Technical Proposals

Technical Proposals

 

Proposals are the lifeblood of the technical workplace. No matter what your field is, you will almost surely be asked to write proposals that describe new projects, present innovative ideas, offer new strategies, and promote services.

Proposals are documents that present ideas and plans for your readers' consideration.

The purpose of a proposal is to present ideas and plans for your readers' consid​eration. Here are just a few examples of how proposals are used in the technical workplace:

• An electronic engineer would use a proposal to describe a new kind of plasma-screen television that his team wants to develop.

• A manager would use a proposal to argue for the use of robots to automate the assembly line at her factory.

• A civil engineer would use a proposal to propose a monorail system in the downtown of a city.

• A marine biologist would use a proposal to request funding for her study of the effects of sonar on blue whale migrations.

Computers have increased the speed and competitiveness of proposal development. They have heightened the sophistication of proposals, allowing writers to use graph​ics, color, and even video to enhance the persuasiveness of their ideas.

Effective proposal writing is a crucial skill in today's technical workplaces. Almost all projects begin with proposals, so you need to learn how to write these important documents effectively if you want to succeed.

Basic Features of Proposals

Proposals are used "internally" or "externally" in a technical workplace. Internal proposals are used within companies to plan or propose new projects or products. External proposals are used to offer services or products to clients outside the com​pany. Both external and internal proposals tend to have the following features:

• Introduction

• Description of the current situation

• Description of the project plan

• Review of qualifications

• Discussion of costs and benefits

• Graphics

• Budget

Solicited proposals are proposals requested by the readers. For example, your company's management might ask your team to submit a proposal for new projects. Or, your team might be asked to write a proposal that answers a request for proposals (RFP) sent out by a client.

Unsolicited proposals are proposals not requested by the readers. For exam​ple, your team might prepare an unsolicited internal proposal to pitch an innovative new idea to the company's management. Or, your team might use an unsolicited external proposal as a sales tool to offer your company's clients a product or service.

Planning and Researching Proposals

Because proposals are difficult to write, it is important that you follow a reliable writ​ing process that will help you develop your proposal's content, organization, style, and design. An important first step in this process is to start with a planning and re​searching phase. During this phase, you will define the rhetorical situation and start collecting the content for the proposal.

Planning

A good way to start planning your proposal is to analyze the situations in which it will be used. Begin by answering the Five-W and How Questions:

Who will be able to say yes to my ideas, and what are their characteristics?

Why is this proposal being written?

What information do the readers need to make a decision?

Where will the proposal be used?

When will the proposal be used?

How will the proposal be used?

Once you have answered these questions, you are ready to start thinking in-depth about your proposal's subject, purpose, readers, and context of use. To begin this analysis, open a new document on your computer and type in your understanding of the following issues:

SUBJECT Define exactly what your proposal is about. Where are the boundaries of the subject? What information do your readers expect you to include in the pro​posal? What need-to-know information must readers have if they are going to say yes to your ideas?

PURPOSE Clearly state the purpose of your proposal in one sentence. What should the proposal achieve? What do you want the proposal to do? By stating your purpose in one sentence, you will focus your writing efforts while making it easier for readers to understand what you are trying to accomplish.

Some key words for your purpose statement might include the following action verbs:

to persuade, to convince, to provide , to describe, to argue for, to advocate, to present, to propose , to offer, to suggest, to recommend, to support.

A purpose statement might look something like this:

The purpose of this proposal is to recommend that our company change its manufacturing process to include more automation.

In this proposal, our aim is to persuade the state of North Carolina to develop a multimodal approach to protect itself from stronger hurricanes, which are on the horizon.

READERS More than any other kind of document, proposals require you to fully un​derstand your readers and anticipate their needs, values, and attitudes.

Primary readers (action takers) are the people who can say yes to your ideas. They need good reasons and solid evidence. They also hold values and attitudes that will shape how they interpret your ideas. Meanwhile, keep in mind that economic issues are always important to primary readers, so make sure you consider any money-related issues that might influence them.

Secondary readers (advisors) are usually experts in your field. They won't be the people who say yes to your proposal, but their opinions will be highly valued by your proposal's primary readers. You need to satisfy these advisors by offering enough technical information to demonstrate your un​derstanding of the current situation and the soundness of your project.

