FOUR (4) WAYS TO WRITE A PROPOSAL

MEANING OF PROPOSAL

Proposal is a formal description of the creation, modification or termination of a contract. A proposal may serve as the blueprint for a future agreement and may be accepted or rejected by the entity or entities that receive it.

FOUR (4) WAYS TO WRITE A PROPOSAL

1.      Define your issue and solution: This should be fairly straightforward. What's the problem you're addressing? How would you like to solve it? Get it as narrow (and doable) as possible.

• Your proposal needs to define a problem and offer a solution that will convince uninterested, skeptical readers to support it
• Your audience may not be the easiest crowd to win over. Is the solution you are offering logical and feasible? What's the timeline for your implementation?

2.      Think about your audience. For starters, who are they? You need to make sure that you think about your audience and what they might already know or not know about your topic before you begin writing.

• What do you want your audience to get from your proposal? Is there an overall vibe to your proposal? How do you want them to emerge from it?
• Refine your tone to meet your audience's expectations and desires. What do they want to hear? What would be the most effective way of getting through to them? How can you help them understand what you're trying to say?

3.      Keep elements of style in mind. Depending on your proposal and who will be reading it, you need to cater your paper to fit a certain style. What do they expect? Are they interested in your problem?

• Think about the level of jargon you can employ. If the readers are educated, it can be a lot.
• How are you going to be persuasive? Do you have a topic that can use ethos, pathos, or logos? You want to touch on their emotions, but remain credible by using only facts.

4.      Make an outline. This will not be part of the final proposal, but it will help you organize your thoughts. Make sure you know all of the relevant details before you start.

• Your outline should consist of your problem, your solution, how you will solve it, why your solution is best, and a conclusion. If you are writing an executive proposal, you will need to include things like a budget analysis and organizational details.
• Make sure that your ideas are not hidden between unnecessary words.
• Use language that everyone can understand. Keep to short sentences that are clear and to the point.
• Any discussion of financial or other resources should be conducted carefully and should present a realistic picture of the expense required.