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.