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    Unit 7 - Proposal and Report Writing

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    Fransiska Way Warti Robertson
    The document provides guidance on writing proposals and reports. It discusses that proposals are written to address an identified problem or need, and should include research to back up the solution. Proposals typically include sections for the title, table of contents, executive summary, background, benefits, program overview, resources required, timeline, and evaluation strategies. Reports also have common elements like the purpose, methods, scope, results, recommendations, and conclusions. Effective abstracts are brief summaries that use an introduction-body-conclusion structure to highlight the key parts and conclusions of the underlying document.

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    Unit 7 - Proposal and Report Writing

    Uploaded by

    Fransiska Way Warti Robertson
    30 views16 pages
    The document provides guidance on writing proposals and reports. It discusses that proposals are written to address an identified problem or need, and should include research to back up the solution. Proposals typically include sections for the title, table of contents, executive summary, background, benefits, program overview, resources required, timeline, and evaluation strategies. Reports also have common elements like the purpose, methods, scope, results, recommendations, and conclusions. Effective abstracts are brief summaries that use an introduction-body-conclusion structure to highlight the key parts and conclusions of the underlying document.

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    Unit 7- Proposal and Report Writing

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    The document provides guidance on writing proposals and reports. It discusses that proposals are written to address an identified problem or need, and should include research to back up the solution. Proposals typically include sections for the title, table of contents, executive summary, background, benefits, program overview, resources required, timeline, and evaluation strategies. Reports also have common elements like the purpose, methods, scope, results, recommendations, and conclusions. Effective abstracts are brief summaries that use an introduction-body-conclusion structure to highlight the key parts and conclusions of the underlying document.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    30 views16 pages

    Unit 7 - Proposal and Report Writing

    Uploaded by

    Fransiska Way Warti Robertson
    The document provides guidance on writing proposals and reports. It discusses that proposals are written to address an identified problem or need, and should include research to back up the solution. Proposals typically include sections for the title, table of contents, executive summary, background, benefits, program overview, resources required, timeline, and evaluation strategies. Reports also have common elements like the purpose, methods, scope, results, recommendations, and conclusions. Effective abstracts are brief summaries that use an introduction-body-conclusion structure to highlight the key parts and conclusions of the underlying document.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 16

