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

I 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:

• From Business Communication for Success
  • 9.3 Business Proposal (scroll down to Table 9.2 Business Proposal Format)
• From Online Technical Writing
  • Common Sections in Proposals
    • Introduction *
    • Background *
    • Benefits and feasibility
    • Description of the proposed work * (Areas to be studied)
      
    • Method, procedure, theory *
    • Schedule *
    • Qualifications *
    • Costs, resources required
    • Conclusions *
    • Special project-specific sections
  • Organization of Proposals
• From Purdue: Planning and Organizing Proposals and Technical Reports (PDF)

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.