TCO 341 Week Six June 23, 2014

Webex session: 7:00-8:30 in Webex

Welcome to Week Six! Here are our learning objectives this week:

1. Monitor your progress on the feasibility report assignment.
2. Begin the proposals assignment.

I. Proposals

Many organizations write proposals in order to get business opportunities or to subcontract out work. The U.S. Government, for example, seeks companies to write proposals to perform work for the government. You might work for a company one day and write a proposal yourself to start a new project or venture. A proposal is considered a technical document because of its specific organization and structure, although many times they are written for business reasons.

A proposal can be internal or external. If you write a proposal to the Dean of the School of Engineering to create a new program, that is an internal proposal. If you write a research proposal to the Centers for Disease Control to conduct research, that is considered an external proposal. Generally, you write a proposal in response to an RFP -- a Request for Proposal.

I've provided two reading sources to help explain proposals to you.

Purdue Online Writing Lab Guide to Proposals

Online Technical Writing Textbook Guide to Proposals

In the Document Analysis assignment, you examined a proposal from a previous class. Each semester in TCO 341, the last assignment is the proposal. This summer, your proposal will be based on the Request for Proposal linked here and at the top of this page. There are three potential projects your group can pursue.

I've prepared a short video introducing you to the proposals assignment. If you can, please watch the video before class on Monday, June 23.

Intro to Proposals Video

Proposal teams are listed in the sidebar.

II. Class Agenda for Monday night

In class on Monday, we will take a look at your feasibility reports and also discuss the proposal assignment.

I'll see you Monday night in Webex!