Tertiary readers (evaluators) can be just about anyone else who might have an interest in the project. These readers might include lawyers, journalists, and community activists, among others. You need to anticipate these read​ers' concerns, especially because tertiary readers can often undermine the project if you are not careful.

Gatekeepers (supervisors) are the people at your own company who will need to look over your proposal before it is sent out. Your immediate super​visor is a gatekeeper, but you will likely also need to let other gatekeepers, like the company's accountants, lawyers, and technical advisors, look over the proposal before it is sent.

CONTEXT OF USE The document's context of use will also greatly influence how your readers will interpret the ideas in your proposal.

Physical context concerns the places your readers may read or use your proposal. Will readers look over your proposal at their desks, on their lap​tops, or in a meeting? Where will they discuss it?

Economic context involves the financial issues that will shape readers' re​sponses to your ideas. How much money is available for the project? What economic trends will shape how your readers perceive the project? What are the financial limitations of the project?

Ethical context involves the ethical decisions that you and your readers will need to make. Where does the proposal touch on ethical issues? How might these ethical issues be resolved so they don't undermine the project? What are the legal issues involved with the proposal?

Political context concerns the people your proposal will affect. Who stands to gain or lose if your proposal is accepted? How will the proposal change relationships that are already in place? Would any larger political trends shape how the proposal is written or interpreted?

Something to keep in mind is that proposals, especially external proposals, are de facto legal contracts.They are legal documents that can be brought into court if a dispute occurs. So, you need to make sure that everything you say in the proposal is truthful and sincere, because the proposal may be used in a court case to prove (or disprove) that your company completed the promised work to the level proposed.

If you are working with a team, it is especially important that all team members agree up front about the rhetorical situation. If all the team members start out with the same understanding of the rhetorical situation, you will avoid some of the all too typical misunderstandings that occur as proposals are written.

Take Note

Save your notes about the subject, purpose, readers, and context of use. They will help you and your team stay on task as you begin drafting your proposal. In fact, a helpful practice is to print out your notes and tack them to the wall behind your computer. That way, your analysis will keep you focused on your subject, purpose, readers, and con​text in which your proposal will be used.

Doing Research on Your Subject

 

Here are some research strategies that are especially applicable to writing proposals:

 

DO BACKGROUND RESEARCH The key to writing a persuasive proposal is to fully understand the problem you are trying to solve. First, you might go to the Internet to find as much information about your subject as you can. Second, locate print sources, like books, reports, news articles, and brochures, on your subject. Third, in​terview, survey, and observe people who have a stake in the plan or project you are developing. Find out their views.

ASK SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS (SMEs) Spend time interviewing experts who know a great amount about your subject. They can probably give you insight into the problem you are trying to solve and suggest some potential solutions. They might also tell you what has worked (and not worked) in the past.

PAY ATTENTION TO CAUSES AND EFFECTS ЛИ problems have causes, and all causes create effects. In your observations of the problem, try to identify the causes that are behind that problem. Then, try to identify some of the effects of the problem.

FIND SIMILAR PROPOSALS On the Internet or at your workplace, you can proba​bly locate proposals that have dealt with similar problems in the past. These sam​ples can help you frame the problem and better understand the causes and effects. They might also give you some insight into how similar problems have been solved in the past.

Organizing and Drafting Proposals

Writing the first draft of a proposal is always difficult. Why? Proposals describe the future—a future that you are trying to envision for your readers and yourself. Consequently, you will need to use your imagination to help create and describe the future you have in mind.

A good way to draft your proposal is to write it one section at a time. Think of the proposal as four or five separate mini-documents that could stand alone. When you finish drafting one section, move on to the next.

Writing the Introduction

As with all documents, the proposal's introduction sets a context, or framework, for the body of the document. A proposal's introduction will usually include up to six moves:

Move 1: Define the subject.

Move 2: State the purpose.

Move 3: State the main point.

Move 4: Stress the importance of the subject.

Move 5: Offer background information on the subject.

Move 6: Forecast the organization of the document.

Describing the Current Situation

The aim of the current situation section—sometimes called the background section-is to define the problem your plan will solve. In this section, you should help read​ers understand the current situation by clearly defining the problem, its causes, and its effects.

You should accomplish three things in this section of the proposal:

• Define and describe the problem.

• Discuss the causes of the problem.

• Discuss the effects of the problem if nothing is done.

