Developing Proposals

1
Developing Proposals

• Winning Your Audience

2
Proposals as Persuasion

• We write proposals to persuade audiences to act
  in a particular way
• To fund a project (e.g. asking a granting agency
  such as NSF to fund your reserach)
• To approve a project (e.g. asking a manager
  within your department to approve a process
  modification)
• To accept a product (e.g. trying to win a
  contract for a specific job)

3
Elements of Persuasion

• To persuade someone to decide in your favor, you
  need to convince them of several things
• That a need exists (research) or that you
  understand the need (contract)
• That your proposed project meets that need
• That your project is viable
• That the benefits outweigh the costs
• That you are capable of completing the project
• Bottom Line Do the benefits (tangible and
  intangible) outweigh the costs?

4
Expectations Proposal Structures

• Summary brief statement of the need, the
  project, the benefits, and the costs
• Statement of Need an explanation of why the
  work needs to be done
• Research proposals Prior work, background
  information, gaps, impacts
• Contract proposals Review of RFP/RFB

5
Structure of Proposals (contd)

• Project Description
• Overview (what the project is)
• Deliverables (concrete outcomes)
• Justification (how it meets the need)
• Benefits (why it is valuable/better)
• Implementation or approach (the plan)
• Schedule
• Budget
• Qualifications

6
Knowing Your Audience

• To persuade an audience to act, you need to first
  analyze that audience
• Who makes the final decision?
• What is the audiences knowledge base?
• Why does the audience care? What is their stake
  in the outcome?
• What are the criteria (explicit and implicit) for
  decision-making?
• What constrains the decision?
• Is the decision merit-based or competitive?
• What biases, values, predispositions, etc. does
  your audience have?

7
Knowing Your Tools

• Winning proposals rely on three types of appeals
• Appeals to Logic support your claims with the
  facts of the case
• Appeals to Emotion support your claims by
  connecting your work to your audiences value or
  beliefs
• Appeals to Credibility support your claims by
  helping the audience believe you

8
Tips for Developing Content

• Review all relevant documents from your audience
• Research information to support both the need and
  the project description
• Brainstorm all possible benefits and costs, and
  highlight those most important to your audience

9
Effective Research/Design Proposals.

• Support the need for the project with a review of
  the relevant literature
• Provide a concrete set of deliverables in
  response to the need, including sure bets as
  well as ideals
• Demonstrate a well-thought-out approach to
  meeting the need
• Give the reader confidence in the investigators
  knowledge and ability
• Clearly account for all spending requests
• Build common ground with the audience

10
Building Common Ground

• To reach your audience, you need to think and
  write on their terms
• Use your audiences language
• Explain all unfamiliar terms
• Read between the lines and address the audiences
  values as well as their stated needs or
  expectations

11
Making Your Proposal Readable

• Use meaningful headings and subheadings to
  organize your text
• Meaningless Literature Review
• Meaningful Curriculum Planning in Engineering
  Since 1990
• Use lists to help highlight key information
• Deliverables
• Critical needs
• Benefits
• Use graphics to illustrate key concepts
• Use tables and charts to illustrate plans
• Schedule
• Budget