1. Understanding and Planning Reports and Proposals
Chapter 10
Understanding and Planning Reports and Proposals
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2. Learning Objectives Applying the Three-Step Process
Supporting messages with research
Using primary and secondary research
Planning informational reports
Planning analytical reports
Planning proposals
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, you will be able to do the following:
Adapt the three-step writing process to reports and proposals
Describe an effective process for conducting business research, explain how to evaluate the credibility of an information source, and identify the five ways to use research results
Explain the role of secondary research and describe the two major categories of online research tools
Explain the role of primary research and identify the two most common forms of primary research for business communication purposes
Explain how to plan informational reports and website content
Identify the three most common ways to organize analytical reports
Explain how to plan proposals
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3. Applying the Three-Step Writing Process to Reports and Proposals
In previous chapters, you learned to use the three-step writing process when developing shorter business messages; now it’s time to apply those skills to longer messages. Typical reports fall into three basic categories:
Informational reports offer data, facts, feedback, and other types of information, without analysis or recommendations.
Analytical reports offer both information and analysis, and they can also include recommendations.
Proposals present persuasive recommendations to internal or external audiences, often involving investments or purchases.
Try to view every business report as an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of your audience’s challenges and your ability to contribute to your organization’s success.
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4. Analyze the Situation Purpose Work Plan
The complexity of many reports and the amount of work involved put a premium on carefully analyzing the situation before you begin to write. Pay special attention to your statement of purpose, which explains why you are preparing the report and what you plan to deliver in the report.
Using an infinitive phrase (to plus a verb) encourages you to take control and decide where you're going before you begin. When you choose an infinitive phrase (to inform, to confirm, to analyze, to persuade, to recommend), you pin down your general goal in preparing the report.
In addition to considering your purpose carefully, you will also want to prepare a work plan for most reports and proposals in order to make the best use of your time. For simpler reports, the work plan can be an informal list of tasks and a simple schedule. However, if you’re preparing a lengthy report, particularly when you’re collaborating with others, you’ll want to develop a more detailed work plan.
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5. Gather Information Audience Purpose
Obtaining the information needed for many reports and proposals requires careful planning, and you may even need to do a separate research project just to acquire the data and information you need. To stay on schedule and on budget, be sure to review both your statement of purpose and your audience’s needs so that you can prioritize your information needs and focus on the most important questions.
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6. Select the Medium Media Requirements Feedback Preferences
Document Uses
Media Choice
In addition to the general media selection criteria discussed in Chapter 3, consider several points for reports and proposals.
First, for many reports and proposals, audiences have specific media requirements, and you might not have a choice.
Second, consider how your audience wants to provide feedback on your report or proposal. Do they prefer to write comments on a printed document or to use commenting and markup features in software?
Third, will people need to search through your document frequently or update it in the future?
Fourth, bear in mind that your choice of media also sends a message. For instance, a routine sales report dressed up in expensive multimedia will look like a waste of valuable company resources.
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7. Organize Information Direct Indirect
The direct approach is often used for reports because it is efficient and easy to follow. When your audience is likely to be receptive or at least open-minded, use the direct approach: Lead with a summary of your key findings, conclusions, recommendations, or proposal, whichever is relevant. This “up-front” arrangement saves time and makes the rest of the report easier to follow. For those readers who have questions or want more information, later parts of the report provide complete findings and supporting details.
However, if the audience is unsure about your credibility or is not ready to accept your main idea without first seeing some reasoning or evidence, the indirect approach is a better choice because it gives you a chance to prove your points and gradually overcome audience reservations. To enable the use of AIDA-style persuasion, unsolicited proposals in particular often use the indirect approach. Bear in mind, though, that the longer the document, the less effective the indirect approach is likely to be.
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8. Summary of Discussion
This section covered the following elements involved in Applying the Three-Step Writing Process to Reports and Proposals:
Analyzing the Situation
Gathering Information
Selecting the Right Medium
Organizing Your Information
This concludes our discussion of Applying the Three-Step Writing Process to Reports and Proposals. The next section will cover Supporting Your Messages with Reliable Information.
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9. Supporting Your Messages with Reliable Information
No matter what the task, successful research can be a rewarding activity if you follow productive research procedures:
Plan your research.
Locate the data and information you need.
Process the data and information you located.
Apply your findings.
Manage information efficiently.
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10. Plan Your Research Problem Statement Essential Information
Research Questions
Start by developing a problem statement that will define the purpose of your research—the decision you need to make or the conclusion you need to reach at the end of the process Next, identify the information you need in order to make that decision or reach that conclusion. You can then begin to generate the questions that will constitute your research. If addition, you will need to prioritize your information needs and concentrate on the most vital questions.
