 Proposal  How to write proposal and  Signing up for

 Outline outline considering the rules and Turnitin

regulations of Technical Report

What is ‘Proposal’? Why do we need to write ‘Proposal for a Technical Report?’

In a technical writing course, the proposal assignment is an opportunity for you to

present an idea to a specific, named audience about an idea you have to improve a
certain aspect of that company, organization, center, or other business. Whatever topic
you choose, you must be able to conduct thorough research that you will integrate into
your final report.

To begin planning a proposal, remember the basic definition: a proposal is an offer or

bid to complete a project for someone. Proposals may contain other elements—technical
background, recommendations, results of surveys, information about feasibility, and so
on. But what makes a proposal a proposal is that it asks the audience to approve the
proposed project.

A proposal should contain information that would enable the audience of that proposal
to decide whether to approve the project and to do the work, or both. To write a
successful proposal, put yourself in the place of your audience—the recipient of the
proposal—and think about what sorts of information that person would need in order to
feel confident having you complete the project.

It is easy to get confused about proposals, or at least the type of proposal you will be
writing for this class. Imagine that you have a terrific idea for installing some new
technology where you study, and you write up a document explaining how it work,
showing the benefits, and then urging management to install it. Is that a proposal? All
by itself, this would not be a complete proposal. It would be more like a feasibility
report, which studies the merits of a project and then recommends for or against it.
However, all it would take to make this document a proposal would be to add elements
that ask management for approval for you to go ahead with the project. Additionally,
for this class, one of those elements is scholarly research. Certainly, proposals must sell
the writer (or the writer’s organization) as the one to complete the project.

Source: https://coccoer.pressbooks.com/chapter/proposals

How do you write a good ‘Proposal’ for ENGL 201?

It is important to write a proposal before doing research. The aim of writing a proposal
is to show the reader what your research involves and how you are going to carry it out.
To help and guide you, we have identified the components of writing a good ‘Proposal’
for ENGL 201:

In order to write a good proposal, you need to answer a set of questions. Your answers
to these questions will make up your proposal. We have classified 5 questions for you
to answer to make up your proposal:

Question 1: What is the topic of my report?

At the beginning of your proposal, you need to introduce your topic, i.e., tell the reader
what your report will be about.

For example:

1. The topic of my report is how chess software works.

2. My report is on the damage that viruses can do to computers.
3. This report will be about the advantages of instant messaging for language
learners.

Question 2: What are the aims of my report?

You need to explain the purpose of your report. In other words, you need to explain
why you are writing it.

For example:

In this report I will try to answer some basic questions about mine clearing
robots. I will explain how they detect mines, and what their most important
components are.
In this report, my aim is to give brief information about mine clearing
robots. To do this, I will explain their design and development, and their
working principles.

When you are writing your aims, to be specific and understandable, you need to
remember that there should be a minimum of two sub aims following the primary aim
of your report for each body part, which will give the two headings for your report’s
body parts.

For example:

1. The main significant aim of this report is to present detailed information about the
benefits of using ATMs (primary aim 1) and how Banking Technology has
 improved through ATMs (primary aim 2). In order to do this, I will try to give
brief information about the several varieties of services provided (primary aim1 -
sub aim 1) and how it saves time and money (primary aim - sub aim 2). In addition
, the improvement of Software Programming and Hardware (primary aim 2 – sub
aim 1), the innovation of XTM (primary aim 2- sub aim 2) and the development of
banking industry into a new era (primary aim 2 – sub aim 3).

 Important notice: Depending on your topic, minimum of two (2) sub aims are
also acceptable!
 Before uploading your proposal onto turnitin, you are always welcome to ask
feedback from your instructor to understand whether you are on the right track
or not!

Question 3: Who is it written for? How will it help them?

When this report is complete, not everyone may be interested in reading it. For
example, if your topic is a specific one such as Application of Computer Integrated
Manufacturing, you may wish to target your research toward students at the
Department of Computer Engineering (i.e., computer engineering students are going to
benefit from this report).

Task: Look at the report titles below and decide who they are written for and how they will be
helpful?

Report title Who is it for? How will it be helpful?

Personal Service Robots

Is the Net Safe?

Steps to Successful Internet Marketing

Waste Water Management

 Distance Learning or Face-to-Face Learning?

In this part of your proposal where you explain who is going to benefit from this report
(audience/reader) and how this report is going to help the reader, you can also discuss
how your report is going to build on existing studies.

Task: Underline the phrases used to introduce who the report is for and why/how it will
be beneficial.

1. This report will be beneficial for computer engineering students as it will

provide information about the application of computer integrated
manufacturing.
2. Any Internet user will benefit from this report since the report will provide
information about how to detect and deal with viruses.
3. This report will be helpful/useful/valuable for people who are interested and
involved in Internet marketing because it will give information about what
criteria make a site safe and reliable.