Mapping Out the Current Situation

 

 

DRAFTING THE CURRENT SITUATION SECTION Your logical map of the current sit​uation should help you define the basic content of this section. Now you are ready to turn your map into paragraphs and sentences. To begin, the current situation section should include an opening, a body, and a closing:

Opening—Identify and define the problem you will describe.

Body—Discuss the causes of the problem, showing how these causes brought about the problem.

Closing—Discuss the effects of not doing anything about the problem.

Mapping Out a Project Plan

DRAFTING THE PROJECT PIAN SECTION Your project plan section should have an opening, a body, and a closing. This section will describe step-by-step how you will achieve your project's purpose.

Opening—Identify your overall solution to the problem. You can even give your plan a name to make it sound more real (e.g., the "Restore Central Campus Project"). Your opening might also include a list of project objectives so the readers can see what goals your plan is striving to achieve.

Body—Walk the readers through your plan step-by-step. Address each major step separately, discussing the minor steps needed to achieve that major step. It is also helpful to tell readers why each major and minor step is needed.

Closing—Summarize the final deliverables, or outcomes, of your plan. The deliverables are the goods and services that you will provide when the project is finished. Tell the readers what the end results of your plan will be.

NOTE: Deliverables should be clearly identified so readers know what they will be receiving for their investment in your ideas.

As shown in Figure 21.9, the project plan section balances the plan's steps with reasons why these steps are needed.

In most proposals, the project plan is the longest section of the document. This section needs to clearly describe your plan. Moreover, it needs to give your readers good reasons to believe your plan will work, while offering specific outcomes or results (deliverables).

Describing Qualifications

The qualifications section presents the credentials (=certificates, diplomas) of your team or company, striving to prove that you are qualified to carry out the project plan. Minimally, the aim of the qualifications section is to show that your team or company is able to do the work. Ideally, however, you also want to prove that your team or company is best qualified to handle the project.

As you begin drafting this section, keep the following saying in mind: What makes you different makes you attractive. In other words, pay attention to the qualities that make your team or company different from your competitors. What are your com​pany's strengths? What makes you better than the others?

In the qualifications section, you do not need to discuss every aspect of your team or company. Rather, you should offer just enough information to demonstrate that your team or your company is best qualified and able to handle the proposed project.

A typical qualifications section offers information on three aspects of your team or company:

Description of personnel—Short biographies of managers who will be in​volved in the project; demographic information on the company's work​force; description of support staff.

Description of organization—Corporate mission, philosophy, and history of the company; corporate facilities and equipment; organizational structure of the company.

Previous experience—Past and current clients; a list of similar projects that have been completed; case studies that describe past projects.

You should never underestimate the importance of the qualifications section in a proposal. In the end, your readers will not accept the proposal if they do not believe that your team or company has the personnel, facilities, or experience to do the work. In this section, your job is to persuade them that you are uniquely or best qualified to handle the project.

Costs and Benefits

The costs and benefits section summarizes the advantages of saying yes to the pro​posal while also telling readers how much the project will cost.

Start out this section by making an obvious transition. Say something like, "Let us conclude by summarizing the costs and benefits of our plan." This kind of transition will wake up your readers, because they will realize that you are going to be telling them the most important points in the proposal.

Early in this section, tell them the costs. A good strategy for handling expenses is to simply state the costs up front without apology or a sales pitch.

As shown in our budget, this renovation will cost $287,000.

We anticipate that the price for retooling your manufacturing plant will be $5,683,000.

Immediately after this statement of the costs, you should describe the significant benefits of saying yes to the plan. Fortunately, you already identified many of these benefits earlier in the proposal. They appeared in two other sections: the project plan section and the qualifications section.

Project plan section—You identified some deliverables (конечный продукт, результат) when you described the project plan. Summarize those deliverables for the readers and discuss the benefits of them.

Qualifications section—When describing your team's or company's quali​fications, you also showed that your organization is uniquely or best qualified to handle the project. You can now briefly remind your readers of the benefits of working with your company (e.g., qualified people, high-quality products and services, superior customer service, excellent facilities).

onclusion

The conclusion of a proposal should be concise, perhaps only one or two para​graphs. To draft an effective conclusion, you should do some or all of the following: (1) restate the proposal's main point (the solution); (2) say thank you; (3) describe the next step; (4) provide contact information.

Here at the end of the proposal is a good place to restate the main point of your proposal. Of course, you have already told readers your solution at least a couple of times. Tell them again. This last repetition will leave them with a clear statement of what you want to achieve.

