Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Chapter 20 Proposals and Requests for Proposals

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. “To Propose”  To propose is to put forward an offer, to make a suggestion that is open for discussion and consideration.  Proposals solve problems by putting forward solutions to readers.

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Internal Proposals  Offer solutions to problems that the organization is aware of  Offer solutions to problems that the organization did not initially recognize as problems  May be subdivided into everyday proposals (sometimes called “routine proposals”) and formal proposals

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Goals of Internal Proposals  To persuade an audience that a problem exists  To make the problem understandable  To argue that the problem should be fixed  To explain if/how the problem will escalate  To persuade an audience that the suggested solution makes sense

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Everyday Proposals  Are fairly informal  Often take the form of memos or s  Offer solutions to routine problems  Are written in response to problems that do not require great effort to define, identify, and solve

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Formal Proposals  Usually contain more information and address more complex problems  May offer solutions that require greater monetary commitment  May be addressed to multiple audiences

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. External Proposals  Work to persuade outside readers to accept the solutions the proposal offers  Are written to secure contracts that solve other organizations’ problems for a fee  Can be solicited or unsolicited  Can be classified as sales proposals or research and grant proposals

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Sales Proposals  Persuade other organizations that the writer's company can best supply a service or product  Persuade through third-party expertise  Show feasibility in terms of money, reliability, and performance

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Research and Grant Proposals  Persuade a sponsoring organization to fund research or a project  Can be prompted by the sponsoring organization  Are common within academia  Also help companies and organizations conduct research to help develop products and services

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Solicited and Unsolicited Proposals  External proposals are often solicited through:  Requests for Proposals (RFPs)  Information for Bids (IFBs)  Requests for Quotations (RFQs)  Unsolicited proposals offer a solution to a problem that may not have been previously recognized.

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Requests for Proposals  Are formal appeals put out by organizations to request that interested vendors submit proposals in response to a set of needs  Are sometimes preceded by requests for information (RFIs)  Promote competitiveness to secure the lowest price for a service or product

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Writing RFPs  Understanding the form and function of RFPs also assists you as a proposal writer.  The key elements in RFPs can be categorized as:  Information that RFPs provide  Information that RFPs request

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Information that RFPs Provide  Title and/or brief description of the RFP  Contact information  Proposal schedule  Background information  Proposal selection process

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Information that RFPs Provide  Project summary and details  Goals  Budget  Project Personnel  Timeline  Requirements  Relationships and Support

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Information that RFPs Request  Company/organization information  Proposed solution  Summary  Proposed Process  Task List  Time Line

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Information that RFPs Request  Details of the proposed solution  Functionality  Options for implementation  Originality  Scale  Technical requirements

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Information that RFPs Request  Budget estimates  Provisions to be made by the proposers  Personnel to be employed  References  Portfolios  Awards  Certification and Licensing information

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. RFP Ethics and Professionalism  Understand that ethics are integral for a relationship to succeed  Never ask for the impossible  Disclose as much about the problem as possible  Provide sufficient time to compose proposals  Do not solicit for proposals that will not legitimately be reviewed

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Technology and RFPs  Writers should try to reach broad an audience as possible through:  The World Wide Web  Subscription services  Databases and lists  PDFs  Forms

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Writing Proposals  Offer feasible, realistic, well- defined solutions  Address audience needs  Display the credentials that allow readers to take the proposal seriously  To get acceptance, the Plan and Research phases are crucial

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. RFP Guidance  Consult the RFP to learn the rhetorical context  Carefully read and analyze the RFP during the Plan phase of the PSA  Determine the problem presented by the RFP  Look for clues as to the proposal’s audience  Frame solutions in response to the problem  Determine what information is available, and what information will need to be researched

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Components of Proposals  Organization is often similar to reports and manuals, including front matter, body, and end matter  Specific choices are driven by their contexts, purposes, and classifications  Avoid simply rehashing the structure of the RFP

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Front Matter  Title page  Letter of transmittal (cover letter)  Executive summary (abstract)  Table of contents  List of visuals

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Body: Introduction  Proposal introductions inform and persuade readers by including:  a statement of purpose  a description of the background and/or an explanation of the problem  an account of the scope of the proposal  an explanation of the proposal’s organization

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Body  The remainder of the proposal body details the solution(s) to the problem:  Approaches or methods used  Plan of action establishing validity and credibility  Qualifications (experience and references)  Budget estimations  Proposed schedule  Conclusion & Recommendations

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. End Matter  Contains materials that aren’t necessarily crucial to the success of the proposal but that do provide further information or clarification, such as:  Bibliographies for citing outside research  Glossaries for audiences with varying levels of expertise  Appendices for any additional information

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Use of Technology  Using templates can streamline the process  Many templates also include built-in help  Still, no technology is a substitute for solid rhetorical choices

Dobrin / Weisser / Keller: Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Whether you are trying to persuade readers to fund your research, buy your product, or hire your service, your writing is all that proposal readers will have to evaluate you and often the only chance you will have to persuade them. Thus, the writing in your proposal must be flawless.