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Types of Proposals

 Internal
 Within an organization

 May be memo or email instead of a formal report

 External
 From outside the organization

 Solicited

 Responds to an RFP (Request for Proposal)

 Can be an academic grant proposal or business

proposal
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Types of Proposals

 Research Proposals
 Perform research and then provide a report

 Deliverable: A recommendation report

 Grant proposals are a type of research proposal: See the STC

Grant Proposal on Canvas for an example

 Goods and Services Proposal

 Will supply a product or a service OR

 Funding to support a local organization

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Proposal Parts

 Proposals are all about persuasion – You need to

convince your reader there is a problem and you
are qualified to solve the problem

 Note: These parts are slightly different than the

example in the book

 Summary
 A couple of sentences that summarizes your proposal.

 Yes, this may seem redundant, but people may only

read your summary before deciding whether to read
further
 Write this last
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Proposal Parts

 Introduction
 State the problem in one or two sentences. You will go
into more detail in the next section
 Purpose: Briefly describe why you are writing the
proposal
 Background: Explain the context

 Proposal scope: What will you address and what won’t

you address in your proposal?
 The organization of the proposal: Preview your main
points
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Preparing proposals

 Problem definition
 This is where you go into more detail about the
problem.
 Why is it a problem for you reader? This is important if
you want to get buy in from your reader
 Provide any information that will persuade your reader
of the problem
 In research proposals you may note the hole in the
literature that you are proposing to fill. Why is there a
need for your solution?

Preparing Proposals

 Proposed Solution

 Briefly describe how you will solve the problem

 A paragraph or two will do
 Provides a context for your work plan

Preparing proposals

 Plan
 Think steps. First, second, third tasks
 How can the administration implement your solution?
(think method; think steps)
 What materials does your reader need?
 How much will things cost? (Estimate. Remember that
you do not need a budget for this assignment)
 What labor is needed?
 What skills and/or expertise are necessary?
 What’s the timeline for implementing your solution?
 Present this information in a table or a Gantt chart (see pages
436-437 in your book).

Preparing proposals

 Qualifications
 Why are you qualified to submit this proposal?

 What experience do you have that relates to this

project?
 What experience do you with have with the subject?

Preparing Proposals

 Conclusion
 Briefly summarize the contents of your proposal

 Each section can be summarized in a sentence or two