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11. Ethics and Research Keep an open mind Respect privacy of participants
Document and credit sources
Respect intellectual property rights
Don’t distort information from sources
Don’t misrepresent your intentions
With a prioritized list of questions, you’re just about ready to get started with your research. Before taking that step, however, it’s important to be aware that research carries some significant ethical responsibilities. To avoid ethical lapses, keep the following points in mind:
Keep an open mind so that you don’t skew the research toward answers you want or expect to see.
Respect the privacy of your research participants; don’t observe people without their consent, and don’t mislead people about the purposes of your research.
Document sources and give appropriate credit.
Respect your sources’ intellectual property rights (the ownership of unique ideas that have commercial value in the marketplace).
Don’t distort information from your sources.
Don’t misrepresent who you are and how you intend to use research results.
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12. Data and Information Secondary Primary Research
The range of sources available to business researchers today is remarkable, almost overwhelming at times. If you have a question about an industry, a company, a market, a new technology, or a financial topic, the chances are good that somebody else has already researched the topic. Someone in your own company, in fact, might have already looked into the problem.
Research materials previously created for another purpose are considered secondary research. Secondary sources include magazines, newspapers, public websites, books, and other reports. Don't let the name fool you. Start with secondary research because it can save considerable time and money for many projects. In contrast, primary research is new research done specifically for your current project. Primary sources include surveys, interviews, observations, and experiments.
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13. Evaluating Sources Reputation Potential Bias Purpose Credibility
Methodology
Verification
Completeness
Logical Scrutiny
You have the responsibility to verify the quality of your sources. Therefore, ask yourself the following questions about your sources of information:
Does the source have a reputation for honesty and reliability? Try to find out how the source accepts articles and whether it has an editorial board, peer review, or fact checking procedures.
Is the source potentially biased? To interpret an organization’s information, you need to know its point of view.
What is the purpose of the material? Was the material designed to inform others of new research, advance a political position, or promote a product?
Is the author credible? Is the author a professional journalist? An informed amateur? Merely someone with an opinion?
Where did the source get its information? Try to find out who collected the data, the methods they used, their qualifications, and their reputation.
Can you verify the material independently? Verification can uncover biases or mistakes.
Is the material current and complete? Make sure you are using the most current information available by checking the publication date of a source. Have you used the whole document or only a part of it?
Do the source’s claims stand up to scrutiny? Step back and determine whether the information makes sense.
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14. Use Research Results Quoting Paraphrasing Summarizing Avoid Plagiarism
Cite
Sources
Observe
Context
Summarizing
Paraphrasing
Quoting
Once you’ve collected all the necessary secondary and primary information, the next step is transforming it into the specific content you need. This step involves quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing textual material or analyzing numerical data.
Quoting a source means you reproduce it exactly as you found it, and you either set it off with quotation marks (for shorter passages) or extract it in an indented paragraph (for longer passages). However, too much quoting creates a choppy patchwork of varying styles and gives the impression that all you've done is piece together the work of other people.
You can often maximize the impact of secondary material in your own writing by paraphrasing it, restating it in your own words. Paraphrasing helps you maintain a consistent tone, present information using vocabulary more familiar to your audience, and avoid the choppy feel of too many quotations. You still need to credit the originator of the information, but not with quotation marks.
Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing but presents the gist of the material in fewer words than the original. An effective summary identifies the main ideas and major support points from your source material, but leaves out most details, examples, and other information that is less critical to your audience. Like quotations and paraphrases, summaries also require complete documentation of your sources.
All three approaches require careful attention to ethics. When quoting directly, take care not to distort the original intent of the material by quoting selectively or out of context. And never succumb to plagiarism, presenting someone else's words as your own, without proper credit.
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15. Making Recommendations
Apply the Results
Drawing Conclusions
Making Recommendations
After all your planning, research, and processing, you're finally ready to apply your findings. Depending on the writing project, you may be drawing conclusions based on your results, or making recommendations.
A conclusion is a logical interpretation of the facts in your report. Reaching good conclusions based on the evidence at hand is one of the most important skills you can develop in your business career.
Whereas a conclusion interprets the facts, a recommendation suggests what to do about the facts. To be credible, recommendations must be based on logical analysis and sound conclusions. They must also be practical and acceptable to the people who have to implement them.
