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Posts from October 2017

#FridayFact: Informative Headings Help Readers

#FridayFact: Informative Headings Help Readers published on

We’ve looked at some videos that describe how headings contribute to a document. We’ve had posts on Information-Rich Signposts and Reader-Friendly Proposals. Today’s #FridayFact continues that theme with a resource that demonstrate how specific, informative headings increase readability.

This resource from the University of Minnesota shows the differences between generic category headings, descriptive headings, and informative headings. As you examine the three kinds of headings, think about how you can apply this fact to your proposal.

Use the arrows in the upper left corner of the PDF toolbar to move from one page to another.

InformativeHeadings
 
Last updated on Wednesday, October 18, 2017

#InfographicInspiration: Scheduling with a Gantt Chart

#InfographicInspiration: Scheduling with a Gantt Chart published on

The Short Report Proposal you are working on requires a schedule for the work you propose. Document design and readability play a role in the way you communicate your schedule. Explaining the information in paragraph form makes it harder to read. Consider this example:

At least two weeks before the bowl game, decide on a time, date, and place for your party; and then send out party invitations. Two weeks before the party, focus on preparations that can be finished in advance and then pulled out quickly when game day comes. This preparation includes: Buy and/or make maroon and orange, football-themed party decorations; Find your coolers, buckets, or tubs for drinks, or borrow them from friends; Buy beverages (e.g., beer, Soda or other non-alcoholic drinks, water); Buy disposable plates, bowls, cups, cutlery, and napkins; Gather your serving platters and snack bowls; and Gather or buy bottle openers, if your beer is in bottles. If you can store ice in advance, buy ice, lots of it. The week before game day, plan food for the event, and then arrange for catering, or plan to shop for ingredients and make whatever food can be made in advance yourself. Also plan seating arrangements for the party, borrowing any additional chairs or tables needed, and gathering resources in your home. A few days before game day, do a deep clean of your party location, including cleaning furniture, ice chests, refrigerators, and so forth. The day before the game, spot clean any areas that need it. Put up decorations and set out containers (bowls, platters, ice chests, etc.) so that they are ready to fill. The day of the game, turn your attention to finishing food preparations. Be sure to keep food at a safe temperature before and during the party. If you did not buy ice in advance, buy it an hour before the party begins. Once your guests begin to arrive, relax and enjoy the game.

UGH! You don’t need to read through that oversized paragraph to recognize that the details of the schedule are hard to follow. Document design can improve that information. You can revise the information in many, more readable ways, such as

  • a table that lists dates and deliverables or tasks completed.
  • a calendar with deliverables and tasked completedwritten on the planned dates.
  • a workflow diagram that lists expected dates along with the tasks.

Another popular option is using a Gantt chart, and that is the topic of today’s #InfographicInspiration. The information below from Wrike Project Management Software gives you background and general information on how Gantt charts work. Come back on Saturday for the #WeekendWatch, which will demonstrate how to create a Gantt chart in Excel.

What is a Gantt Chart? #infographic

 

Note: This infographic needs a text-based transcript. See the Optional Accessibility Transcript Activity for more details.


 
Last updated on Wednesday, October 18, 2017

#WednesdayWrite: Review a WikiBooks Page

#WednesdayWrite: Review a WikiBooks Page published on

Adapted from an assignment by Jim Collier’s on his Technical Writing course site.

proposal by Helen Cook on Flickr, used under a CC-BY-SA 2.0 license
You have read several resources on writing business and technical writing proposals. For today’s #WednesdayWrite, you will compare what you have read to a new resource and draw conclusions about the characteristics of and strategies for writing a proposal. I have broken today’s activity in several steps to structure the task for you.

Step 1: Review Previous Readings on Proposals

By now, you have read or viewed several resources on writing proposals. Review these resources to remind yourself of the characteristics of and strategies for writing proposals:

Step 2: Read a New Resource on Proposals

Read the WikiBooks page on Proposals from the Professional and Technical Writing text. Like entries on Wikipedia, this page is an open, collaboratively-edited text. It has been written by professional writing teachers and students. Unlike a textbook from a publisher like Bedford/St. Martin’s, this online text may not be polished, accurate, or well supported by outside resources. You have to determine the trustworthiness of this kind of text.

Step 3: Compare the Resources on Proposals

Compare the characteristics of and strategies for writing proposals that are presented in your previous readings and the new WikiBooks page.

  • Look for places that the texts agree or seem similar.
  • Note the places that the texts disagree.
  • Identify any information that is only included on the WikiBooks page.
  • Record any information that is missing from the WikiBooks page.

Step 4: Evaluate the WikiBooks Page on Proposals

Use the information you gathered in Step 3 to evaluate the Proposals page on the WikiBooks site. Determine its strengths and weaknesses, and then decide whether it is a trustworthy resource. Recognize that it’s possible for the text to include both strong, accurate information and weak, inaccurate information.

