Proposal Report due Dec 3 (OR due Dec 8 -- your choice)

This assignment brings together all of the skills and experience that you've practiced throughout the semester.  Your group will create a formal proposal report (as described in Chapter 19 of the textbook) for a very specific audience to achieve a very specific goal.

Think of this assignment as a final exam for the course.  Use all the audience and goal analysis, grammar, style, organization, and practical management skills you've practiced all semester to create a great final product with a minimum of time and effort.

Your group proposal report will analyze a problem or issue and argue for a certain specific course of action or viewpoint based on this analysis.  Keep in mind that this is a hypothetical report.  You will not actually send this report to the audience.  You will simply pretend that you will.  You will also not actually implement a solution to the issue or problem you describe.  Instead, you will simply describe how a group could go about attempting to solve the problem you present.  Alternatively, you might not even offer a specific solution.  You could, for example, simply describe how a group would go about studying the problem in more depth to develop a solution.  For a more complete discussion of these types of documents (Markel calls them "recommendation reports"), look in the textbook (particularly pp.484-486).

Defining a clear, focused, easily researchable issue or problem is a critical first step to success in this assignment.  Think about choosing an issue from your school experience, your workplace, your community involvement, or something else that you are personally familiar with.  Try to deal with something local that you already know about.  If you really want to do a project based on a general subject or issue, try to find a way to apply the subject to local circumstances (a neighborhood or community) or to someone you know (a group of friends, colleagues, or co-workers).

Keep in mind that a really focused and specific issue or problem statement will make the whole project easier.  For example, you might consider defining a narrow problem statement that applies directly to a group of people that you can actually meet with.  You would then be able to very easily and quickly create small surveys or conduct some interviews to provide very specific data for supporting your conclusions or recommendations.  This kind of primary research can produce very convincing proposals.  Therefore, think about who you might contact or interview for information when you consider what to research.  Also, think about relatively simple and straightforward (but very convincing) primary research like diagrams and photographs.  If you plan carefully, you'll discover that it is actually pretty easy to fill fifteen or so pages of a formal report no matter how small your issue might at first appear.

Finally, your report will be written for a specific audience that you will define.  You will need to directly address your proposal report to an person who represents this audience.  You won't have to actually send your report to this person, but writing to someone specific will make it much easier to edit the report for tone and content.  It will also make your final proposal report potentially quite useful for real people looking for possible solutions to difficult local problems.

You're handing in ONE thing for this assignment:

1. A proposal report (about fifteen total pages or longer)

1. Proposal Report

Your group will write, edit, and submit a proposal report (about fifteen or more pages).  You need to look at and work through the problem-solving exercises detailed in Markel Chapter 19 (pp.486-494) to create an effective proposal report.  I will evaluate your group proposal report in part based on how clearly it incorporates these questions and criteria described in Chapter 19.

In terms of organization, your report might include any of the following standard formal report sections:

• Letter of transmittal (if appropriate)

• Title page

• Informative abstract or Executive summary

• Table of contents

• List of illustrations (if appropriate)

• Introduction (background, problem, solution, criteria, purpose statement, overview of the rest of the document, or other pertinent information)

• A methods section (description of how you did or would research the issue and/or solution)

• A results section (if you performed preliminary research)

• An analysis section (evaluation of proposed solution or comparison of several options)

• A conclusion and/or recommendation section

• A qualifications section (if appropriate)

• Glossary (if appropriate)

• References

• Appendices (if appropriate)

Your report will almost certainly be VERY DIFFERENT from this standard generic organization.  Remember that the sections listed above are standard generic sections for a very generic report.  Your report will be written for a very specific audience to achieve a very specific goal.  As a result, it will almost certainly not have all of these generic sections.  In addition, the specific sections in your report will almost certainly have much more descriptive names (for example, you might have a section called "How We Researched This Report" instead of a "Methods" or "Qualifications" section).

Whatever content your report includes, it will incorporate all of the guidelines for grammar, tone, clarity, organization, and other technical communication considerations that we’ve practiced throughout the semester.  Again, think of this final group report as a final exam project.  Show what you've learned throughout the semester.

Use your existing resources effectively. Many portions of the final proposal report can very likely be taken from previous proposal assignments.  Remember that the assignments for this course are designed to build on each other.  Use this feature smartly.

Include only the information you think your audience will need. Put more detailed but less critical information into appendices.

Edit and proofread carefully. The proposal report can be a big project, and you might be sick of looking at it in the last week before it is due. However, the difference between a good report and an excellent one is often a last few days of focused editing. First, be sure you let the report sit overnight before your final revision. Then go through the whole document and make sure each section is clear, consistent, complete, and in its proper place.  Finally, nominate one person to do a final check of organization, grammar, and spelling.  Don’t put this final step off to the last minute, and plan on getting outside help from me or from the writing center.

Make certain you clearly show an understanding of the reader's needs.  Audience analysis is critical to an effective proposal.  What do you know about your audience that can help you present the problem and your solution in a way that the audience will understand and appreciate?  How can you show your audience the advantages of your proposal?  Clearly defining who your audience is and what they are interested in will help you to write a much more focused, convincing, and effective proposal.  It will determine how you organize the proposal, the language and style you use, and the information and arguments you include.

Integrate research into the discussion of the problem and the rest of the proposal.  You can't write a convincing proposal if you don't clearly convince the audience that you know what you’re talking about.  Use other sources besides your own opinion when you talk about what is known and not known about your subject.  Because your reader wants to know whether or not to approve your plan, they might need additional background and a clear explanation of things like:

• What problem are you trying to solve?
• What criteria did you use to analyze potential solutions?
• What information shows that you’ve actually researched the problem and the potential solution?

Be specific in describing what you plan to do.  Don’t leave your audience wondering why the solution you’re describing is the best course of action, or what the outcome might be.  Instead, tell them by answering these questions yourself.

Demonstrate your professionalism.  Show that you are competent by including the kinds of information your audience is interested in and making sure that the proposal is professionally edited and carefully put together.  In short, provide a clear, comprehensive, and effective overall document.

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