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16. Summary of Discussion
This section covered the following elements involved in Supporting Your Messages with Reliable Information:
Planning Your Research
Locating Data and Information
Evaluating Information Sources
Using your Research Results
Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing Information
Drawing Conclusions
Making Recommendations
This concludes our discussion of Applying the Three-Step Writing Process to Reports and Proposals. The next section will cover Conducting Secondary Research.
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17. Conducting Secondary Research
Even if you intend to conduct primary research, start with a review of any available secondary research. Inside your company, you might be able to find a variety of reports and other documents that could help. Outside the company, business researchers can choose from a wide range of print and online resources, both in libraries and online.
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18. Library Research Newspapers or Periodicals Business Books Membership
Directories
Almanacs and Statistics
Government Publications
Electronic Databases
Public and university libraries offer an enormous array of research tools. Many of these may be unavailable through a standard web search or may be available only with a subscription. Reference librarians can direct you to the library’s many sources of business information:
Newspapers and periodicals. Libraries offer access to a wide variety of popular magazines, general business magazines, trade journals, and academic journals.
Business books. Although less timely than newspapers and periodicals, business books provide in-depth coverage of a variety of business topics.
Directories. Thousands of directories are published in print and electronic formats in the United States, and many include membership information for all kinds of professions, industries, and special-interest groups.
Almanacs and statistical resources. Almanacs are handy guides to factual and statistical information about countries, politics, the labor force, and so on.
Government publications. Information on laws, court decisions, tax questions, regulatory issues, and other governmental concerns can often be found in collections of government documents.
Electronic databases. Databases offer vast collections of computer-searchable information, often in specific areas such as business, law, science, technology, and education. Some libraries offer remote online access to some or all databases; for others, you’ll need to visit in person.
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19. Find Information Online
Searching
Monitoring
The Internet can be a tremendous source of business information, provided you know where to look and how to use the tools available. Roughly speaking, the tools fall into two categories: those you can use to actively search for existing information and those you can use to monitor selected sources for new information. (Some tools can perform both functions.)
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20. Online Search Tools Web Directories Metasearch Engines Online
Databases
The most familiar search tools are general-purpose search engines, such as Google and Bing, which scan millions of websites to identify individual web pages that contain a specific word or phrase and then attempt to rank the results from most useful to least useful.
For all the ease and power they offer, search engines have three disadvantages that could affect the quality of your research. First, the process that search engines use to find and present lists of web pages is computerized, with no human editors involved to evaluate the quality of the content you find on these pages. Second, various search engines use different techniques to find, classify, and present pages, so you might be able to find certain pages through one engine but not through another. Third, search engines can't reach the content held in limited-access collections, such as the back issues of many newspapers, magazines, and professional journals.
Web directories address the first major shortcoming of search engines by using human editors to categorize and evaluate websites.
Metacrawlers or metasearch engines address the second shortcoming of search engines by formatting your search request for multiple search engines and then telling you how many hits each engine was able to find.
Online databases address the third shortcoming of search engines by offering access to the newspapers, magazines, and journals that you're likely to need for many research projects.
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21. Online Monitoring Twitter Newsfeeds Specialized Monitors Online Alerts
One of the most powerful aspects of online research is the ability to automatically monitor selected sources for new information. The possibilities include subscribing to newsfeeds from blogs and websites, following people on Twitter and other microblogs, setting up online alerts on search engines and online databases, and using specialized monitors, such as TweetBeep, to track tweets that mention specific companies or other terms.
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22. Search Tips Boolean Keywords Operators Natural Forms-Based Language
The most basic form of searching is a keyword search, in which the engine or database attempts to find items that include all of the words you enter. A Boolean search expands on this capability by using search operators that let you define a query with greater precision. Common operators include AND (the search must include both words before and after the AND), OR (it can include either or both words), or NOT (the search ignores items with whatever word comes after NOT).
To overcome the perceived complexity of Boolean searches, some search engines and databases offer natural language searches, which let you ask questions in normal, everyday English.
Recently, search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and AllTheWeb have implemented forms-based searches that help you create powerful queries without the need to learn any special techniques.
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23. Fine Tune Searches Planning Instructions Search Options Search Terms
First Results
To make the best use of any search engine or database, keep the following points in mind:
Think before you search. After you have identified what you need to know, spend a few moments thinking about where that information might be found, how it might be structured, and what terms various websites might use to describe it.
Read the instructions and pay attention to the details. A few minutes of learning can save hours of inefficient search time.
Review the search and display options carefully so you don’t misinterpret the results; some of these settings can make a huge difference in the results you see.
