentence after a long one.

## Section openings that work

Not "This section will analyse the location options", but:

- "Three options can absorb the forecast demand, and only one of them is unconstrained by
  land."
- "The choice of forecasting model turns on a single question: whether the 2020–2022
  collapse belongs in the fitting window."
- "DXB's design capacity is 115 million passengers. On every basis tested, demand reaches it
  before 2036."

## Word discipline at 2,500 words

The budget is tight for eight tasks. When over:

1. Cut throat-clearing openers
2. Cut restatements of what was already said
3. Move workings to the appendices
4. Cut adjectives
5. Cut framework *description* the reader can infer, keep framework *application*
6. Cut examples that duplicate a point already evidenced

**Never cut citations, the analysis sentence, or the recommendation.**

## Before submission

Read the full draft aloud. Every sentence that is hard to say is hard to read — this catches
more than any checklist.

- [ ] No paragraph stops at evidence without interpretation
- [ ] Every section opens with its conclusion
- [ ] No claim stronger than its source
- [ ] No forecast presented as a fact
- [ ] No banned vocabulary or construction
- [ ] British English throughout, consistently
- [ ] Sentence length genuinely varied
- [ ] Every acronym defined at first use
- [ ] Every table and figure numbered, captioned, sourced, and referred to in the text
- [ ] Recommendations are specific enough to act on