Writing Proposals

Chapter 16: Sample Business Research Proposal

• Joseph Levine's Guide to Writing a Funding Proposal

We have not had many outside links this term, but below is an example of smaller companies entering into competition with larger ones, a la BTS 2. Notice MetroPCS among the bigger names:

In the fall, Verizon Wireless will be firing up its 4G network in 25 to 30 cities, and probably will make a big deal of that. A smaller provider, MetroPCS Communications Inc., is scheduled to introduce its first 4G phone around the same time.

Upcoming Schedule

For those who miss class today, Tuesday, May 25, you must e-mail me for your group leader's e-mail so you know where to meet on Thursday with your group.

Thursday, May 27, 2010: Meet with your group and discuss your different proposals during regular class meeting time. The group leader will send me an e-mail discussing who showed up for the meeting, and what you discussed.


Tuesday, June 1, 2010: BTS 3 is due. Read Chapters 10 (effective sentences) and 16 (proposals)

Rough Draft Example

Below is the Rough Draft example written in class using the questions from Thursday's class, created by asking what is the purpose of the memo...

Business Tone

Today in class we want to focus on "tone" in our writing. Tone=attitude given off to reader. The tone of your writing is drastically affected by your syntax (sentence structure) and word choice, as well as the type (imperative, interrogative, declarative, exclamatory) of sentence you use.

As with last week's discussion on Active Voice and Conciseness, Purdue's OWL website is a great resource to support what we practice in class today.

Business Tone

Here are some things to consider, and work on, in writing your memo (BTS 2):

• Use the Active Voice sentence construction to set a clear subject for writing.

• Emphasize an important idea by repeating the idea, as a specific phrase or word. The more you use the phrase/word, the more it sits in the readers head. Warning: watch for overuse of the word/phrase.

• Another way is to use phrases that indicate importance of an idea, as simple as: most important, major concern, major factor, main, largest, smallest, weakest, additional, valuable, essential, effective, ...

• Use declarative sentences, those sentences that make clear statements. {Too many !!!!!!s and ?????s or commands can ruin your tone.}

• Do not use contractions like don't, can't, I'll, we'll. Part of a business tone is to spell out your words!

• Do not use one-syllable numbers: SPELL OUT eight, nine, one, two, three, four. You want "four million" and not "4 million" in a business letter.

• Use gender neutral nouns and pronouns. Ex.: The law students must know their state's constitution if they want to pass the bar exam.

• Emphasize, in a business writing, how the reader (being the "customer") will benefit from the information you are providing them. For example, as you write declarations about the national company to your boss, Gale Sayers, make sure to include follow-up sentences that clarify how Sayers' company might benefit: Coca-cola spends about eight million a year in business deals with local Chicago companies. Gale Sayers Theater could propose a deal in which we sell exclusively Coca-cola beverages at our snack bar.

• Remember that you are part of a business, so you represent the business AND not yourself. If you notice the above example, the writer refers to "we" instead of "you." This subtle difference in word choice connects you to your job, rather than distancing yourself. {You should want to use language that makes you part of the company!}

Practicing Tone

Below are questions you will are to answer in your BTS 2 memo. They are questions that your boss expects to be addressed. In about three paragraphs, try to answer the following questions with a polite but excited tone. Use any material from the draft brought in today, only revise the information in the order presented below, in the required tone:

1. What is the national company and which of their products (or services) are you proposing your company pursue business with?

2. What are two or three important facts that you have found about the national company and/or their product that makes this an opportunity to pursue?

3. In what ways do you see these important facts connecting to your company? In answering this, you might find it helpful to develop some of your company's own values or relevant company fact.

4. How is your company going to use the other company's product or services? How will the use of this national company's product or service benefit your company? Declare two to three benefits, and why you think these benefits are inevitable.

5. In answering #4, are there business models that demonstrate how your integration can work? Identify and compare these examples.

Adding a Company Logo

Since this is not a graphic design class (and we don't have the proper programs to do so), we will not be spending much time in class designing logos. However, we can work on putting some basic logos into our memos to make them look more "real."

First, you can choose a logo through the Word Clipart, or you can Google "logo" and search through some of the non-text images to save to your computer desktop.

Click here to a link to an image that I found works for our project. Save this logo to your desktop by clicking on the image and dragging to your desktop, or by right-clicking on the image and then "save as" to your desktop.

After getting an image, open up your Memo document. Those who have trouble following along with the in-class demonstration for getting the "Header and footer" areas of a document to open can go here.

Below are some considerations for your logo:

• Edit the image size (demonstrated in class) to make sure the image does not overwhelm the logo text, or draw reader away from the memo's content.

• Edit the logo text size, shape and color using the Formatting Palette. Work to connect the logo text to the image, both in style and compatible size.

HOMEWORK for Tuesday, 5/25:

• Due: BTS 2: Memo Proposing Integration
• Read Chapters 8 and 9, and prepare for a Reading Quiz over material.

