ENTC 3030 TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS

1. ENTC 3030TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS PROPOSAL

2. Proposal At the beginning of a project Looks forward Identifies a problem Describes a plan for solving the problem Hypothetical (“we will”) Report At the end of a project Looks backwards Identifies a solution Describes how the problem was solved Concrete (“we did”) Proposals vs. Reports

3. For many engineers and scientists, proposals are the most important form of writing. • Most academic research—and a substantial amount of industrial research—is funded through a review procedure in which written proposals are evaluated by panels of researchers from the same field. • For working scientists and engineer; proposal writing can make the difference between continued research and interruption in a long-term project.

4. Proposals set projects in motion and are often part of a cycle of documents that marks the progress of research. • They may be preceded by a pre-proposal called the white papers, an information package describing new concepts or products.

5. In many technical industries, white papers are posted on a company Web site or mailed to prospective clients, in hope of receiving a request to provide the items described.

6. The work specified in a proposal may be tracked in notebooks and progress reports. • Memoranda, reference papers, meeting minutes, and letters then keep a project in motion.

7. Proposals as Sales and Planning Documents • Proposals are written in a variety of informal and formal modes, from short memoranda to multivolume industrial bids. • An in-house proposal, written as a brief and informal memorandum, may circulate only within a writer’s organization. • An external proposal may circulate widely and be refereed by management and budget experts as well as by knowledgeable technical specialists.

8. Business plans, written to acquire funding for a technical project, are a specialized form of proposal, typically submitted to an audience that includes bank loan officers and investors as well as company management.

9. Depending on the complexity and extent of a research project, a proposal may be written by one or by many researchers. • For large industrial proposals, the production group may include, in addition to engineers and scientists, technical managers, editors, text processors, artists, and photographers.

10. Most proposals have important elements In common. • They identify a problem; • explain what work will be done to solve the problem; • name the researchers who will do the work; • argue for their qualifications; • specify a time frame, location, materials, and equipment; and • calculate a cost.

11. Most proposals are submitted to reviewers who are knowledgeable, critical, and concerned, interested in selecting strong proposals and eliminating problematic ones. • Many proposals have multiple reviewers. • The more you are asking for—the higher the stakes— the more readers you are likely to have, and the more knowledgeable and critical they will be.

12. Proposals as Persuasion • A major difference between proposals and other forms of scientific and technical literature is that proposal documents are usually entered into competitions. • The goal of every proposal writer is to win the approval and the money to go ahead with a project.

13. Because success in preparing proposals is a major factor in advancing or even maintaining academic careers, as well as staying in business, writers must overcome any reluctance to draft persuasive documents. • Proposals are mixed bags of elements— • technical descriptions, • time lines, • curricula vitae, • budget analyses, • fill-in-the-blank data sheets.

14. Think of ways to make every element in a proposal an argument for • the value of your idea, • the elegance and good sense of your work plan, the strength of your preparation, • the appropriateness of your facilities, and • the economy of your budget.

15. The successful proposal requires a narrative shaped to exhibit the strengths of your plan. • A well-developed proposal shows that the investigator has grasped a problem well enough to justify second party sponsorship of the enterprise. • The goal is to get a sponsor to spend money.

16. The usual strategy of academic proposal writers is to understate claims, trying to sound somewhat reticent and modest, cautious and competent. • In contrast, the usual strategy of industrial proposal writers and authors of business plans is to aggrandize.

17. Proposals as Projections • A proposal is a planning document that defines work commitments and establishes the criteria by which the success of a project will be determined. • You write a proposal before you know the results. • But the illusion that a proposal must foster in its reviewers is that itrepresents work for which there is already a plan.

18. Estimates of a work program, its cost, and its schedule must be convincing. • A good proposal must describe a project in enough detail to convince reviewers that they are learning what will happen at every stage of the project.

19. Of course, a proposal may include a technical design or a management plan that the bidder does not want disclosed. • In that case, a Restriction on Disclosure notice, stating that information may not be disclosed for any purpose other than to evaluate the proposal, can be printed on the title page, and every sheet of data that is also so restricted can be marked: • “Use or disclosure of proposal data is subject to the restriction on the title page of this proposal.”

20. Strategic Planning for Funding Success

21. Solicited or Unsolicited? • Proposals are said to be solicited when a sponsor formally announces that funding is available to conduct research in a specific area. • Such an announcement may be called a • Request for Proposal (RFP), • Request for Applications (RFA), or • Notice of Program Interest (NPI).

22. Proposals are considered to be unsolicited when they are submitted to an agency that has not circulated a formal request for research. • You may also be confronted with a hybrid form: • The sponsor provides explicit proposal preparation guidelines, but research topics are not specified.

