Description

Write a planning proposal directed to the person and/or organization who will receive your analytical report of the class project. Describe the issue, your ideas for change, the benefits and limitations of your ideas, and your schedule of activities. Include some type of graphic that depicts your investigation plan and schedule. Use either a memo or business letter format for your proposal. The grade on this assignment will count 10% of your final course grade. The assignment is due on December 5. NOTE: Please be aware that the final report of the project is due on January 15, so you should target that date for completing the project.

Discussion:

Your planning proposal is a plan for defining, researching, writing, and editing your analytical report, which is the main report of the class project in this course. In this planning proposal, you discuss your plan for completing this class project and preparing the analytical report. Your planning proposal discusses what your ideas for change are, why they are worth considering, how you are going to gather the information to support these ideas, what resources you need to research and write the report, and why you are the person to conduct the project.

EXAMPLE: For your class project, suppose you want to examine the feasibility of creating a Web site for your organization. In your planning proposal, you discuss the need for your organization to increase business and to promote itself; suggest a web site as one possible solution; and present a plan for gathering your information about creating web sites and preparing the report. Then in your analytical report, you present the results of your research and make recommendations on how to implement your idea of creating a web site for your organization.

Tasks

• Identify the primary audience for the proposal.
• Decide on the appropriate format for the proposal. For an internal audience, usually it is best to write a memo, and for an external audience, it is best to write a business letter.
• Decide on what kinds of information can best be included in a graphic. You are required to include a graphic showing tentative dates for completing the activities of the project. In addition to this graphic, many students also include a graphic for the budget for the project. Any graphic should have a title and labels and be introduced and explained in the text.
• Complete a draft of the proposal based on the requirements below for length and format.
• If you want feedback on the rough draft, send a copy to the instructor as an e-mail attachment before the due date for the assignment.

Length and Format

• The proposal should be in the form of a memo or a business letter.
• The minimum length for the proposal is three pages, single-spaced with graphics and double-spaced between paragraphs.
• The proposal should include the following sections:

Project Description

In this section, include the following information in your narrative description:

• Introduction-providing sufficient background information for your reader to understand the issue or situation
• Statement of the Problem-stating clearly the situation you want to address and change
  
• Proposed Solution-describing your proposed ideas to change or improve the issue
• Benefits-discussing the benefits of your proposed ideas
• Limitations- discussing limitations for your project, such as issues you will not address or research you will not be able to complete
• Scope-discussing the scope of your project, including information about intended audience, any restrictions you have observed, and the use of the final report.

Plan of Action

In this section, include the following information in your description:

• Preliminary Outline-providing a preliminary plan for the organization of your analytical report
• Research Plan-describing your activities for investigating your topic, including a description of the primary and secondary research sources you plan to use
• Schedule- including activities and dates. You are required to include this information in a graphic with appropriate discussion in the text of the information on the graphic
  

Facilities and Equipment

In this section, you describe any facilities or equipment you will need to research the topic and prepare the report.

Personnel

In this section, you explain why you are the person to research the topic and write the report.

Budget

In this section, you describe what the costs will be to investigate the topic and write the report. You do not present the costs to implement your ideas; that information is included in your analytical report.

Conclusion

In this section, you have a final opportunity to convince your readers to approve this project.

• The proposal should include appropriate subheadings.
• Graphics should have titles and labels and should be introduced and explained in the text.

Example

• An proposal written for the course may be found at http://polaris.umuc.edu/%7Enhoaglan/COMM393X/assign2ex.htm . A copy is also available in Course Module 2.

Submission

• Submit the proposal as an attached file by December 5 to the WebTycho Assignments folder. If you are using Microsoft Word, you can submit your assignment as a .doc file. If you are not using Word, you can submit your assignment as a.txt (text) file or .rtf file, although some formating will be lost when I open the file. If you have Adobe Acrobat, you can submit your work as a .pdf file. Please note that you can no longer attach .html files in WebTycho