Writing a proposal email

A subsidiary of English 210F: Genres of Business Communication

Dear Applicant,

I’m pleased to confirm that you’ve been offered an internship position with Living4Learning for

this semester. You’ll be joining the team of learning creatives (as we call ourselves at L4L) in the

User Experience department. Congratulations and welcome to UX! Please make sure you start

reviewing the UX resource package to familiarize yourself with the areas that we are expected to

have some expertise in.

As you already know, Living4Learning is a Waterloo-based (simulated) company specializing in

software systems for learning management and educational support. Although we’re relatively

new, this is a fast-growing market, and we’ve already signed on or had serious interest from an

impressive array of clients among major North American colleges and universities, as well as

several large corporations and professional organizations.

In our early years, we hosted an annual User Conference. It was a fun, hands-on, collaborative

environment for sharing our new product developments and getting ideas for new features from

our learning partners (a.k.a. users). Since then we have radically redesigned and expanded our

product platform, but the development pressures meant we let that personal connection with our

users slide. We need to fix that. Your major project for this term is to work collaboratively with

your departmental colleagues on drafting a proposal for a User Conference so that we can

rebuild that enthusiasm with our learning partners.

There are a lot of bases to consider, and you’ll be able to ask other departments for information

and recommendations that you can use in preparing your proposal. (You should also be ready to

offer information and recommendations on UX questions to learning creatives in other

departments as they work on their own proposal projects.) Make sure all your communications

properly cite any research material you used to help establish the credibility and authority of the

ideas.

Your Regional Manager requires your department’s completed proposal on the due date

posted in your schedule. L4L’s board will review the proposals from all regions and select the

best one to use as a blueprint for the user conference.

See the next page for instructions on making requests for your proposal. Your regional manager

has been briefed on this project and can answer any questions about it.

With best regards,

Omar Omar Aziz

Corporate Director, User Experience

100 Ross Hall Blvd.

Waterloo, ON N2J 3Q3

L e arn in g V ir tu al ly all th e T im e . We L i ve for L e a rn in g.

Making a Request (Assignment 1)

There’s a lot to think about in planning a user conference. For example: Where should we hold it?

What topics do we cover? Should we have big presentations, or small workshops? How do we

make it memorable? How do we find out if it was a “success”? You should also consider how we

can implement the plan when everyone is already so busy. Your group might think of other topics

that your proposal should include as well.

Learning creatives in other departments have expertise and information on some of these topics,

and would be happy to recommend the most appropriate options if you ask. Remember that the

more specific you can be when making a request, the more likely it is that the recipient will

understand what you are looking for and be able to make the most helpful recommendation.

For this assignment, you will choose one of the following contacts, and draft an appropriate

request. While your requests will be addressed to corporate directors, it’s unlikely that they have

time to respond themselves. Review everything you know about the project and assignment

requirements, and L4L’s corporate structure and culture, and follow the guidelines presented in the

course materials about how to make an effective, appropriate request. Work with your team to

make sure as many of the topics are covered as possible, but try to avoid overlap—two people

sending the same request to the same person is an unnecessary duplication of effort for everybody.

You will decide what medium to use for your request; if you wish to send a letter to any of the L4L

directors, use the address for the L4L Corporate Head Office on the letterhead. Email addresses

provided below. Here is the list of contacts:

Andrea Huff, Corporate Director, Marketing [email: andhuff<at>l4l<dot>sim]:

her department sources targeted promotional materials, giveaways, etc. that keep it fun for

our learning partners. She just needs to know what you are trying to achieve.

Franco Botha, Corporate Director, Customer Relations [email: fbotha<at>l4l<dot>sim]:

this department has the data on who are users are and what features they are having trouble

with. They also run hands-on training sessions for new clients.

Gordon Gluck, Corporate Director, Product R&D [email: ggluck<at>l4l<dot>sim]:

the tech-minded learning creatives in R&D built the platform, so know better than anyone

how it works now, and what new features are coming (product announcements always add

a “wow” factor!), but don’t necessarily like talking directly to users. Users want to meet

them, but how to get them involved is the big question.

Doug Schwartz, Director of Corporate Operations [email: dschwartz<at>l4l<dot>sim]:

his department does space planning, and knows what kind of space we have available at

L4L HQ for events, and what other venues are available to rent.

Devin Curtois, Corporate Director, Human Resources [email: dcurtois<at>l4l<dot>sim]:

this event will require some dedicated staffing, for planning and at the event. Let HR know

what you need and they can recommend whether we have the staff or need to hire.

A subsidiary of English 210F: Genres of Business Communication