Now you may think about your own report and state who your report is written for and how the
audience will benefit from it.

Question 4: Why have I chosen this topic?

You need to tell the readers the reason(s) why you have chosen this topic. Why are you
interested in this topic? Why do you think it’s important? Why would it be useful?

Task: Let’s underline the phrases you can use to introduce the reasons why you have
chosen your topic.

1. I am interested in this topic as chess is one of the most popular forms of software
in the field of artificial intelligence.
2. I have chosen this topic because I believe it is very important to know about
viruses in order to protect our computers.
3. This topic is interesting since it is one of the most popular areas in today’s
technology.
4. This topic appeals to me as instant messaging is something I frequently make use
of as a university student.
Question 5: How will I collect data?

In this part, you need to explain what sources you are going to use to carry out your
research.

Task: Let’s underline the phrases used to introduce how the research will be carried out.

1. I will collect data by searching on the Internet and selecting relevant articles and
books in the library.
2. I will use the books and journals in the library as well as online encyclopedias
and journals to collect data.
3. In order to collect data, I will interview some of my lecturers and borrow their
books on this subject. I will also try to gather information by conducting surveys
in the university.

Here are some questions you might need to consider while writing your proposal:
What sources will you use when collecting data for your report? What is your intended
approach or methodology? Will you be interviewing people, conducting surveys, using
the Internet or library sources?

Organization/Format for ‘Proposal’:

Your proposal should have 3 paragraphs only and each paragraph should have the
correct content. Until now, you have an idea about the 5 questions that you need to
answer to make up your proposal, now it is time to put (write) each question into
correct paragraph. You have to make sure that each paragraph has the right content in
your proposal:

Paragraph 1: Topic and Aims - Questions 1 and 2

Paragraph 2: Audience and Reason – Questions 3 and 4

Paragraph 3: How will you collect DATA? – Question 5

Task: Analyzing a Sample Proposal

The following sample proposal was written by a former EMU student, but there are some
problems. Identify the problems in the following proposal so you can make up a perfect proposal.
The question below will guide you for a perfect proposal.

This report will be about the construction of dams. As you know, there are many dams
in every country and these dams have many benefits to get energy from them or save
many places from flood disaster. In this report, my aim is to give brief information about
dam construction.

This report will be useful for students who are studying at civil engineering
department, constructors and instructors who are interested in these types of
constructions. It will be helpful because it will give information about how dams are
constructed or which kind of dam is suitable for a place. I have chosen this topic because
I believe that if civil engineers or constructors know everything related with dams, they
will make more suitable and durable constructions.

In order to collect data, I will search many websites to get information about dams and
I will use books in EMU library. All these resources will help me while writing this
report.

1. What is the topic of the report?

2. What are the aims of the report?

3. Who is the report written for? How will it help them?

4. Why has the writer chosen this topic?

5. How will the write collect data?

6. One of the questions above can’t be answered because of the missing

information. Which one?
 7. One of the following sentences could be the missing information in this
proposal. Which one?

a. The first known dam was built across the Nile River in about 2900 B.C. to
reserve water for cities.
b. My teacher’s enthusiasm and detailed knowledge about dam construction
also positively influenced me.
c. I will explain the history of dams, types of dams and construction
elements of dams.

8. Where in the proposal would you put this sentence?

Here is the checklist for your proposal! Before you upload your assignment, please
make sure that you answer all the questions in the checklist as “YES”!

Checklist for Proposal:

 Does your Proposal have 1 general (primary) aim and minimum of 2 specific
aims for each body of the report?
 Does it include the 5 points (topic, aims, audience and benefits, why this topic
and data collection)?
 Does your Proposal have 3 paragraphs?
 Does each paragraph have the correct content? (e.g. Para.1: topic and aims…)
 Is all information relevant to your report topic?
 Count the words. Are they around 250? (minimum 180 – maximum 250)
 Check your grammar and vocabulary. Have you minimized the errors?
Example of a good proposal:

Proposal

In this report , I will explain about Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). As you may

notice nowadays most of the banking services are provided by ATMs which explains that

ATMs are very important . The main significant aim of this report is to present detailed

information about the benefits of using ATMs and how Banking Technology has improved

through ATMs . In order to do this, I will try to give brief information about the several

varieties of services provided and how it saves time and money . In addition , the improvement

of Software Programming and Hardware , the innovation of XTM and the development of

banking industry into a new era.

This topic will be beneficial for bank staffs and bank customers as the information

displayed in this report will assist them learn about how ATMs provide comfort for their lives.

I have chosen this topic because I strongly believe that it is important to have the information

of what services ATM provides . That’s the reason why I would like to split the information I

have about this topic.

