Advanced Technical English

1. Advanced Technical English Lecture 11 Proposals March 2016 Mohammed Alhanjouri

2. What is a proposal? A proposal is document which outlines a problem and proposes a detailed plan to solve it. The goal of a proposal is to persuade readers that the job needs doing and that you are the one to do it, so be sure to include all the benefits as well as the limitations of your solution. Try to foresee and counter any arguments against the solution.

3. Overview • A proposal is a strategy for solving a problem. • Proposals range from 1000 page report to one page form. • Two types: • Solicited • Unsolicited • Proposal purposes are to persuade not inform. • The writing involves individual as well as teams.

4. TWO MAIN TYPES OF FUNDED RESEARCH • Research you really want to do: Find sponsor! • Topics some sponsor wants to see done: Respond to RFP

5. What should the proposal accomplish? • FOR SCIENTIFIC AGENCIES: Need to convince reviewers of scientific merit, and of your qualifications and ability to successfully make an important contribution to the state-of-the-art. • FOR SPECIFIC TOPIC RFP’s: Need to convince sponsoring agency that you understand the problem, that you have a realistic approach that is likely to succeed, that could be implemented, and that you will deliver results that will make them look good.

6. Solicited Proposal • Company or agency advertises that it desires the solution to a problem. • Most cases, this company or agency sends out a request for proposals, often called an RFP, that presents a problem which needs addressing For example, if the Department of Energy desires research on reducing nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel engines, then the Department announces its request, often in periodicals such as the Commerce Business Daily.

7. Unsolicited Proposal • There is no request. Instead, an engineer on his or her own initiative recognizes a client's problem, writes a proposal that first makes the client aware of the problem, and then presents a plan for solving that problem. • Often occur within a company. For example, an engineer or scientist may write a proposal to his or her division supervisor suggesting a new computer system to handle that division's work

8. Aim of the proposal • Explain your plans • Why this work is worth while While preparing: • focus on your work • Get early feedback

9. Audiences of Proposals includes both managers and engineers. These audiences view proposals in different ways. • Managers review proposals to see if the plan for solving the problem is cost effective. • Engineers and scientists, on the other hand, review proposals to see if the plan is technically feasible.

10. Proposal Writing • Make sure your proposal is letter perfect and in full compliance with the application guidelines. • Use the active, not the passive voice wherever possible. • Write clear, concise sentences. • Use tables, charts, and side-headings to divide/organize/format your text. • Find both expert readers in your field, and professionals who will critically review your drafts.

11. Format Of Proposal • Headings • Body

12. Heading To: Name of your advisor From: Your name Subject: The subject of your proposal Date: date of submission

13. Example Of Heading A PROPOSAL Research the Storage Facilityfor Spent Nuclear Fuel at Yucca Mountain Prepared for Walter E. Foerster, Jr. President of New England Etching 23 Spring Street Holyoke, MA 01040 By Holohan Consulting,  72 Triangle Street Amherst MA 01002  December 12, 1996 

14. Body Divide your body to sections: I. Introduction II. Statement of the problem III. Proposed project and purpose IV. Plan of activities with deadlines V. Evaluation VI. References

15. I. Introduction • Summarize your project • Explain why you are proposing it

16. Example of Introduction Nuclear power plants produce more than 20 percent of the electricity used in the United States [Murray, 1989]. Unfortunately, nuclear fission, the process used to create this large amount energy, creates significant amounts of high level radioactive waste. More than 30,000 metric tons of nuclear waste have arisen from U.S. commercial reactors as well as high level nuclear weapons waste, such as uranium and plutonium [Roush, 1995]. Because of the build-up of this waste, some power plants will be forced to shut down. To avoid losing an important source of energy, a safe and economical place to keep this waste is necessary. This document proposes a literature review of whether Yucca Mountain is a suitable site for a nuclear waste repository. The proposed review will discuss the economical and environmental aspects of a national storage facility. This proposal includes my methods for gathering information, a schedule for completing the review, and my qualifications.

17. II. Statement of the Problem • What is current state of technology? • What is The need or problem? • Why do you want to address this problem? • Why is it significant? • Who should care and why? • Provide examples and/ or supporting evidence Including references • Briefly review current work

18. III. Proposed project and purpose • State your proposed project • Its goals • Your approach

19. IV. Plan of Activities with deadlines • List your major activities • Make a schedule for your work • List specific items you will produce as part of your project device, test report, instructions, or running computer programs

20. V. Evaluation Proposals will be evaluated in three ways: from a management perspective and from a technical perspective Also considered in the evaluation of the proposal will be the quality of the writing

21. Management Evaluation • Is the review worth doing? • Does the proposal either show an important problem that needs addressing or arouse the reader's curiosity in the topic? • Does the proposal show what readers will be interested in the review? • Does the proposal show objectivity?

22. Technical Evaluation • Are the boundaries of the review logical? • Does the review take on too much or too little? • Are the limitations clear? • Is there something unique about the proposal's perspective? • Does the writer convince the proposal reviewers that he or she can gather the information? • Is the schedule believable? • Does the writer justify himself or herself as the one to perform the review?

23. VI.References • List all your references • Glossary If any

24. Recommendations • For a proposal to succeed, you need a good idea. No amount of crafted writing can make up for a weak idea. • If you have a strong idea, then crafting the writing of that idea to meet the constraints will improve your proposal's chances for acceptance.

25. Recommendations • What is it that you have that will allow you to succeed where others may have failed, or to make a unique contribution that others could not attain within the same time frame? • Be constructive (diplomatic) in reviewing others’ work; don’t blast all previous work, don’t be dismissive and definitely don’t single out anyone with scorn. Chances are they are reviewing your proposal.

26. Be constructive BAD:All previous studies are worthless because they failed to recognize the effect of X on Y. Chen and Smith (1998) tried but their approach was simply wrong. Ours is the first study to address this question correctly. BETTER:Previous studies have made important contributions to this challenging problem, however none of the published studies appear to have completely accounted for the effect of X on Y. A pioneering effort in this direction is described by Chen and Smith (1998), highlighting the need for additional investigation of the system properties when the full set of interacting factors are incorporated in the model.

27. Are You Ready For Your Next Assignment (# 4) Write a proposal for your formal report Due Saturday for next week at class time (March 19, 2016) Good luck

28. Quiz • What are the types of proposal? • What are evaluation perspectives for proposal?

29. Quiz • How we can evaluate the Proposal?