BTS 2: Memo, Integration Opportunity

Reading Quiz #3

Your job is to answer the four questions on page 571. You must e-mail me the answers once you are finished. This means, write your answers in Microsoft Word, and then e-mail them.

You have 10 minutes to answer the questions, knowing that it is open book and that you were assigned these pages to read for today.

Authoritative Language

Today in class, we will revise BTS 1 by practicing two different syntactical (dealing with sentence structure) considerations in our writing: 1. Use of Active Voice [over passive, shhh], and 2. Conciseness.

The most effective writing demands both clarity of the subject and avoidance of extra words, in which the above two consideration help.

ACTIVE VOICE v. passive voice

Clues that you need to revise INTO the Active Voice:

• Watch for use of the "to be" + second verb construction: is verb, was verb, has been verb, will be verb
• Watch for the preposition (by, at, on, in) that follows the double-verb construction: is verb by, will be verb on
• The missing or hidden subject -- also know as the object coming first. Not all nouns are subjects. The noun is the subject of a sentence when the noun is performing the verb (Jerry told..., The dog bit...). Objects are nouns in a sentence that are being performed upon by the subject-noun. Rule of thumb: if noun performing the action in your sentence comes AFTER the verb, then you are writing in passive voice and need to revise.
• To practice: click on this link and we will work on turning passive voice into active voice.

Conciseness

Make the most of your language. Here are some strategies to help your conciseness:

• Word choice: one word over a vague phrase, or look to replace longer phrases with one word that means the same thing (did not do well=failed; not at all good-looking=ugly)
• Redundancies: look for words or phrases that are saying the same thing in the same sentence, and stick with the more effective word/phrase (We were really strong and dominating=We dominated!)
• Look for sentences that you can combine information (The dog barked. The dog was blue. The dog heard footsteps= The blue dog barked when it heard footsteps.)
• Eliminate Words/Details that do not harm meaning, and that might be obvious or have little relevance to purpose of writing (see examples on OWL!)
• To Practice Conciseness, lets go to the OWL exercises and re-write the wordy sentences.

for Tuesday, 5/11

Below are the exercises we worked on during class this past Thursday, except for the final one, "Conflict Resolution," which will also help you with the draft of BTS 1 due Tuesday:

1. Defining the Ethical Dilemma using an Example Definition (p. 544)

Step 1:Make a pre-writing list answering each of the following:

• Identify the specific behavior / language that was inappropriate
• Discuss the ways the behavior/language was inappropriate. In doing so, reflect on things like ethics/morals/violation of civil rights/ etc. What exactly makes this particular scenario inappropriate, in the most detailed, thinking sense?
• In your defining of an action/behavior as an ethical dilemma, what’s an example of appropriateness? (Sometimes it’s good to give a counter-example to help clarify your views.)
• Another thing to consider, if the above didn’t help you do so, is to look up common definitions of your ethical issue, and make connections between parts of the definition and the action being labeled with the definition.

Step 2: Draft the definition: Why is this unethical?

• In your definition, use the specific names of the people involved in your hypothetical ethical dilemma scenario
• Break down the scenario using the above list of answers.
• Consider how you will communicate across cultures (p. 90-95)
• Remember, what one person is okay with, another person may see as culturally insensitive
• Consider what kind of dilemma you have (religious, political, educational, etc.), as that can guide what you discuss on subject, where you go for references to proper behavior…
• At work, how should one’s behavior be different – and why?
• Your language has to be clear, and you can’t assume what is obvious to you will be obvious to everyone. SPELL OUT THE ISSUE! Use simple language.

2. Conflict Resolution: What are some steps (the “process”) to take to resolve the issue?

• What did you find as far as normal steps taken by Human Resources? What web site or companies helped you the most?

• How can you make these steps your own? Work on renaming the steps, shortening any longer phrases into something more memorable.

1. Is there an acronym that you’ve thought of (or might still think of) that will help employees remember the steps in process of dealing with the ethical dilemma?

• What are the key actions involved within each step?

1. For each step, I’d like you to spend one paragraph explaining the key action the step is asking, with who should speaking to whom, etc.
2. For each step, I’d also like you to have one paragraph that re-uses your example characters from first two parts of the BTS 1 to help clarify in each step what will happen to each character!
3. Within each step, be thorough with examples that support each key action. …for example: If one of the key actions was for “the Human Resources employee will provide [the offender] with options to apologize,” then further that key action by providing what those options might be!

Homework: A draft with all three sections of the BTS 1 brought Tuesday at 12pm:

1. Ethical Dilemma Scenario fictional example (brought in on 5/6 as homework)
2. Definition of Ethical Dilemma using Example Definition (done in class, 5/6)
3. Process: the Steps of Conflict Resolution, each with an detailed-explanation of each step (researched for class, worked on during class, 5/6)

***this will allow us to focus mostly on formatting considerations on Tuesday!!!***

Building Technical Strategies