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Guide to Short Proposal
Before you begin your proposals assignment, familiarize yourself with some writing tips common to proposals.
View the HATS Design PowerPoint in this module and integrate these principals into both your proposal and final project: headings, access, typography, and space.
Review again the lessons on parallelism, bulleted lists, and audience awareness.
As in your letters assignment, correct grammar and effective sentence revision strategies
are important. Review the links in the Grammar, Style, and Revision module.
Short Proposal Assignment
General Information
Successful professionals and business leaders are essentially problem-solvers. They can consider a situation critically and recommend a solution. To that end, your last two assignments are devoted to identifying and solving a problem.
The “short proposal” and “comprehensive proposal” assignments will entail your researching and proposing a solution to a problem that you can identify in a real or fictitious company, institution, agency, business, etc. How do you identify a problem? First of all, you should select an entity in which you are interested or have competence. For example, you could consider banking, retail, hospitality (motels and restaurants), government services, manufacturing, or education. Once you have determined an entity in which to work and research, identify a problem within that entity, the solution of which would be appropriate for short and comprehensive proposal. The “problem” can be one that really exists, or it can be one you fabricate. Regardless, you cannot have a proposal unless you have identified a problem and a corresponding solution.
Examples of problems that have resulted in proposals:
Employing kiosks at a fast-food chain to save costs
Reducing employee pilferage at a jewelry store that is experiencing high inventory shrinkage
Building a new high-end shopping center in an under-served area
Developing an online course at a university that needs a greater online presence
Recruiting qualified employees for an IRS office located in a rural area that does not have a large, trained workforce
Adopting a single vendor for foreign auto parts for an automotive service business to cut costs
Raising funds for a new fraternity house on a college campus that does not have a large Greek system
Using a new CD program instead of classroom instruction to train employees at a bank with few resources
Creating a new service for selling and reselling college textbooks at a university
Guidelines
Once you have identified a problem, develop either an internal or external short proposal along one of two guidelines:
An internal short proposal describes an internal solution to the problem. That is, you, as the writer of the proposal, are an owner, employee, or associate of the entity within which you have identified the problem. For example—say you are an employee of a Ross’s Auto Parts, and you think that the current inventory management system is outdated and costly. You could then write an internal proposal, suggesting that the owners purchase a new inventory management system. Your proposal could be organized as such:
Purpose–Define the problem and what you propose to do. For example, if you are a company employee and want to suggest that the decision-makers upgrade their inventory management system, you could describe your purpose as such: “We (I) propose that Ross’s Auto Parts upgrade its inventory management system because our current system is outdated, inefficient, and costly.”
Description–Describe the problem in as much detail as necessary. Divide the problem into its relevant sections: financial, sales, personnel, etc. For your inventory management report, you could explain how much potential revenue the business has lost over the past two years by not upgrading its system.
Solution–Describe the solution to the problem, addressing each section in the order as presented in the previous section.
Costs–Itemize the costs. Also, interpret the costs for the reader. That is, explain what may not be immediately evident.
Conclusion–Make your final pitch for your solution.
An external proposal describes an external solution to the problem. That is, you recognize a problem within an entity and offer a product or service to remedy the problem. For example—you represent Inventory Solutions, a company that develops inventory management software. You could write a sales proposal to the owners of Ross’s Auto Parts, touting the advantages of your software. Your proposal could be organized as such:
Introduction
Briefly explain why you are writing, explaining the problem and proposed solution.
Give the background of the problem and your proposed solution.
Let’s assume that you are still interested in the inventory management problem. Instead of writing an internal proposal as a company employee, you could write a sales proposal as a representative of Inventory Solutions. For example, your sales proposal could begin as such: “Dear Mr. Ross: Are you aware that your business could be losing significant revenues with its inefficient inventory management system?”
Description of product or service
Describe your product or service and explain why it is the best solution.
Describe the product or process.
Describe special features, warranties, or other advantages.
Timetable
Explain all stages of implementing the product or service.
Describe any follow-up activity.
Costs
Break down costs into material, labor, travel time, and anything else the customer needs to know.
Your company’s reputation
Convince the reader that your company is best suited for the job. Give references and other necessary background.
Conclusion
Make your final sales pitch here.
If you use any sources directly in this project, you will need to include a bibliography at the end. However, outside sources at this point are optional.
Samples Provided
In this module, I have provided two “Sample Short Proposals,” which are labelled 1) “internal unsolicited proposal” and 2) “unsolicited sales proposal.” As a clarification, note that #1 is an illustration of an internal proposal; #2 is an illustration of an external proposal.
Assignment Specifics
Your proposal should be a minimum of three, single-spaced pages. As with all your other work, your proposal should be clearly and skillfully written, with no grammatical, usage, or punctuation errors. You might consider devising a letterhead for your company to lend a professional air. However, you do not need to include any graphics with this proposal.
Finally
For your final project, which is your “Comprehensive Proposal,” you will develop this proposal into a full-length project. You can assume that your employer or customer is interested in your solution but has asked for a more complete document. Therefore, you will enhance your existing proposal with additional research and graphics to enhance your presentation.
Although you need not use outside sources in this particular assignment, understand that your comprehensive proposal will require outside research, so make sure that your topic is researchable. If you need help, you will find a Research Guide in this module.
Grading Criteria
Grammar, style, usage, punctuation (50 percent)
Everything we reviewed in the first weeks of class
Content (25 percent)
Well-researched
Addresses questions in the assignment
Information thoroughly and accurately presented
Form (25 percent)
Adequate length and number of sources
Appropriate spacing, typeface, formatting, margins, etc.
What is uploaded in the files are only examples!!! WHAT IS UPLOADED ARE ONLY EXAMPLES PLEASE THEY ARE JUST EXAMPLES