Try variations of your terms, such as management and managerial. User fewer search terms to find more results; use more search terms to find fewer results.
Look beyond the first page of results. Don’t assume that the highest-ranking results are the best sources for you. For example, materials that haven’t been optimized for search engines won’t rank as highly (meaning they won’t show up in the first few pages of results), but they may be far better for your purposes.
Search technologies continue to evolve rapidly, so look for new ways to find the information you need.
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24. Document Sources ►Headings and Links ►Transitional Devices
►Previews and Reviews
►Credit Original Material
►Support Your Message
►Assist Your Readers
Documenting your sources serves three important functions:
Properly and ethically credits the person who created the original material
Shows your audience that you have sufficient support for your message
Helps readers explore your topic in more detail, if desired
Be sure to take advantage of the source documentation tools in your software, such as automatic endnote or footnote tracking.
Whatever method you choose, documentation is necessary for books, articles, tables, charts, diagrams, song lyrics, scripted dialogue, letters, speeches—anything that you take from someone else, including ideas and information that you’ve re-expressed through paraphrasing or summarizing. However, you do not have to cite a source for knowledge that’s generally known among your readers, such as the fact that Microsoft is a large software company and that computers are pervasive in business today.
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25. Summary of Discussion
This section covered the following elements involved in Conducting Secondary Research:
Finding Information at the Library
Finding Information Online
Online Search Tools
Online Monitoring Tools
Search Tips
Documenting Your Sources
This concludes our discussion of Conducting Secondary Research. The next section will cover Conducting Primary Research.
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26. Conducting Primary Research
If secondary research can’t provide the information and insights you need, your next choice is to gather the information yourself with primary research. Primary research encompasses a variety of methods, from observations to experiments such as test marketing, but the two tools most commonly used for business research are surveys and interviews.
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27. Conducting Surveys Provide clear instructions
Ask for information people can remember
Keep questionnaires short and easy to use
Formulate easy-to-analyze questions
Surveys can provide invaluable insights, but only if they are reliable (would produce identical results if repeated), valid (actually measure what they are designed to measure), and representative (based on information from a sample of respondents who accurately represent the entire population of interest). To develop an effective survey questionnaire, follow these tips:
Provide clear instructions. Respondents need to know exactly how to fill out your questionnaire.
Don’t ask for information that people can’t be expected to remember. For instance, a question such as “How many times did you go grocery shopping last year” will generate unreliable answers.
Keep the questionnaire short and easy to answer. Don’t make any individual questions difficult to answer, and don’t expect people to give you more than 10 or 15 minutes of their time.
Whenever possible, formulate questions to provide answers that are easy to analyze. Numbers and facts are easier to summarize than opinions, for instance.
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28. Conducting Surveys Avoid asking leading questions
Avoid ambiguous descriptors
Avoid compound questions
Obtain a representative sample
Avoid leading questions that could bias your survey. If you ask, “Do you prefer that we stay open in the evenings for customer convenience?” you’ll no doubt get a “yes.” Instead, ask, “What time of day do you normally do your shopping?”
Avoid ambiguous descriptors, such as “often” or “frequently.” Such things mean different things to different people.
Avoid compound questions such as “Do you read books and magazines?”
When selecting people to participate in a survey, the most critical task is getting a representative sample of the entire population in question. A good handbook on survey research will help you select the right people for your survey, including selecting enough people to have a statistically valid survey
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29. Conducting Interviews
Selecting Questions
Asking
Questions
Like surveys, interviews require careful planning to get the best results. The types of questions you ask and the way you ask them influence the answers you receive.
Ask open-ended questions to invite an expert to offer opinions, insights, and information, such as “Why do you believe that South America represents a better opportunity than Europe for this product line?” Ask closed questions to elicit a specific answer, such as yes or no. Note that including too many closed questions in an interview makes the experience feel more like a simple survey and does not take full advantage of the interview setting.
Think carefully about question sequence and the potential answers so you can arrange them in an order that helps uncover layers of information. Also, consider providing each subject with a list of questions at least a day or two before the interviews, especially if you would like to quote your subjects in writing or if your questions might require people to conduct research or think extensively about the answers. If you want to record interviews, ask ahead of time; never record without permission.
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30. Summary of Discussion
This section covered the following elements involved in Conducting Primary Research:
Gathering Information with Surveys
Gathering Information with Interviews
This concludes our discussion of Conducting Primary Research. The next section will cover Planning Informational Reports.