Also, you might thank your readers for their consideration of your ideas. Much like a public speaker signaling the end of a speech by thanking listeners for their attention, you can end your proposal by thanking readers for considering your plan. Thanking your readers will end your proposal on a pos​itive note.

Finally, when concluding, you should leave your readers with a clear sense of what they should do when they finish reading your proposal. Should they call you? Should they wait for you to call them? Should they set up a meeting with you? A well-written conclusion makes their next move obvious for them.

In Figure 21.11, for example, the conclusion has been added to the end of the costs and benefits section. The authors thank the readers for their consideration and ask them to call when they are finished looking over the proposal.

Concluding a Proposal

• Restate the proposal's main point (the solution)

• Say thank you.

• Describe the next step.

• Provide contact information.

 

Using Style in Proposals

Proposals are designed to both educate and persuade readers, so they tend to use a mixture of plain and persuasive style.

Plain style—Use plain style in places where description is most important, such as the current situation section, the project plan section, and the quali​fications section.

Persuasive style—Use persuasive style in places where readers are expected to make decisions, such as the proposal's introduction and the costs and benefits section.

One persuasive style technique, called "setting a tone," is particularly effective when writing a proposal. To use logical mapping to help you set a persuasive tone, follow these steps:

1. Determine how you want your proposal to sound. Do you want it to sound exciting, innovative, or progressive? Choose a word that best reflects the tone you want your readers to hear as they are looking over your proposal.

2. Put that word in the middle of your screen or sheet of paper. Circle it.

3. Write words associated with that word around it. Circle them also.

4. Keep mapping farther out until you have filled the page or screen.

Graphics—In proposals, it is common to include charts, graphs, maps, illus​trations, photographs, and other kinds of graphics. You should look for places in your proposal where graphics can be used to reinforce important points.

Page design—Page layouts for proposals vary from simple to elaborate. At a minimum, you should use headings, lists, and graphics. More elaborate page layouts might include multiple columns, margin comments, pull quotes, and sidebars. Choose a page design that suits your readers and the context in which they will use the proposal.

Medium (средство)—The appropriate medium is also an important choice with the advent of computers. Paper is still the norm for most proposals, but increas​ingly companies are using CD-ROMs, websites, and presentation software to deliver their ideas.

asic Features of Activity Reports

An activity report usually includes the following features, which can be modified to suit the needs of the situations in which the report will be used:

• Introduction

• Summary of activities

• Results of activities or research

• Future activities or research

• Incurred or future expenses

• Graphics

Analytical reports are some of the most common documents produced in the technical workplace. Ал analytical report is a formal response to a research question. The report identifies a research methodology, presents results, discusses those results, and makes recommendations.

Here are just a few ways analytical reports are used in the technical workplace:

• A civil engineer would use a recommendation report to suggest ways to strengthen the structural integrity of a bridge after an earthquake.

• A medical researcher would use a completion report to present her findings on the effectiveness of a new treatment for diabetes.

• A manager would use a feasibility report (исследование осуществимости проекта) to explore the use of robots to auto​mate an assembly line.

• An entomologist would write an empirical research report (практические исследования) to present the results of her research on the migration patterns of monarch butterflies.

Research is the foundation of a good analytical report. For assistance with the research process, you can use computers to access incredible amounts of informa​tion. They also process data in highly sophisticated ways. Even a modest search on the Internet quickly unearths a small library of information on any given subject. Meanwhile, the number-crunching capabilities of computers can help you highlight subtle trends in data collected from experiments and observations.

As a result, writing analytical reports involves a combination of (1) managing the large amount of information available on a subject and (2) doing empirical research that clarifies or adds to the existing information. In this chapter, you will learn how to write analytical reports that present information clearly and concisely.

Basic Features of Analytical Reports

Because analytical reports are used in so many different ways, it is hard to pin down a basic pattern that they tend to follow. Nevertheless, you will find that analytical re​ports typically include the following basic features:

• Introduction

• Methodology or research plan

• Results

• Discussion of the results

• Conclusions or recommendations

This is a general pattern for organizing an analytical report. In some reports, the methodology section can be moved into an appendix at the end of the report, especially if readers do not need a step-by-step description of the research approach. In other reports, you may find it helpful to combine the results and discussion sections into one larger section.