What We Learned About Proposals

What We Learned About Proposals 

Below I will be covering what we learned about informal and formal proposals. How they should be set up and the length they should be, and how they help you achieve your goal. 

Proposals are written to solve problems, provide services, and sell equipment or products. 

        Internal Proposals are to evaluate options and make recommendations. 

        External proposals sell equipment and products and generate income. 

Proposals are similar to sales letter for many reasons. 

·     They emphasize benefits to the reader 

·     They detail expertise and accomplishments 

·     They make it easy to understand and respond to 

The biggest difference between Informal and Formal proposals are the length and format.

Informal Proposals 

·     Their length is (2-4 pages) 

·     Includes Introduction, background, proposal, staffing, budget, and authorization request. 

·     Briefly explain the reason for the proposal 

Formal Proposals 

·     Their length can be between 5 and 200+ pages 

·     Organized into many parts and can include six informal proposal sections 

·     Companies prefer online proposals over printed ones

·     The proposal can include Abstracts/ executive summaries, table of contents, and appendices

Overall, we learned several key topics for proposals. We learned that there are two types and one is lengthier than the other one. These proposals can help in getting funding for your proposal. Proposals also give you a game plan and help you stay organized, to achieve your end goal. 

Evaluation of proposal submission

Evaluation of Proposal

I am going to take the time to talk about the group proposal we created for class. As we all know, we were to write to Kickstarter for the purpose of having our fundraising project approved and listed. The proposal consisted of several pieces such as an introduction, the background, a proposal, staffing options, our budget, and last our authorization request.

The introduction explained what exactly we were marketing and why we thought it was important. Next, the background addressed our problems and then concluded with our goals and an overall purpose. Then we dove into the proposal itself where we discussed the details of our campaign, such as category, launch date, how long we will run, what we are trying to accomplish, and should we be approved. After that, we discussed the staffing section which explained who was all involved and where in the project to coordinate everything. Next, we discussed our budget which is exactly how much money we wanted to raise and where the money would go. Finally, we concluded with the authorization request, which was asking Kickstarter for approval and given a valid date.

The group proposal was very interesting. I didn't realize until doing this project what all a proposal consisted of. After doing so, it made a ton of sense and showed how important a proposal can be for a company. After figured out what all needed to be addressed in the proposal, I came to the conclusion that the hardest section was trying to figure out an accurate budget for our product. It was very tough not actually having a real company and staff and trying to figure out good prices and what we needed within us. We ended up coming up with a budget price that was way too low.

Proposals (Links and Examples)

Link and Examples of Proposals

Business proposals, which can be formal or informal, describe how a company will solve prospective clients’ problems or meet their needs. Informal proposals are usually much shorter than formal ones, and they are typically used to win smaller projects.

How to write a business proposal?

How to write an informal proposal?

http://professionalwritingservices.net/informalproposals.html

Example of informal proposal

https://examples.yourdictionary.com/what-is-example-informal-written-proposal.html


How to write a formal proposal?

https://www.dartmouth.edu/~osp/resources/manual/pre-award/format.html

Formal proposals are very similar in style to informal ones, but they differ in size and format. Formal proposals can be much longer and can have a table of contents and appendices. They can be from 50 pages to 200+ pages.

Collaborative Writing by Pat Schipani

Introduction

After further diving into the in class reading in our book on collaborative writing, I have uncovered a lot of new information I was not previously aware of.  a jumping off point the surprised me is that professionals of all kinds often write in teams or groups.  all the way back in 1982, Purdue University scholars surveyed 200 professional people about on the job writing. the survey would go on to sow that even at this time, 73.5 % of these professionals wrote collaboratively on the job.  however, despite this early survey, there is not a lot of focused information on collaborative writing out there. It actually takes further examination of written documents to see how writers and business people collaborate on written works. Many times it is not clear cut on wether or not multiple writers collaborated on a work project, but after further examination one can usually find that multiple people worked on said body of writing.

Forms of Collaboration

Collaborative writing comes in many forms. many times in which people collaborate on work it starts with researching. It is often very helpful to research topics with multiple people. This strategy of collaborating can really ensure the best information is gathered and then gone over before writing about the topic. a study was conducted to view this point ad found that most business professionals assigned with writing important documents often research in groups to determine the best possible information can be gathered and used.
Another common form of collaborative writing is team writing. In this, groups or teams of people break up information and focus on singular parts to write about. This method helps focus the points of a body of work, and ensures information is not repetitive through out different parts of the paper, letter, project, etc.
Also, peer review is a very common form of collaborative writing we are all almost positively familiar with. Peer review allows for others to read, and even edit your work. This form of collaboration can greatly improve the quality of a pieces of work. Often through peer review typos are found and edits are noted that can be made to improve the work. Another person can often find mistakes, or ways to improve the work that the original author did not see or did not think of themselves.