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31. Planning Informational Reports
Informational reports provide the feedback that employees, managers, and others need in order to make decisions, take action, and respond to changes. Informational reports can be grouped into four general categories:
Reports to monitor and control operations
Reports to implement policies and procedures
Reports to demonstrate compliance
Reports to document progress
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32. Organize Reports Comparison Importance Sequence Chronology Geography
Category
Most informational reports use a topical organization, arranging material in one of the following ways:
Comparison. Use this pattern to show similarities and differences or advantages and disadvantages between two or more entities.
Importance. Build from the least to most important; or start with the most important and progress to the least important.
Sequence. A process or procedure can be arranged sequentially, discussing steps or stages in the order in which they occur.
Chronology. When investigating a chain of events, organize the study according to what happened in January, in February, and so on.
Geography. If location is important, organize the study according to geography, perhaps by regions of the world or areas of a city.
Category. If asked to review several distinct aspects of a subject, look at one category at a time – such as sales, profit, cost, or investment.
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33. Organize Websites User Demands Online Reading Multi- Purpose Nonlinear
Form
Most of what you have already learned about informational reports applies to website writing, but the online environment requires some special considerations:
Web readers are demanding. Most visitors won't bother to dig for information. They scan navigation buttons, headings, images, and hyperlinks, looking for possibilities. If nothing looks promising, they're gone.
Reading online can be difficult. For most people, reading on a computer monitor is more difficult than reading from the printed page. In fact, studies show that reading speeds are about 25 percent slower on a monitor than on paper.
The web is a nonlinear, multidimensional medium. Readers of online material move around in any order they please; there often is no beginning, middle, or end. As a web writer you need to anticipate the various paths your readers will want to follow and to make sure you provide the right hyperlinks in the right places.
In addition many websites perform more than one communication function; therefore, they are multipurpose. Each individual purpose must be defined carefully, then integrated into an overall statement of purpose for the entire website.
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34. Information Architecture
Plan Your Site’s Navigation
Give Readers Control
Put Information into Chunks
Many websites are intended for multiple audiences. Website designers use the term “information architecture” to describe the structural and navigational flow of all parts of a website. This architecture enables multiple audiences to enter and explore the site.
To organize your site effectively, keep the following advice in mind:
Plan your navigation first. Readers enter your site from an endless variety of other places on the web. To help them navigate your site effectively and efficiently, plan the structure and navigation before you write.
Let your readers be in control. Create links and pathways that help users explore on their own. However, don’t abandon them to figure out your site by themselves. Start with a homepage that points the way to various sections of the site, then offer plenty of descriptive labels, subheads, and other devices that let readers figure out where to go next.
Break your information into chunks. Help readers scan information by breaking it into self-contained, easily readable "chunks" that are linked together logically. Doing so lets you to provide comprehensive coverage that is still easy to consume online. Consider offering longer sections as downloadable PDF files.
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35. Summary of Discussion
This section covered the following elements involved in Planning Informational Reports:
Organizing Informational Reports
Organizing Website Content
This concludes our discussion of Planning Informational Reports. The next section will cover Planning Analytical Reports.
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36. Planning Analytical Reports
The purpose of analytical reports is to analyze, to understand, or to explain; in other words, to think through a problem or opportunity, explain how it will affect an organization, and recommend how the organization should respond. In many cases, you’ll be expected to make a recommendation based on your analysis.
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37. Analytical Reports Opportunities Problems Decisions
Typical analytical reports fall into three basic categories:
Reports to assess opportunities. Every business opportunity carries some degree of risk and requires a variety of decisions and actions in order to capitalize on the opportunity. You can use analytical reports to assess both risk and required decisions and actions. For instance, market analysis reports are used to judge the likelihood of success for new products or sales. Due diligence reports examine the financial aspects of a proposed decision, such as acquiring another company.
Reports to solve problems. Managers often assign troubleshooting reports when they need to understand why something isn’t working properly and how to fix it. A variation, the failure analysis report, studies events that happened in the past, with the hope of learning how to avoid similar failures in the future.
Reports to support decisions. Feasibility reports explore the potential ramifications of a decision that managers are considering, and justification reports explain a decision that has already been made.
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38. Analytical Challenges
Analysis
Persuasion
Responsibility
Writing analytical reports presents a greater challenge than writing informational reports, for three reasons. First, you are doing more than simply delivering information—you are also analyzing a situation and presenting your conclusions. Second, when your analysis is complete, you need to present your thinking in a compelling and persuasive manner. Third, analytical reports often convince other people to make significant financial and personnel decisions, and these reports carry the added responsibility of the consequences of such decisions.
