Proposal

Upload your draft by Friday @ 11:59 pm! 

Draft instructions: 

Please upload a draft of your proposal along with a detailed description of your company or organization that you are writing this for (audience). You can use the audience analysis sheet from previous assignments, or create a paragraph on your own or use this: Audience Analysis (Links to an external site.)

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A proposal is a persuasive document that offers a solution to an identified problem or need. Proposals attempt to sell an idea, a product or service, or a new concept or plan. Proposals may be brief or long. A one-page request for a room change written to a club adviser and a 2,000-page multivolume document selling a new type of amphibious tank to the Department of Defense are examples of proposals.

Proposals may be informal or formal, solicited or unsolicited. Solicited proposals are invited, that is, the awarding organization calls for proposals from interested individuals/parties, usually via an RFP. The awarding organization lays down the requirements that the proposal should contain. In many cases, a standard format is provided for the parties to submit their proposals. Unsolicited proposals are a little more detailed because they must establish more background information. In this assignment, you'll have a choice to write an unsolicited or solicited proposal. 

· Overall Goal: In this project, you will be writing a proposal for a company or agency of your choosing. It can be one that you already work for or perhaps hope to work for one day, but you should know the company in order to evaluate its issues. If you don't have a workplace in mind,  you can use Temple as your workplace. Your ultimate task is to write a persuasive proposal about a change you would like to see. You will begin by identifying a problem, issue, or conflict and providing some background on why this problem exists. You will then construct a convincing and tactful argument about why this change is both necessary and beneficial. Additionally, you will use workplace observations, informal interviews with co-workers, and academic research articles to provide support and justification for your proposal. You should view your intended audience as the people, committee(s), or governing body with the authority to enact your proposal.

· Purpose: This assignment has three main goals. First, gathering research from a variety of sources will help you to find credible evidence to support the change you will argue for in your proposal. Second, this assignment will give you practice in collecting primary-source research through close observation and interviewing your co-workers. Third, through searching for secondary source research, such as trade or academic journals and online databases, you will gain experience finding, presenting, and citing secondary-source research in your writing.

· Audience: You need to clearly define the audience in the proposal. It will either be a company of your choosing or Temple University.

 

Option 1: Unsolicited Proposal for a Company of Your Choosing

Scenario: You are working for a company that you would like to see make some changes. There are issues that you believe affect the company's morale and success. You've taken it upon yourself to write a proposal to the management team that will clearly illustrate the problem and provides a solution. You begin the process of writing the proposal. Since there is no RFP, you will choose the format on your own. 

Option 2: Solicited Proposal for Temple University's RFP

Scenario: You are an independent contractor searching for a Request for Proposal. In one of the city databases, you come across Temple University’s RFP for General Improvements for Campus Life. This RFP was created in response to Temple’s Day of Complaints, where students were asked to voice their suggestions for improvements to the Main campus. Since you are qualified to do the work, you start the process of writing your proposal. 

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RFP TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

I. INTRODUCTION 

Temple University (“TU”) is seeking responses from firms interested in providing services to TU by submitting a response to this Request for Proposals (“RFP”) for renovation and improvement projects in the Center City campus (collectively, the “Project”). The selected contractor shall develop a proposal for the various projects on this campus. 

TU will require the successful contractor to comply with TU Standards, policies, rules and procedures requiring good faith efforts in subcontracting with emerging small businesses, and minority and women-owned businesses in the Project.

II. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Each proposal should provide an explanation of the project details as outlined by the student consensus of campus issues. 

III. BUDGET AND TIMELINE

The construction budget for the components of this project is currently estimated to be between $1M - $1.5M. This budget will include all materials and labor costs, escalation, the contractor’s fee, general conditions costs, limited reimbursable expenses, payment and performance bonds, and the contractor’s contingency.

All work should be completed within 12-18 months of the proposed start date.

IV. INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPONDENTS 

Your response should be contained in a document that is approximately 4-6 pages,  including pictures, charts, graphs, tables and text you deem appropriate to be part TU’s review of your response. A table of contents, front and back covers, and blank section dividers will not be counted in the page limit. Make sure to include contact information including email for communication purposes. The response should be submitted in a digital format via the Canvas submission box.

