199proposal

ASSIGNMENT #1: RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL
 
Draft Due:  Monday, April 19, electronically, no later than 11:59 p.m.
Send your proposal draft to ba199ibw@oregon.uoregon.edu
AND to ddusseau@oregon.uoregon.edu

DESCRIPTION

Research Project Proposal: Career Services for BA Minors

Write a project proposal to your instructor (Dave Dusseau) that outlines how you will the research the following organizational problem:

While students who minor in Business Administration are a diverse group, many choose this minor in order to make their degree "more marketable." In order to better serve these students, the Lundquist College of Business (LCB) is considering how they can support students in:

clarifying their career interests
researching their career options
preparing themselves to be successful in their chosen career
acquiring their first job

Your overall task for the entire project is to advise Dave Dusseau how the Lundquist College of Business could better serve these students in the areas listed above.

Your task in this proposal is to show how you will research the issues involved, so you will be able to recommend solution in the report you will write later.

Note #1: This is a proposal to do a research project. Do NOT recommend specific solutions to the problem - you can’t make credible recommendations until you have studied the problem. Think of yourself as a consultant Dave Dusseau has hired to do this work. The proposal is your opportunity to convince Dave Dusseau as well as your secondary audiences that you understand the problem and have a reasonable approachto investigating it. Your recommendations will be included in the next document- the report.

Note #2: This is an individual project. The other members of your group and the peer or peers who will review your proposal are useful as a resources to help you understand and improve your approach to this project.

Note#3: For specific research websites you can visit to help you research this problem, see the BA101 webpage. Use websites both from the U of O and, if possible, from outside the U of O. In addition to research on the web, I strongly recommend that you conduct some informal interviews with students who are currently minoring in business or who are considering such a minor. That will help you to understand some of their needs for career services in the four areas listed above.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS RESEARCH PROPOSAL YOU ARE WRITING?

You can view the project proposal you will write for this course as a kind of solicited, internal proposal. Dave Dusseau has identified an opportunity for this organization, The Lundquist College of Business, to review and improve its delivery of career services to a certain group of its customers -- students who choose to minor in business but major in some other field.

Your purpose is to convince readers to select your proposal over all competing proposals. In a real business setting, only one proposal would be selected. That consultant would get the contract. To earn the contract, you will need to write a proposal that will convince Dave that your approach for investigating the problem will generate the best solutions when it comes time to write the report.

WHO IS THE AUDIENCE FOR THIS PROPOSAL?

The primary audience for your proposal is your supervisor, Dave Dusseau. Yet, as is the case for all business documents, you have real, secondary audiences as well. Your BA199 business writing instructor, Ron Severson, will read your proposal, as will the tutors hired to assist you. Your project partner will read your writing and write a peer review of your first draft. Furthermore, since this is a real, organizational project, other members of the Lundquist College of Business will learn from what you write and may read your proposal. Your writing may influence future policies in this College and benefit future students. Always consider that real possibility, and imagine the needs of these audiences as you write.

USE THE FOLLOWING PROCESS TO WRITE THIS PROPOSAL:

Read all relevant information about this assignment and about writing proposals posted on the BA101 webpages and the BA199 webpages.
Discuss this project with your peer group and/or ask questions to clarify the assignment.
Write an individual rhetorical plan. (By 4/13. Save this plan for your portfolio; do not email it to us.)
Attend the BA199 class sessions related to writing the proposal.
Write an individual draft of the document.
Visit a tutor.
Edit and proofread your draft and send it to the class email address, ba199ibw@oregon.uoregon.edu
Exchange drafts with your BA199 project partner.
Complete the Peer Review Worksheet provided to help your peer improve his or her document.
Return the completed review to your peer and obtain your peer's review of your proposal. (By 4/22. For your portfolio save a copy of the review your wrote and the review you received; do not email them to us.)
Summarize the most useful comments you receive from your peer and from a BA199 writing tutor, and write a plan to revise your draft.
Revise your proposal before submitting it for a final grade in your portfolio.
Save the stages of your process (your rhetorical plan, draft, the peer review you received, the peer review your provided, revision plan, and final draft) to submit in your portfolio at the end of the term.

FORMAT THIS PROPOSAL AS A MEMORANDUM:

MEMORANDUM

Date: (Today's Date)
To: Dave Dusseau
From: Your Name
Subject: Project Proposal

STRUCTURE THIS RESEARCH PROPOSAL AS FOLLOWS:

Use the following logic or superstructure for writing your project proposal. You may use the boldtype subheadings below as subheadings in the structure of your proposal.

In an opening sentence or two, state what you propose to do.