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39. Focus on Conclusions Opportunities Challenges Audience Data or Methods
When writing for audiences that are likely to accept your conclusions—either because they have asked you to perform an analysis or they trust your judgment—consider using the direct approach by focusing immediately on your conclusions.
This structure communicates the main idea quickly, but it does present some risks. Even if audiences trust your judgment, they may have questions about your data or methods. Moreover, starting with a conclusion may create the impression that you have oversimplified the situation. To give readers the opportunity to explore the thinking behind your conclusion, support that conclusion with solid reasoning and evidence.
Direct Approach
Oversimplifying
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40. Recommendations Establish the need for action
Introduce the overall benefits
List the required steps
Explain each step more fully
Summarize the recommendations
When structuring a report around recommendations, use the direct approach as you would for a report that focuses on conclusions. Then unfold your recommendations using a series of five steps:
Establish the need for action in the introduction, generally by briefly describing the problem or opportunity.
Introduce the benefit that can be achieved, along with any potential risks.
List the steps (recommendations) required to achieve the benefit, using action verbs for emphasis.
Explain each step more fully, giving details on procedures, costs, and benefits.
Summarize your recommendations.
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41. Logical Arguments 2 + 2 = 4 Yardstick
When readers are potentially skeptical or hostile, consider using the indirect approach to build logically toward your conclusions or recommendations. If you guide readers along a rational path toward the answer, they are more likely to accept it when they encounter it. The two most common logical approaches are known as the = 4 approach, in which you convince readers by demonstrating that everything adds up to your conclusion; and the yardstick approach, in which you use a number of criteria to decide which option to select from two or more possibilities.
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42. Summary of Discussion
This section covered the following elements involved in Planning Analytical Reports:
Organizational Strategies for Informational Reports
Focusing on Conclusions
Focusing on Recommendations
Focusing on Logical Arguments
This concludes our discussion of Planning Analytical Reports. The next section will cover Planning Proposals.
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43. Planning Proposals
Proposals can be grouped into two general categories. Internal proposals request decisions from managers within the organization. External proposals request decisions from parties outside the organization.
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44. General Categories Internal Proposals External Proposals
Proposals can be grouped into two general categories. Internal proposals request decisions from managers within the organization. External proposals request decisions from parties outside the organization. For example, investment proposals request funding from outside investors, grant proposals request funds from government agencies and other sponsoring organizations, and sales proposals present solutions for potential customers
and request purchase decisions.
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45. Proposal Structures Solicited Proposal Unsolicited Proposal Expected
Strict Instructions
Unexpected
More Flexibility
The most significant factor in planning a proposal is whether the recipient has asked you to submit a proposal. Solicited proposals are generally prepared at the request of external parties that require a product or a service, but they may also be requested by such internal sources as management or the board of directors. Some organizations prepare a formal invitation to bid on their contracts, called a request for proposals (RFP), which includes instructions that specify exactly the type of work to be performed or products to be delivered, along with budgets, deadlines, and other requirements. Other companies then respond to the RFP by preparing proposals that show how they would meet those needs.
Unsolicited proposals offer more flexibility but a completely different sort of challenge because recipients aren’t expecting to receive them. In fact, your audience may not be aware of the problem or opportunity you are addressing; so before you can propose a solution, you might first need to convince your readers that a problem or an opportunity exists. Consequently, the indirect approach is often the wise choice for unsolicited proposals.
Regardless of its format and structure, a good proposal explains what a project or course of action will involve, how much it will cost, and how the recipient and his or her organization will benefit.
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46. Summary of Discussion
This section covered the following elements involved in Planning Proposals:
Internal and External Proposals
Solicited and Unsolicited Proposals
This concludes our discussion of Planning Proposals. The presentation will close with a review of this chapter’s learning objectives
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47. Understanding and Planning Reports and Proposals
This concludes the PowerPoint presentation on Chapter 10, “Understanding and Planning Reports and Proposals.” During this presentation, we have accomplished the following learning objectives:
Adapted the three-step writing process to reports and proposals
Described an effective process for conducting business research, explained how to evaluate the credibility of an information source, and identified the five ways to use research results
Explained the role of secondary research and described the two major categories of online research tools
Explained the role of primary research and identified the two most common forms of primary research for business communication purposes
Explained how to plan informational reports and website content
Identified the three most common ways to organize analytical reports
Explained how to plan proposals
For more information about these topics, refer to Chapter 10 in Business Communication Essentials.
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