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Frequently in Management Science courses, instructors focus primarily on teaching students the mathematics of linear programming models. However, the ability to discuss mathematical expressions in business terms is an important professional skill. The authors present an analysis of student abilities to discuss management science concepts through memo homework assignments. The findings indicate that average student grades on homework problems for linear programming formulations were always higher than average student grades on homework memos in which they write about their formulations. These results suggest that teaching managerial writing about analytical work is an important area for future business education research.

O perations Research/Management Science educators need to promote learning outcomes related to building, solving, and interpreting a model, and producing associated business communications. In this paper, we present a test instrument that requires an evaluation of a two-decision business scenario in three domains. The first domain is formulating a linear programming model. The second is a graphical solution analysis. The third is describing the problem and interpreting the recommendation in a professional memo. Using this three-domain format in a quiz, we assess the quality of student performance across three domains, i.e., model formulation, graphical analysis, and management interpretation, for multiple problem components. Statistical results of the current study indicate that students struggle more with graphically solving and interpreting the model and its solution than with formulating the model. In the current study, students are least successful in graphing the isoprofit line, graphing the constraints, and describing those constraints in the management interpretation. To our knowledge, these domains have not been previously reported for objective functions or constraints. Our study also shows that many students exhibit deficiencies in the mechanics of writing.