In order to collect data , I will take a consultation from one of the specialists in this

field and also I will use the internet to gather information in order to enrich my topic .

Although I may borrow some books from EMU library .

Outline:

In technical writing, outlines can serve multiple purposes. One is help the writer
organize ideas and evidence, and the other to communicate your plan of development
clearly to the person who has the authority to move your project forward. Therefore, the
various parts of your outline should make sense to you and communicate your ideas
clearly to your audience.

As you begin to outline your report:

o Indicate main ideas.

o Name and number the major sections of the
report.
 Add details for each section underneath the major section.
 Indent the details related to each section underneath the names of
major sections.
o Alternate between numbers and letters to indicate different levels:

I. A. - 1. a. - 1) a), etc.

Some other suggestions about creating an outline from your research:

 Develop as specific an outline as you can: it shows you what information you
must gather and, as importantly, what information you can ignore.
 Use the indexes, tables of contents, and headings within chapters of books or
articles from databases selectively for just the information you need.

Before you begin your detailed, formal outline, you might wish to consider the
following:

1. Do any preliminary reading necessary to construct a rough outline.

2. Develop a rough outline with major section headings you are considering for this
report.
3. Identify your information sources, and make a bibliographic citation for each.
4. Take notes as your read determining in which sections each source material
might best work.
5. Provide in-text citations as you develop your outline; doing so will help
document sources thoroughly and ethically at all stages (and will make your job
easier when you are drafting your report).
6. Change or add extra detail to the outline as the research process continues.

When you have completed sufficient research to develop your ideas, a formal outline
can be used to develop a draft of your report. As you write and revise, you will continue
filling in details, adding transitions, and providing your own acquired understanding of
the subject. It isn’t uncommon to discover gaps in your early draft and have to go back
and conduct more research. Keep in mind that this is a working outline and not a
contract; as you continue your research, you may decide to organize the final report
differently and even delete some information and add new sections.

Source: https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/technicalwriting/chapter/7-1-creating-
and-using-outlines/

After your report proposal has been approved by your instructor, it is very useful to
prepare an outline of your report to guide you through writing the various stages of it.
However, remember that the outline is tentative and may be changed as you develop
your report.

Here is how your report outline will look:

OUTLINE

Body Part I – Heading: _________________________________________

Subheading 1: ___________________________________________
Subheading 2: ___________________________________________
Subheading 3: ___________________________________________

Body Part II – Heading: ________________________________________

Subheading 1: ___________________________________________
Subheading 2: ___________________________________________
Subheading 3: ___________________________________________

The outline covers the central part of the report—the headings of the two body parts and
their subheadings.

Using Your Proposal to Write an Outline

It is very easy to write your outline just by looking back at your proposal.

You wrote three specific aims (1 primary – minimum 2 sub aims) in the proposal
material. By looking at these aims, you should be able to write the outline of two body
parts of the report.
Here’s an example:
Report Title: ASYNCHRONOUS TRANSFER MODE (ATM)
Heading 1 (Primary aim): Benefits of using ATMs.
Subheading 1: Provides Several Varieties of Services.
Subheading 2: Saves time and money.
Heading 2 (Primary aim): How Banking Technology has improved through ATMs.
Subheading 1: Improvement of Software Programming and Hardware.
Subheading 2: ATMS facilitated the innovation of XTM.
Subheading 3: Development of Banking Industry is into a new era.

Task: Let’s try writing the outline for the two body parts of this report from the aims.

This report will be about banking security. Banking techniques should enhance
clients' online encounters which are influenced by trust and security issues. In this
report I shall explain the use of network systems in banking, pointing out the types of
networks used, their levels of cybersecurity, and how they’re implemented.
Furthermore, my secondary aim will concentrate on telecommunication techniques,
including banking operations, how the information is processed and transmitted, and
the security measures utilized.

Report Title:

Body Part I – Heading (Primary Aim): ____________________________

Sub-heading 1: ______________________________

Sub-heading 2: ______________________________

Sub-heading 3: ______________________________

Body Part II – Heading: (Primary Aim): ____________________________

Sub-heading 1: ______________________________

Sub-heading 2: ______________________________

Sub-heading 3: ______________________________
 Each topic should have minimum of 2 (two) subheadings to help organize the
information in each body part. This will make the report easier for you to write and
for your readers to understand.

Notice that you cannot have only one subheading under a heading.

Analyzing an Outline:

Task: Below you can see a very basic outline of a student’s report on laptops, including the
subheadings under each of the two body part headings. However, there are some mistakes in the
outline. Identify the problems and speak out the reasons. What are the mistakes? Why are they
wrong?

Advantages of Laptop Computers

Easy to carry
Slower than desktop computers
Installation of new cards is easy

Disadvantages of Laptop Computers

Very high upgrading costs
Overheating problems
You can use it when there is no power