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How do you explain what kind of guideline a person has to follow?

Should I say "the guideline/rule is that" like the examples below?

"The guideline you need to follow on this assignment is that you should do a thorough research."

"The guideline I have been following is that I do a thorough research."

"The rule you need to follow is that you should do a thorough research."

Edit: Okay, maybe my question wasn't clear at all. What if I insist on explaining what kind of rule/guideline a student has to follow to a friend by using "the rule/guideline is that" construction? Is this construction not possible at all?

Should I say something like "you need to follow the guideline/rule, which is that you should do a thorough research"?

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  • Such constructs are allowable, but they read rather wordily, I think. There are several ways you can convey the thought: with or without the that, with or without the rule in quotation marks, by using commas or colons, etc. Here are a couple examples, but there's no single "best" way to do this.
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented Apr 29, 2013 at 23:26

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I would take out the is altogether:

You should follow this rule: do thorough research!

Although I think it would be better to be even more direct, and not even mention rules or guidelines at all:

You need to do thorough research.

In general, when I proofread my own writing, and I noticed that I've used the is construct like you have:

The reason I'm saying this is because you don't want to be too wordy.

I usually end up striking most of the first part altogether; it's superfluous:

Don't be too wordy.

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It seems to me that you have two choices given the ambiguity of your three example sentences.

The first choice is to use the this sentence:

The rule you must follow is this: Do a thorough job of research.

Rules aren't guidelines. Rules are directions that must be obeyed for fear of punishment if they are disobeyed; guidelines are mere suggestions. Well, that's one standard way of looking at the difference between these two words. You can also argue that a guideline must be followed, in which case you're using a weak metaphor for a strong statement.

The second choice is to use this sentence:

The guideline you should follow is this: You should do as thorough a job of research as possible.

First decide what you want to say, then say what you mean and mean what you say.

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