23. Solicited proposals must address a problem in an area defined by the sponsor. • They will be judged by the writers’ ability to meet a specified need, to economize, and to deliver a quality product. • These proposals may be measured against their competition on the basis of originality and importance within a discipline.

24. Completely unsolicited proposals present the most severe writing challenge. • Here you have the twin tasks of persuading potential sponsors that a problem or a need exists and persuading them that yours is the right group to solve the problem or meet the need.

25. Enter the Right Competitions • Because proposal writing is absorbing and often exhausting, you need to enter the right competitions. • A proposal has the highest chance of success when itis well matched to an assessment of the sponsor’s needs. • The review process generally gives the largest number of points to projects that are responsive to the agency’s request.

26. Think in Two Time Frames • In the challenging work of proposal preparation, you need to think in two time frames: • the time you need to prepare the proposal document and • the time you need to complete the proposed research.

27. For the first time frame, some competitions have no fixed deadlines, and some do. • If you know that you cannot get a strong proposal in on time, itmay be best not to enter a competition.

28. For the second time frame, consider whether the research you are proposing is well timed for the announced term of the grant. • Funding agencies like results. • They need powerful evidence that the work you propose both requires 36 months of effort and can he completed in 36 months.

29. Read RFPs carefully, looking for information about preferred time frames. • Improve your chances of success by proposing projects that fit the agency’s guidelines about time. • Consider, too, that many agencies acknowledge that research plans have natural phases or breakpoints, and they allow for proposing specific phases of projects.

31. Progress reports are normally expected at the end of such phases, and follow-up funding for additional phases may be available.

32. Take Advantage of Help • Overcome any reluctance to take full advantage of assistance. • Many agencies encourage you to contact program personnel before preparing your proposal. • A meeting will help potential bidders determine if preparation of a formal submission is approprlate.

33. Even if the agency discourages you from proceeding, the feedback you receive may help you develop subsequent proposals.

34. Talk to colleagues who have dealt with the agency or sponsor in the past. • Review funded proposals. • Successful proposals require negotiation: • you have an idea; • you call an agency to discuss your idea; • you revise your idea.

35. With every move you narrow the gap between what the agency wants and what you have to offer.

36. If you are entering a new research area, conduct a literature search on the topic to get • a better grasp of any published findings, • relevant methodologies, and • possible collaborators or competitors. • Be sure to consider any political significance of your project.

37. Use EvaIuation Criteria as Planning Tools • When a sponsor provides criteria for evaluation of proposals, study them carefully at the planning, drafting, and editing stages.

38. To deal effectively with reviewers, you must continually consider their constraints and requirements. • If criteria for awards are not published in the RFP, itis sometimes possible to get more information by telephoning the funding organization.

39. Learn about the Review Process • Proposal writers have an important factor in their favor: • agencies and other sponsors need good project proposals.

40. When research funding is available, referee teams hope to award their support to someone. • Referees want, most of all, to be vindicated in their choices. • They have a stake in awarding funds to promising projects. • They need more than good concepts; they need evidence that you can meet claims and deadlines.

41. Proposal funding is, however, not entirely rational. • Critics of peer reviewing argue that reviewers are biased in favor of proposers at the more prestigious universities.

42. Get Approvals in Advance • Proposals that commit the resources of an institution must be approved by an appropriate administrator before they can be submitted. • Many universities have administrative units whose responsibility is the administration of contracts and grants. • These offices can provide useful guidance.

43. External approvals may be needed as well. • In industrial settings, approvals are equally important.

44. Systematic Proposal Preparation • The proposal is a written product that sets forth the design of a technical product. • The tasks of writing the proposal and those of doing the work are often analogous. • Both require a systematic approach. • Both require knowledge of logical work units. • Both require careful estimation of completion time. • Both require allocation of responsibility.

45. You can expect, therefore, that the same project management tools used to monitor the progress of writing the proposal are used later to monitor the work defined in the proposal.

46. The following preparation model applies to many kinds of proposals.

47. Study the Request for Proposal

48. The most important criteria for proposal writing are the explicit instructions in the RFP. • Follow proposal preparation instructions exactly. You must provide what the RFP asks for. • Read the RFP more than once—and if your proposal will involve other researchers or writers, be sure that all members of the group read the entire RFP, not just their own sections.

49. The instructions for proposal preparation may include a number of forms to fill out and submit with your document: • cover sheets, • budget sheets, • forms for biographical sketches, • checklists, • mailing labels.

50. Be sure to use each applicable form, following preparation instructions exactly. • Whatever the proposal, it will usually have a prefatory section with a • letter of transmittal, • cover page, • table of contents, • list of figures and tables, and • summary.