Table 1. Format guidelines for the requested proposal. 

Aspect	Description
Font for headings	Serif or sans serif: size in accordance with the hierarchy
Font for text portion	12-point serif such as Times New Roman or Book Antiqua
Margins	Standard, at least 1 inch
Paragraphing	Indented paragraphs, line skip between paragraphs in a section
Page number	Bottom centered
Figure names	Numbered: Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, and so forth
Figure captions	Below figure in 10 point type
Table names	Numbered: Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, and so forth
Table headings	Above table in 12 point type

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Proposal Writing Process and Components

Gathering Information

There are steps required in the production of this proposal. All components are counted as part of your grade and therefore should be completed. 

1. Proposal Brainstorm & Pitch - You are required to identify an issue relevant to your workplace and briefly discuss how you might like to see it changed. The purpose of this is to generate a focus for the assignments.

2. Express-Line Observation and Reflection - This assignment has four subparts in which you will learn about the value and methodology of qualitative observational research.

· The first part of this assignment asks you to use the express checkout line at a local grocery store, paying particular attention to the details of their experience.

· Then write up a 500-word account of your observation and post it to the online discussion board.

· Next, you read the first chapter from Emerson, Fetz, and Shaw’s (1995) text, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Importantly, Emerson, Fetz, and Shaw also go on to show how, in three examples of express-line observations written by their own students, people’s accounts of similar experiences always differ from one another’s because of individual backgrounds, biases, and ways of seeing.

· Finally, you will  read at least two observations done by your classmates and write a reflection and meta-analysis that ties together the reading, their own observation, and the observations recorded by your classmates.

3. Workplace Observation - Armed with the new knowledge of observation, you are asked to conduct a short qualitative observation in their workplace in which they focus on interaction and activities related to the issue identified in their Proposal. 

4. Interviews - You are asked to interview at least one person (though more would be beneficial) or conduct one survey in your workplace to gather primary data. 

5. Secondary Research - You must gather secondary and tertiary sources that help build your proposal and make it persuasive. 

Guidelines for Content:

· Title Page 

· a. Title of project in initial capital letters 

· b. The sponsoring company and contact person’s name and information 

· c. Team name and individual member names 

· d. Date 

· Introduction/Executive Summary 

· Content: A brief summary of the proposal 

· Length: one-third to one-half page

· Statement of Need/Problem: 

· Background information to educate the reader 

· Detailed problem description, as you now understand it 

· Description of concerns, impacts, alternatives with advantages or disadvantages

· Project Description/Objectives: 

· Design specifications in specific, quantitative terms. 

· Critical design issues, constraints, limitations. 

· Detailed steps of the process, describing specific concerns and requirements of each stage

· In this section, you translate the University’s quantitative and qualitative needs into clear, objective design specifications. You describe the process of completing the work. Define the scope of work and clearly state the project objectives, including the following: 

· Timeline: A table of the length of time for each phase of the project. 

· Budget: A table that describes the full cost of all expenses, including equipment, labor costs, person hours. 

· Results expected: 

· In this section, you should describe any specific results as well as any wider benefits or anticipated benefits. 

· Contact Information and Qualifications: 

· In this section add in your company’s contact info and brag a bit about how awesome you are. Required Sections

Citations:

You can choose the citation style you use:  https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/585/02/ (Links to an external site.)   Pick a style that most closely ties in with your topic. It doesn't matter which style you use, as long as you're consistent and use it correctly.

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Grading Criteria

This assignment is worth a total of 150 points. 

The proposal should:

· Contain all the necessary steps and content

· Be formatted as a proposal with appropriate sections and headings, including a summary, description, introduction, rationale, plan, scope, methods, tasks, problem analysis, conclusion and references (cited appropriately)

· Use a respectful tone and intelligent vocabulary

· Clearly identify the chosen topic and purpose for proposing the topic

· Clearly state the significance of the topic and reason that a report should be written on that topic

· Include an appropriate amount of primary and secondary research sources that help support your argument and persuade the audience

· Be carefully edited with well-constructed sentences and effective grammar and punctuation