Step 5: Write Your Comment & Reply to Your Classmates

Write a comment on today’s post that reviews the Proposals page on the WikiBooks site. Think of your comment as something similar to a comment on a Amazon product or a YouTube video (but leave out the mean, inflammatory stuff). Tell us what you think about the WikiBooks page on Proposals and provide some details to back up your evaluation. Once you have posted your comment, read through the comments by your classmates and reply to their ideas as you like.

Step 6: Apply What You Have Learned About Proposals

Now that you have read and compared these resources on proposals, synthesize the information to create your own list of the characteristics of and strategies for writing proposals. Apply your observations on how to write proposals to your Short Report Proposal Project.

 

Photo credit: proposal by Helen Cook on Flickr, used under a CC-BY-SA 2.0 license.

 


 
Last updated on Wednesday, October 18, 2017

#TuesdayTutorial: What to Include in Your Proposal

#TuesdayTutorial: What to Include in Your Proposal published on

Lynda.com Login Help

Lynda.com videos are free to Virginia Tech students with your VT.EDU login. Start at the VT.EDU login page to access these resources.

For your #TuesdayTutorial, I’m sharing a series of videos on Lynda.com that goes over the different parts that go into a proposal. Altogether, the videos will take 28m53s of your time. The videos includes all of the following:

  • Overview of proposal parts (4m40s)
  • Prefatory parts (5m28s)
  • Body parts (5m7s)
  • Ending parts (4m31s)
  • Appended parts (4m22s)
  • Visuals (4m45s)

Log in to see the video. A preview is below:


Writing a Proposal by Judy Steiner-Williams

 


 
Last updated on Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Organizing and Writing Your Proposal

Organizing and Writing Your Proposal published on

This is the post for the week of October 16, 2017.

Gantt chart example by Vheilman from Wikimedia Commons, used under a CC-BY-SA 3.0 licenseI hope everyone had an enjoyable Fall break. It’s the half-way point in the term, so we’re getting closer and closer to the last day of class. This week we are picking back up on the Short Proposal project. As a reminder, your Short Proposal tells me what kind of writing you will focus on in your Genre Analysis Report.

Readings for the Week

This week’s readings are specific sections from your online texts that focus on the organization of your proposal. Even short proposals will include most of these sections. To prepare for the workplace, review all of the following information. Sections marked with an asterisk are required in your short proposal:

Tasks for the Week

  1. Practice the process of organizing a proposal with the Business Proposal Package Activities from City University of Hong Kong. Try all four of the Activities at the bottom of the page. They are drag-and-drop and multiple choice style activities, which work as a self-test on your understanding of proposal structure..
    • TIP: The last of the four activities asks you to organize text into the correct order. You need to scroll down to the bottom to see the chunks of text.
  2. Complete steps 3 and 4 of the Proposal.
    • You should have completed steps 1 and 2 before Fall Break. If you did not finish, do so now.
    • Write a full draft of your proposal this week, including all the required sections. Follow the details in steps 3 and 4.
      • TIP: For an easy way to begin drafting your proposal, I recommend copying the required section details from the assignment and pasting it into your word processor. That process will give you the details you need to include within the document, so you an begin adding your specific information under each heading.
    • Be prepared to post the full draft of your proposal for feedback from your Writing Group on Wednesday, October 25.
  3. By 11:59PM on Friday, September 20, write your 10/20 Labor Log in Canvas. Your log this week covers October 7 to October 20 (because of Fall break). Specific questions for your log are included in Canvas. The grace period for your log entry ends at 11:59 PM on Monday, October 23.

 

Photo credit: Gantt chart example by Vheilman from Wikimedia Commons, used under a CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.

 


 
Last updated on Monday, October 16, 2017

#WeekendWatch: Reader-Friendly Proposals

#WeekendWatch: Reader-Friendly Proposals published on

Lynda.com Login Help

Lynda.com videos are free to Virginia Tech students with your VT.EDU login. Start at the VT.EDU login page to access these resources.

Today’s #WeekendWatch demonstrates how Reader-Friendly Design (4m40s) can improve a proposal, making it more likely that readers will consider the document fully.

The video shows a before and after version of a chunk of text from a proposal and walks through the changes that make the original document easier to read. The video shows why it’s important to pay attention to paragraphing, headings, and document structures like bullet lists for a reader-friendly design.

Watch the video for more information on strategies that you can apply in your short proposal.

Screenshot of the opening image from the Lynda.com video on Reader-Friendly Design in Proposals

 

Note: This video has closed captioning, so it does not need a transcript.