Multiple studies have shown that collaborative writing is very common in the business world and in common writing practice. the way the group works, the information recovered, the edited information, and writing potential is all raised by collaborative writing, and is an exceptional way to improve your writing as a college student, professional, or average writer.

Amazon Blog Evaluation

For today's blog I have chosen to do Amazon because they are one of the most successful and efficient organizations in the world. I figured with how diverse they are as an organization with product, there would be tons of great information on their company blog.

This is the official home page for Amazon's blog. Not a whole lot going on, but their blog in loaded with tons of information. Not a lot of color but as you scroll down it is a very colorful, detailed blog with tons of explore tabs.

To the far left is the drop down box where you can pretty much find anything you'd like to know about Amazon. It is broken down into  a few main sections such as about the company, news, rewards and recognition, job creation, and investment.

To the left is a pretty neat tool where each day it shows what is popular or trending on the blog. Each day it will list 5 trending topics on the page.

As you scroll down, you'll see a page of more general topics such as books/authors, entertainment, transportation, and innovation. You can click on all of these and read tons of articles. As you click on an article, there are tons of pictures and videos and at the very bottom you can meet the author and get a little background. It will then also suggest similar posts. Overall a very simple, interesting blog.

At the very bottom you'll see more about the company as well and like most websites you'll see privacy and conditions of use. You can also find Amazon offices here and apply for careers.


Overall, Amazon has a great blog. They provide a wide variety of information for all of its users and is very easy to navigate. There are tons of pictures and colors that will really grab someones attention. It demonstrates great ability to provide its users with anything they need to know so they don't have to listen to outside sources.

https://blog.aboutamazon.com/

Blog Evaluation and Reflection- Cover Letters

Hello everyone,


For this part of the assignment, I decided to take a bad and good cover letter and compare the two. Cover letters are very important when it comes to finding a job. When having a cover letter, there should always be a resume. Without a resume there is no cover letter.

A good cover letter includes what type of job you are looking to apply for.

Example:

A bad cover letters are non persuasive, and most people would just write a summary of what was all on their resume and not include any detail.

Example:

For our in-class assignment, we were assigned to create a cover letter from our resume that assigned us to write to the "career" that we wanted to pursue post after college. This assignment is for the class to get an understanding of knowing what

To reflect on this assignment, it is good to make sure that everything is done the right way. Especially, with resumes, cover letters is basically what are on the resumes but a summary. They are designed to make the career a person is searching for and make sure that they are hired.

This assignment was a good way for individuals to improve on their letter and resumes. Especially, when your a college student you need to have a well put together resume before a company even thinks about reading yours. Knowing that millions of people are applying for the same position should have you wanting to do better so you do get chosen.

What We Have Learned: Cover Letters

The last chapter that we covered was on the use of cover letters and how to make it effective. I’ll be quickly covering the quick tips of effective cover letters and what I have personally learned from this section.

Quick Tips:

·       Address the letter to a specific person or the position name of the person what will be interviewing you. Do your research on who this will be beforehand!

·       Say exactly what their company is and what exact position you are applying into. This will help them know exactly what you want.

·       Talk about what you can do as much as possible. This is the part where you will tell them in a different way what skills you have and how that will benefit them.

·       Give them an easy way to contact you. Write in a phone number and/or an email that you use.

·       Thank them for considering you. This takes up their time, so be polite and courteous.

·       Put Sincerely, then your name at the end of the letter.

·       It should be no longer then a page, but not much shorter then a page either. Be brief, but do not be scared to sell your skills more if you need bulk.

·       Do NOT use words like “I hope”. It shows that you doubt that you can fill the position which will make them doubt that too.

What I Have Learned:

I have learned that cover letters are not an optional thing when you are applying for a job in most cases. I was told that it was just something that I could do and not something I should do. I also learned that cover letters need to have specific information for the company that you are applying to. It makes sense when you think about it, but I had assumed that it could be a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. I learned that a cover letter is a platform to show a perspective employer your strengths in a new way.