    Proposal and Report

    Writing
    PROPOSAL WRITING
    Proposals are written to provide solutions to an identified
    problem or need. In some cases, a proposal is written in response
    to a Request for Proposal (RFP), in which the information required
    in the proposal is supplied by the requesting organization. In
    many internal corporate settings, employees may write a
    proposal to supply a solution to a problem (identified by
    management or by the proposal writer) and request funds to
    carry it out.
    Before You Start Writing
    Before writing a proposal, appropriate research should be
    completed and documented to back up the proposal. Without
    proper research, your proposal will not be taken seriously. This
    pre-work may include researching the problem or need: has
    anyone ever tried another solution?; why is this problem
    important?; who is affected by the problem; etc. In addition, you
    will want to assess potential costs for your solution and get
    legitimate estimates to include in your proposal. You also will
    want to estimate the time involved in your proposed solution to
    put together an informed timeline.
    Parts of a Proposal
    • Title Page:
    Contains a name or title for the proposal which gives readers an idea of its
    contents
    • Table of Contents:
    provides readers an easy and quick reference to the various sections of the
    proposal
    • Executive Summary or Abstract:
    a brief summary of the contents of the proposal
    • Background (may be called “Current Situation”):
    · What is the problem?
    · What major events led up to this proposal?
    · Who identified the problem?
    · Who proposed the need for a solution?
    Benefits and/or Goals:
    ♦ The general benefits that will be derived from the proposed solution
    ♦ Goals of the proposed solution
    Program Overview:
    ♦ What activities are proposed? Can include an outline of all proposed
    activities.
    ♦ Who will carry out these activities? What are their capabilities?
    ♦ When and where will these activities occur?
    Resources Required:
    ♦ What materials, software, hardware, facilities and personnel will be
    needed?
    ♦ How much is this going to cost? (general costs or a detailed breakdown)
    Proposed Timeline:
    Detailed time schedule providing major milestones for the proposed
    solution.
    Evaluation Strategies:
    How will everyone know that the solution was successful?
    Appendix
    ♦ Supporting materials (tables, charts, reports, suppliers, bios,
    etc.)
    ♦ Project cost-benefit analysis data
    ♦ Budget with detailed breakdown of costs, if not supplied
    under “Resources Required”
    Proposals Should Be Error-Free
    Do the spell-check and grammar-check on your word-processing
    software for the first review
    Do a manual review by carefully reading through the entire proposal
    REPORT WRITING
    There are many types of reports in the business world. Reports
    that inform, persuade, recommend, etc. All should include some
    basic elements. The sections mentioned below may be named
    differently or combined as necessary, but all the information
    mentioned below should be included to make your report
    complete and understandable.
    Purpose
    Determine the main questions you must answer in this report.
    For example:
    • Does this proposal include the elements we need to change our
    company logo?
    • Will this proposal fit the current marketing budget?
    • What will need to be added or changed in this proposal to
    satisfactorily meet our needs?
    Once you have determined the main questions, and the subordinate
    questions they involve, you can formulate your statement of purpose.
    For the questions above, the statement might be: The purpose of this
    report is to determine the feasibility of accepting the proposal from
    ABC Company to change our company logo.
    Methods
    Describe the methods you used to evaluate or analyze your subject. Some of the
    methods could be benchmarking (going to other companies to “benchmark” their
    actions in a similar situation); testing (e.g., putting the product or service through
    various tests to determine its endurance or developing a pilot program to test the
    proposed program); surveying (asking a selected audience their feelings about the
    subject).
    Your organization may have a set of standard questions upon which you evaluate
    the subject. This makes this job fairly easy, but be sure you have answered all
    questions completely to satisfy this requirement
    Scope
    This would explain how big the program is and how many people
    or areas it will affect. For example, you may be evaluating a $2
    million program that will provide 20 additional jobs across the
    country.
    Results
    At this point, you provide the information you have gathered from
    your methods above, organizing it into appropriate and easy-to-
    follow segments. For example, you may organize your findings by
    Section I – Survey Method;
    Section II – Survey Demographics;
    Section III – Raw Survey Results (i.e., the numbers, no analysis).
    Recommendations
    Analyze the data you have gathered and reported in the Results Section
    and list your recommendations.
    Conclusions
    To conclude your report, you summarize all of the above in a concise
    paragraph that includes all necessary information to provide closure for
    the reader
    Writing Abstracts
    Two types of abstracts are commonly used: descriptive and
    informative.
    While the descriptive format gives a short explanation of what
    the report is about, an informative abstract gives a longer
    summary of the report and includes the conclusions presented.
    An informative abstract format is most commonly used in
    executive summaries in corporate reports.
    An effective abstract/executive summary:
    • Is brief, using one or more well-developed paragraphs—rarely
    more than a page.
    • Uses an introduction-body-conclusion structure in which the
    parts of the report or proposal are discussed in order
    • Adds no new information but simply summarizes the report
    • Is intelligible to a wide audience
    Steps For Writing Effective Abstracts
    To write an effective abstract, follow these four steps:
    1. Reread your report or proposal with the purpose of abstracting
    information in the main parts: e.g., purpose, methods, scope, results,
    conclusions, and recommendations in a report.
    2. After you have finished rereading your report or proposal, write a
    rough draft without looking back at your document. Consider the main
    parts of the abstract listed in Step 1. Do not merely copy key sentences
    from your report as this may result in too much or too little information.
    3. Revise your rough draft to
    • correct weaknesses in organization and coherence
    • drop superfluous information
    • add important information originally left out
    • eliminate wordiness
    • correct errors in grammar and mechanics.
    4. Carefully proofread your final copy.

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