The engineering proposal was our last major project. It focused on audience most of all, and was also simply the most extensive paper. A proposal is a formal suggestion that an organization, often a company, take some kind of action or enter into some kind of business agreement. This document must be meticulously researched and well-written in order to convince the reader(s) to take such big steps. An internal proposal is one conducted only within an organization, and is often intended to incite certain initiative or behavior on the part of that organization or other members of the organization. The writer must convince the organization that this action will benefit it. An external proposal is one directed towards another organization and usually argues for why two different entities should work together and/or why one entity is well-equipped to work for the other on a given project. Either form should be extremely persuasive and should convince the reader as to the reliability of the writer(s). Proposals usually include:
- Introduction – launches into the main idea/topic of the proposal and summarizes some key points
- Problem Statement – description of problem at hand and who (and where) it affects
- Background – information necessary to understand either the problem or the solutions
- Needs Statement – essentially dives further into the exigence, provides pathos
- Objectives – outline of main goals of the work
- Solution – the writer’s response to the problem, often a detailed section that describes the design and implementation of any measures (often proprietary methods/products) that will be taken to improve the situation
- Deliverables – outline of the updates that the reader can expect as to the progress of the work as well as a general account of what they will get out of it
- Resources – things that the writer has access to as well as a discussion of anything that needs to be obtained/provided by the reader
- Management – detailed outline of how the project will be managed/overseen, including personnel and work practices
- Guidelines – rules by which the writers and workers will abide by and by which the work will be conducted, as well as quality assurance measures
- Schedule – expected timeline of the work to be completed
- Qualifications – at some point in the proposal, some background on the writers should be offered to indicate reliability as well as ability to complete the stated work
An engineering proposal leverages technical expertise in suggesting work and offering details. Our proposal used our civil and environmental “expertise” in order to make a compelling case for why the work needs to be done, that it could be done efficiently and cheaply, and that we are the best ones to carry it out. In my revisions I went through the document and cleaned up any minor problems in punctuation and the like, including in citations. I also revised several sentences and improved clarity, and most significantly, I overhauled the architecture design to some extent. In addition to the proposal document, I have also revised the complementary slide presentation by adding an additional slide and changing several others to improve flow in the architecture design section.
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