Making proposals is a very common task in business, and in this lesson we'll be looking at how to create a written proposal. This lesson will also be useful for the later capstone for this specialization. Here are the learning objectives. By the end of this lesson you'll be able to describe the organization of written proposals, list the questions to determine the tone and content of a proposal, identify vocabulary to make recommendations and list possible outcomes, and identify ways to improve the readability of a proposal. Written proposals can be anything from a simple email to a large document, but they all do basically the same thing. They make a recommendation for future action with reasons to support that recommendation. A successful proposal will persuade the readers to take that action. In business, written proposals may be a formal response to a request for proposal or RFP. For example, company A wants to redesign its website and will invite outside web design companies to make a proposal to do that work, so company A writes a request for proposal or RFP. These kinds of proposals usually follow a standard format and organization based on the specific requirements of that company requesting the proposal. Company A will evaluate and then choose the web design company that it wants to hire. Therefore, the writers of the proposals will be trying to persuade company A that their product or service is better. We aren't going to be talking about these very specific proposals in this lesson, but the guidelines and language will certainly be useful if you do need to write them in English.

What we're going to be looking at is an internal proposal where there is a recommendation for the company to take some kind of future action to solve a problem or satisfy a need. For example, your company sees a need to open a new store and wants a written proposal. You write a proposal, then the management evaluates the proposal and decides whether to accept it. These kinds of proposals might be the result of a brainstorming meeting where participants try to solve a problem or come up with a new idea. Once they have some ideas, they might make a proposal to a management team where it might be discussed at a decision-making meeting. As we mentioned before, the proposal could be made in an email message, a letter or a member, or a more formal report. In all these formats, however, the basic organization is still the same, so let's look at that basic organization. The first thing that you should include is an introduction. An introduction should deal with the following questions. Why? That means it should include the purpose of the proposal. What? That means it should give an idea of the content and organization of the proposal and sometimes who. That means the person or people responsible for writing the proposal. The introduction sometimes is just one or two sentences for a short proposal that can be longer for more complicated ones.

Sometimes proposals are made in longer formal reports. In this case, there usually will be something called an executive summary. An executive summary summarizes the whole report, including the recommendations. This allows the reader to quickly get the main information without having to read the complete report. An executive summary is at the start of the report. The next part of a written proposal should include a background to the situation. This section explains the need for the proposal. For example, the fact that a company has been losing money might be included in the background to a proposal recommending the closure of a store. The background would also include details of the current situation. For example, information that a new subway station has just opened would be included in the background of a proposal to open a new store in the same area. The background section can also include what has already happened. For example, include the fact that a decision was made at last month's meeting to close one store and relocate to another area in a proposal to open the new store next to the train station.

If a proposal includes a recommendation based on some research, there should also be a section to include the findings or results of that research. For example, if we want to open a new store, we might want to do some research on the number of people passing the proposed location. For a simple proposal, with one recommendation, we then make the recommendation after any research findings. Then, after making the recommendation, explain what the positive outcomes would be or the negative outcomes if the recommendation is not accepted. Sometimes, you might have more than one option available. In this case, the organization of the proposal would be to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each option and then make any recommendation for the best option. If you're writing a proposal as an email or in a letter, you would need to include a short closing paragraph that invites the reader to contact you if they have any questions or discuss the proposal in more detail. However, a proposal in a more formal report usually doesn't have a closing.

Now that you know the organization, you'll be able to write a clear proposal, but first you need to ask yourself a few questions. First, you need to know who you are writing to. As you may be learned in our lessons on email in our networking course, who you're writing to determines how formal you will be. If you're writing to a colleague or a coworker, you might be more informal. If you're writing a proposal to the board of directors of your company, you'd probably be more formal. You'll also want to ask yourself how much to the readers know already. You'll want to make sure that you include all the necessary information. You'll also want to make sure that you don't include a lot of information that the reader already knows. The next question you should ask is how attractive is the proposal? Is it going to be an easy sell? Meaning you think the proposal will be easily accepted or do you think it will be a hard sell? If you're not sure the readers will accept the proposal, you will need to be really persuasive. So to review, you've learned the typical organization of a written proposal and some questions to ask yourself as you prepare to write the proposal.