М
инистерство
общего и профессионального
образования Российской Федерации
Российская Экономическая Академия
имени Г.В. Плеханова
Центр международных образовательных программ
Международная программа IBS-Plekhanov
ДЕЛОВАЯ КОРРЕСПОНДЕНЦИЯ
BUSINESS LETTER
Часть 2
Москва 2000
Составители: Л.Б. ФИЛИППОВА
Л.П. ТИМОШЕНКО
Верстка Сергея Газаряна
Деловая корреспонденция (Business Letter)/ Сост. Л.Б. ФИЛИППОВА, Л.П. ТИМОШЕНКО. М.: Рос. Экон. Акад., 1999. Ч.2.
Содержит тексты и задания по деловой переписке к темам «Деловое предложение», «Рекламное письмо» и «Формирование общественного мнения».
Предназначены для студентов факультета IBS.
Unit 6
Proposals
I. Discussion topics.
Writing proposals is a long-standing business practice. How can you comment on its origin and purposes?
What is, in your opinion, the audience of the writers of proposals? Try to give a definition.
What issues do you think it necessary to cover in your proposal? Make up a general plan for writing a successful proposal. Compare your plan with those made by your group-mates.
II. Reading.
A proposal is a detailed plan of action that a writer submits to a reader or a group of readers for approval. These readers are usually in a position of authority - supervisors, managers, department heads - to endorse or reject the writer's plan. Therefore proposals must be highly persuasive to succeed. Without your audience's approval, your plan will never go into effect, however accurate and important you think it is.
Competition is fierce in the world at work, and a persuasive proposal frequently determines which company receives a contract.
Follow these guidelines and they will help you to persuade your audience to approve your plan.
1. Approach writing a proposal as a problem-solving activity. Your goal is to solve a problem that affects the reader. Do not lose sight of the problem as you plan and write your proposal. Everything in your proposal should relate to the problem, and the organization of your proposal should reflect your ability as a problem-solver. Psychologically, make the reader feel confident that you can solve the problem.
2. Regard your audience as skeptical readers. Even though you offer a plan that you think will benefit readers, do not be overconfident that they will automatically accept it as the best and only way to proceed. To determine the feasibility of your plan, readers will question everything you say. They will withhold their approval if your proposal contains errors, omissions, or inconsistencies. Consequently, try to examine your proposal from the reader's point of view.
3. Research your proposal carefully. A winning proposal is not based only on a few well-meaning, general suggestions. All your good intentions and enthusiasm will not substitute for the hard facts readers will demand. Concrete examples persuade readers; unsupported generalizations do not. To make your proposal concrete and accurate, you will have to do a lot of homework, for example, reading previous correspondence or research about the problem, verifying schedules and timetables, interviewing customers and/or employees, making site visits.
4. Prove that your proposal is workable. Your proposal should be well thought out. It should contain no statements saying "let's see what happens if we do X or Z". By analyzing and when possible, by testing each part of your proposal in advance, you can eliminate any quirks and revise the proposal appropriately before readers evaluate it. What you propose should be consistent with the organization and capabilities of the company. It would be foolish to recommend, for example, that a small company (fifty employees) triple its work force to accomplish your plan.
5. Be sure that your proposal is financially realistic. This point is closely associated to and follows from guideline 4. Do not submit a proposal that would require an unnecessary large amount of money to implement. For example, it would be unrealistic to recommend that your company spend $20,000 to solve a $2,000 problem that might not ever occur.
6. Package your proposal attractively. Make sure your proposal is letter-perfect, inviting, and easy to read (for example, use plenty of headings and other visual devices). Remember that readers, especially those unfamiliar with your work, will evaluate your proposal as evidence of the type of work you want to do for them.