Statement of Need: Articulate the needs of students minoring in business and the Lundquist College of Business related to career clarification, research, preparation, and acquisition. If you articulate these needs precisely, in a way that shows your unique understanding of them, your readers will read on. If your statement of need is unconvincing, business readers will read no further.

Project Objectives: Objectives will describe the characteristics of "good recommendations" or "solutions" to the needs you have identified in your statement of needs. (Again, do not provide solutions; show what any solution to be a solution must accomplish. What's your vision for excellence?)

Product Description: Describe the product you will deliver to conclude your consulting project. (In this case, you will write and deliver a formal report that includes your research findings, analyses, and specific recommendations).

Methods: Outline the methods you will use to produce this product. Include subheadings for:

Tasks: Steps needed to investigate this problem and formulate convincing recommendations.
Schedule: The timeline your propose for completing these tasks.
Qualifications: Your qualifications to complete the research project described in this proposal.
Resources: The resources you have at your disposal to help you complete this project.

Costs: State, in real terms, what this project will cost. Include different kinds of costs: monetary, labor hours, opportunity costs, etc.

INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING KINDS OF CONTENT IN EACH SECTION

In a single sentence, write what you propose to do for your client, Dave Dusseau and the Lundquist College of Business. "Acme Consulting Inc. proposes to review and improve the......etc."

Statement of Need

State why it is important for the Lundquist College of Business to research ways to help students minoring in business clarify, research, prepare for, and acquire jobs within satisfying and challenging professions. Specify not only how your research will benefit this group of students but also, in a larger sense, how it will benefit the Lundquist College of Business and perhaps employers as well. Your statement of need must convince your readers that you understand the significance, complexity, and urgency of these issues for these students, for your readers, and for others potentially impacted by your project.

Project Objectives

What overall vision do you propose the Lundquist College of Business needs to strive for when redesigning their career services for students minoring in business? Identify 4-6 measures of success that the Lundquist College of Business and the University of Oregon must establish if they are to effectively meet the needs you have identified above. Make your objectives practical. Some of them can even be measureable. It helps to organize your objectives around the areas of "clarification," "research," "preparation," and "acquistion." *See note at the end of this section.

Example of a practical objective: Help students minoring in business select and obtain jobs that meet their interests and aptitudes.
Example of a measurable objective: Increase the number of students who minor in business.

Product Description

Briefly describe the report you will submit to Dave upon completion of your project, so he knows what product or service you will deliver to him. This will be the most anticipatory section of your document since you will need to describe something you promise to do later, not something that already exists. Refer to the

report

assignment page of this BA 199 electronic textbook to help you anticipate the report you will deliver.

Methods

Tasks:
List and briefly describe the steps in you propose for researching and analyzing the ways the University of Oregon and other institutions have attempted to meet the career needs of students minoring in business.

(Note: Refer to the BA101 webpages for other sites you can research related to this problem. Also propose some of your own research methods, interviewing a select group of students, for example. The methods you propose, like the needs you identify and the objectives you envision, must all be convincing to your readers. Under methods, do not include unrealistic steps just to impress your readers. They will only be impressed by the things you will really do. And yes, you will really do the research you propose to do in this section. This is not a hypothetical case, but a real research process that meets real needs of real students at a real university.)

Timeline:
Either separately, or next to each task in the above section, identify the target date for completion of this task. If you want to have fun with a neat program, use MS Project (available in the LCB technology center) or MacProject (for Mac users) to produce a Gantt project. Project managers use these programs, and they are easy to use. The programs produce a cool, color chart of tasks and times.

Qualifications:
Summarize your qualifications to successfully complete this project. Include educational background, career experience, particular areas of expertise, previous experience on complex research projects, technical skills, cross-cultural expertise, or anything else that gives you authority as a consultant on this project. Start with your status as a student/customer of the LCB. Within consumer driven markets, that position gives you authority to speak on this issue. If you are minoring in business, too, so much the better.

Resources:
List the resources available to you, including human resources (informed persons, team members), technical resources (acess to computers, software), etc., that will help you complete this project.

Cost
Itemize and calculate the costs of completing the project you have proposed in terms of time, money, and opportunities lost. Calculate a total cost.

*Note:

Career Clarification is the process by which students develop an understanding of themselves and what they might like to do, develop an idea of some of the careers that include those activities, develop a list of industries and companies that have jobs in that career field. You also develop an idealized statement of the career requirements and characteristics called a "career profile." Career clarification services might be delivered in workshops, courses, seminars, on-line, or in other formats that you recommend.

Career (company) research is the process identifying sources of information on a number of employment related topics including: careers that are well suited to individuals with specific majors and a business minor, companies that hire in a particular career area, what those companies are like to work for (culture/climate), what do they pay, where/how do they recruit, whether they participate in formal mentoring or internship programs.

