Writing Proposals - Chapter 2

First I want to compare the distinction between solicited and unsolicited proposals to that of Bitzer’s and Vatz’ notions of the rhetorical situation. In Bitzer’s version the rhetorical situation exists on its own and precedes the corresponding rhetoric, much like the RFP exists before the proposal. On the other hand, Vatz believes that the utterance or rhetoric invites the exigence, similar to the unsolicited proposal creating a need for the proposal itself. I think this is an interesting difference, especially because Vatz gives more responsibility to the rhetor and the choices he/she makes. For proposal writing, we might also want to consider Cosigny’s view of the rhetorical situation, which mediates the control vs. creation dichotomy. In this version, a rhetor cannot create situations arbitrarily; consequently, even unsolicited proposals must arise from some context, such as a meeting or conversation.

For my other two topics, I want to compare proposals to other genres: newspapers and resumes. Our book suggests using the journalist’s method of the five-W and how to determine the statis, and I wonder if we can also learn additional methods from journalists, specifically concerning the style of proposals. As I recall from my undergraduate journalism classes, journalists consider the ABC’s of writing, namely accuracy, brevity, and clarity. To what extent should proposals share these concerns? I think proposals need to be accurate, at least to our best knowledge of the “facts” at the time. They certainly should be clear; otherwise, reviewers will stop reading and approval or funding would be out of the question. Thus, I think brevity is the one aspect with remaining questions. How brief should proposals be considering the page requirements, reader’s selective reading habits, and the amount of detail necessary to convey our ideas?

In addition to being concise in length of the proposal itself, I also have questions about sentence and word length, as well as word choice. Specifically, should proposals avoid jargon and instead use common terms? While this detail certainly depends on the audience, word choice might have additional aspects much like resumes or job applications, where only those documents with key words move to the next stage. If letters of inquiry are similar to application letters in that both need to be tailored to the audience, then we might examine how proposals also need to meet keyword requirements.