Proposal Writing – How to Win the Assignment
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What a proposal is and what a proposal doesThere are two fundamental considerations for every proposal: what goes into it and how it’s presented.
Every project proposal contains at least some of these elements, though not necessarily in this order: cover letter, title page, table of contents, credentials and qualifications, statement of the problem and rationale for undertaking the job, goal(s) and supporting objectives, plan of operation, work or product measurement and evaluation, summary, cost, and appendices. How you organize, write, and deliver your proposal is essential to its success.
A proposal is nothing more than a tool that you use to get an assignment. It should not be a blueprint for doing the job. After all, you certainly don’t want to give away everything you know in your proposal so that your potential client or supervisor can simply pick it up and hand it over to someone else to implement. There is often a fine line between telling what you plan to do and telling how you plan to do it. The most effective proposals march boldly up to that line…and stop.
Summarize up frontBegin your proposal with an executive summary, preferably one that’s no more than one page in length. Obviously, it’s much easier to write the summary after the proposal is complete; doing so at the outset generally means extra work making revisions later on. In all likelihood your direction will change somewhat as you construct the document’s various parts.
The summary is not a substitute for the proposal itself. Rather, it is a quick and concise reference to what the proposal contains. Sometimes called an abstract, outline, or précis, the summary is a condensed statement of what the full proposal contains. During a personal presentation, it is useful both as an introduction and a wrap-up. Later on if it becomes necessary to return to the proposal for clarification of certain points, the summary serves as a convenient memory jogger. For these reasons you might consider using bulleted points when formatting your summary.
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