Career preparation focuses on how students prepare to be successful in a chosen career. Certainly coursework provides a framework of preparation. However, you will be asked to look at the Career Center's Outcomes Project as a way of interpreting coursework in terms of its direct application to a career. You will also need to explore exchange programs, internships, involvement in campus organizations, and other activities as they contribute to a student's career preparation.

Job Acquisition (Getting the right job) involves all the steps persons go through at this stage - Writing resumes and cover letters, getting good recommendations, building professional portfolios, contacting businesses, interviewing, obtaining green cards (for international students) following-up, networking, etc. How do students actually get jobs? How should we be preparing students who minor in business, so they have the skills necessary to acquire the jobs they want?

HOW SHOULD YOU DESIGN THIS PROPOSAL?

This proposal represents the first, longer document (3 or 4 pages) you have written for this class. It is a very important document for you and for your client, Dave Dusseau. For you, the proposal carefully defines the scope of the project and the tasks you must accomplish to complete the project. An effective proposal will provide you a roadmap to follow. For your client, the proposal works as a kind of contract that obligates you to deliver a product by a certain time.

Any transactional document – that is any document that will produce actions within an organization– must be clear, attractive, and readable. To improve the readability of your document and to insure that your readers can scan your document quickly for the information they need, you will need to design your document creatively. "Design" in business writing refers to the immediate visual appeal of your document.

Read Design in Business Writing and incorporate effective design features into your project proposal.

WHAT STYLE OF WRITING WORKS BEST IN BUSINESS PROPOSALS?

When writing longer, business documents, students often inappropriately revert to an academic writing style. They suddenly begin to write longer, more complex sentences and develop dense paragraphs packed with information. Or, they forget to use active verbs, parallel structure, and short, transitional sentences that link sections to one another. Avoid these tendencies at all costs. Write concisely.

Read Style in Business Writing and write your project proposal in an effective style for business readers.

WHAT TONE WORKS BEST IN BUSINESS PROPOSALS?

Your word choices (diction) will determine the tone of your document. In a proposal, you want to choose words that convince your readers you can complete this project competently and professionally. Winning proposals develop a confident, professional, reliable tone.

HOW WILL THIS PROPOSAL BE EVALUATED?

To meet the minimum requirements for a passing grade, your document must:

Be delivered on time.
Be formatted as a memorandum and structured as a proposal.
Use headings, subheadings and other design features to enhance readability.
Establish an effective statement of need focusing either on the needs of business minors, international students, or business majors.
Convince your audience, Dave Dusseau, that you have carefully designed your project the ways the University or Oregon and the Lundquist College of Business currently attempt to meet these needs and evidence from other universities about alternative ways of meeting these needs. Also, convince your audience that your proposal to do research is realistic and can realistically be completed within the given timeframe.
Build a persuasive and reasonable case from beginning to end.
Show evidence that you have revised, edited, and proofread your document for readability.

Final Comments:

Proposals are documents that anticipate the future.

Writing project proposals can be difficult because proposals, by nature, are anticipatory. Writers begin by defining a clear problem, need, or opportunity that currently exists within an organization, but then anticipate the best methods for investigating the problem and generating possible solutions. The process of anticipating, of planning something that does not yet exist, requires both analytical and imaginative skills. Plans rarely turn out exactly as anticipated although to maintain your credibility as a company, the product or services you deliver must closely resemble what you originally proposed to deliver.

When you write your proposal for this class, some of you will want to know exactly what you are supposed to write, even though no one has yet solved this problem. No one can tell you what to write. Business writing, like business itself, consists in taking calculated risks.

Additional advice about writing proposals:

Any proposal writer will tell you that writing an effective business proposal begins by defining the problem, need, or opportunity you are addressing in a way that points toward methods for researching and addressing the problem. Everything follows from this point of origin. If you are clear about the problem you are trying to address, your objectives, your product, your method, and the costs will emerge more clearly as well. Craft your statement of need carefully. No one can tell you exactly how to address the problem given to you. That’s the whole point of writing a proposal. Your purpose is to make the proposal you do write credible to your readers. After that, if things work out a little differently than you anticipated, for reasons beyond your control, your readers will be more inclined to accept the necessary adjustments.

A Reminder:

There are only two kinds of proposals in the real world -- those that are accepted, and those that are rejected. Make decisions in your writing that will convince your client to accept your proposal. Winning proposals define or redefine projects in ways that meet the clients' needs better than even they imagined. This is just a proposal. It's a plan, a promise to do certain kinds of work for your client. Take risks. Imagine the possibilities. Define the project in a way that interests you and meets your client's needs.

SAMPLE PROPOSAL