This is the post for the week of March 12, 2018.

Notes for the Week

• I hope you had an enjoyable Spring Break. This week we pick back up on the Short Proposal project, which tells me what kind of writing you will focus on in your Genre Analysis Report.
• Thank you for the midterm evaluation feedback. I have several aspects of the course that I am working to improve based on what you had to say. I will write an extra this week to update you on the changes and improvements.

Readings for the Week

This week’s readings are specific sections from your online textbooks that focus on the organization of your proposal. Even short proposals will include most of these sections. To prepare for the workplace, review all of the following information. Sections marked with an asterisk are required in your short proposal:

• From Business Communication for Success
  • 9.3 Business Proposal (scroll down to Table 9.2 Business Proposal Format)
• From Online Technical Writing
  • Common Sections in Proposals (The links below are on the same page)
    • Introduction *
    • Background *
    • Benefits and feasibility
    • Description of the proposed work * (Areas to be studied)
      
    • Method, procedure, theory *
    • Schedule *
    • Qualifications *
    • Costs, resources required
    • Conclusions *
    • Special project-specific sections
  • Organization of Proposals
• From Purdue: Planning and Organizing Proposals and Technical Reports (PDF)

Tasks for the Week

1. Practice the process of organizing a proposal with the Business Proposal Package Activities from City University of Hong Kong. Try all four of the Activities at the bottom of the page. They are drag-and-drop and multiple choice style activities, which work as a self-test on your understanding of proposal structure.
• TIP: The last of the four activities asks you to organize text into the correct order. You need to scroll down to the bottom to see the chunks of text.
2. Complete Steps 1, 2, and 3 of the Short Proposal assignment.
• TIP: For an easy way to begin drafting your proposal, I recommend copying the required section details from the assignment and pasting it into your word processor. That process will give you the details you need to include within the document, so you an begin adding your specific information under each heading.
• Be prepared to post the full draft of your proposal for feedback from your Writing Group on Wednesday, March 21.
• If you have questions about the assignment, post them in the Short Proposal Questions Discussion in Canvas. If you have a question you want to ask privately, you can send me a private message in Canvas or email tengrrl@vt.edu.
3. Watch for daily discussion posts this week and add a comment if you like. We will have posts on these topics this week:
   • #TuesdayTutorial: What to Include in Your Proposal
   • #WednesdayWrite: Review a Wikibooks Page
   • #InfographicInspiration: Scheduling with a Gantt Chart
   • #FridayFact: Informative Headings Help Readers
   • #WeekendWatch: Creating a Gantt Chart
   • Course Improvements and Changes
4. By 11:59PM on Friday, March 16, write your 03/16 Labor Log in Canvas. Your log this week covers March 3 to March 16 (because of Spring Break). You were not required to do any work during Spring Break, but if you did, be sure to record it.. The grace period for your log entry ends at 11:59 PM on Monday, March 19.

Photo credit: Gantt chart example by Vheilman from Wikimedia Commons, used under a CC-BY-SA 3.0 license. This image has a description, so it does not need a transcript.