 
Last updated on Tuesday, October 10, 2017

#FridayFact: Proposal Readers Don’t Want Suspense

#FridayFact: Proposal Readers Don’t Want Suspense published on

The Psycho House by Steve on Flickr, used under a CC-BY-SA 2.0 licenseIf you want a positive response to your proposal, be up front with the key information. Don’t keep your readers in suspense, waiting for the details.

The Harvard Business Review (HBR) article “Don’t Make Your Innovation Proposal into a Hitchcock Movie” explains that readers don’t like to wait for the details in a proposal. Suspense works well, the author Scott Anthony argues, for movies like Hitchcock’s Psycho, but proposal readers want the key information right way. Anthony explains, “You simply cannot leave them waiting and wondering about what you want to do and what you need.”

Just as yesterday’s #InfographicInspiration suggested, audience awareness can make or break your proposal. Your document has to give readers what they want and need. “The One Unbreakable Rule in Business Writing,” according to Harvard Business Review’s Tucker Max, is that your document “has to be about the reader, not about you.” Read the article for three questions that will help you make sure you meet your reader’s expectations.

 

 

Photo credit: The Psycho House by Steve on Flickr, used under a CC-BY-SA 2.0 license


 
Last updated on Wednesday, October 18, 2017

#InfographicInspiration: Advice on Proposals

#InfographicInspiration: Advice on Proposals published on

Today’s #InfographicInspiration is very straightforward. You will find six categories of tips, with three additional details for each tip.

You should notice that paying attention to your readers is important for proposals. When you write a proposal, you are trying to convince someone to do something. You might want them to buy your product or service. You might want them to try a new way of doing something. You might want them to choose you (or your company) for something. Your persuasive skills in these situations will make or break your proposal. That’s why paying attention to your readers is so important: You can’t persuade someone if you aren’t paying attention to their interests.

The short proposal that you are writing for your next project needs to persuade me that the topic for your Genre Analysis Report is a good choice for you. Your audience is me, so use the tips in the infographic below to persuade me that you have chosen a kind of writing that will be useful to you in the future.

6 Tips to Write a Winning Proposal

 

Note: This infographic needs a text-based transcript. See the Optional Accessibility Transcript Activity for more details.


 
Last updated on Tuesday, October 10, 2017

#WednesdayWrite: Midterm Evaluation

#WednesdayWrite: Midterm Evaluation published on

Course Evaluation Day. Finally I Have My Revenge!Since it’s the middle of the term, I want to invite you to tell me how you feel about the course so far.

For your #WednesdayWrite, add a comment that tells me how you feel about the course so far. You can also reply to a comment someone else has made. It’s useful to know if a lot of you are interested in the same thing.

Possible Questions

I will share some questions you can answer if you like; however, you are free to comment in whatever way you like. Don’t feel limited by the questions.

  • What do you love about the course?
  • What do you hate about the course?
  • How can I help you learn better?
  • What can you do to do better in the course?
  • What is most helpful to you about the course?
  • Is there anything you wish the course would cover? What?
  • “Stop, Start, Continue”:
    • What do you want to stop in the course?
    • What would you like to start?
    • What would you like to continue?

Please Be Honest

I will not use your comments against you, nor will your comments help you. Just be honest, and give me some details to support what you say. Here’s an example:

Not Very Helpful
This class sucks! [This response doesn’ let me know what I need to do to improve.]

Helpful
This class sucks because I prefer multiple choice quizzes to writing projects.

Naturally, I cannot make every change you might like. I can’t eliminate writing projects, for example, since this is a writing course. I will take your suggestions seriously and make changes that the majority of people want if possible however.

Private Suggestion?

If you want to tell me something about the course privately, send me a private message in Slack.

 

 


 
Last updated on Tuesday, October 10, 2017

#TuesdayTutorial: Proposal Overview

#TuesdayTutorial: Proposal Overview published on

Lynda.com Login Help

Lynda.com videos are free to Virginia Tech students with your VT.EDU login. Start at the VT.EDU login page to access these resources.

The posts this week provide more information about proposals. Some of the information, like today’s tutorial, include information that expands beyond the basic details you need to write your short proposal for this class. Since you are likely to write more than one kind of proposal once you enter the workforce, today’s thorough details are sure to come in handy

This week’s #Tuesday Tutorial, the Lynda.com video Overview of Business Proposals (5m25s), introduces the four different types of proposals and goes on to discuss common proposal characteristics such as document structure, the necessary length, and audience needs.

As you watch the video, consider how the information relates to the short proposal that you will write. Since you will write about different kind of writing and for different reasons, how can you apply the information the video shares? If you have experience writing proposals in the workplace or elsewhere, how does your experience match the information in the video?

Screenshot of the opening screen of the Lynda.com video Overview of Business Proposals
Screenshot of the opening screen of the Lynda.com video Overview of Business Proposals

 

Note: This video has closed captioning, so it does not need a transcript.


 
Last updated on Tuesday, October 10, 2017

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