English 307 Assignment

Unit 2: Client Research and Proposal

The exercises you will complete during Unit 2 are designed to simulate a real world client relationship in which you participate as a savvy business writer who, along with your group members, will respond to client needs in a simulated rhetorical situation. For the duration of this unit and the semester, I will serve as the client in our simulated business writing exercise. During this unit, you and your group members will send an email of inquiry to your client, develop appropriate and meaningful interview questions, and develop a client proposal based upon your field research. The deliverables for this unit include: an email of inquiry to client (addressed to me, not the actual client) a list of at least 10 appropriate and meaningful interview questions a client proposal

On this handout, you will find all information that you need to complete unit 2 including required readings, recommended resources, and a checklist for project progress. If you have any questions about deadlines, please refer to the course calendar. If you have any questions about using the materials located on this page, feel free to contact me (londiem@email.arizona.edu).

What is an e-mail of inquiry?

At this point, you have been assigned a client and team of peers to work with you. However, this is only a simulation, and you are not expected to contact the client. Instead, I will play the part of your client. Now, you must establish contact with your selected client (using my email address: londiem@email.arizona.edu) and must request information to plan your research and establish rapport. Almost too clich is the idea that first impressions are lasting ones. This email of inquiry will be your first "official" contact with your client, and you should carefully compose the message. Body of e-mail Some requested information from your client includes, but is not limited to, the organization's hours of operation, preferred form of contact (either email or phone), times when best to contact organization's representatives, and availability of a contact person for interviewing purposes. You also must greet the client and thank him or her for participating in the project. You must assure, but not over-state, your intentions for the client-consultant relationship and outline your project path. Emphasize your need to collect data about the organization in an interview and explain the process to the client. Most importantly, explain that you will be following up the email with a phone call to set up the interview. Draft your message in Word and then later cut and paste it into an e-mail program (Remember to spell check your email and remove garbage characters). Format of e-mail The e-mail should be from all members of your team listing your full names and your full e-mail addresses. Be certain that the e-mail addresses, themselves, are professional, i.e. your UA e-mail

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account with an appropriate signature. You should address the e-mail to your contact person again, use his or her full name. However, do not send the email to your client! Instead, send the email to me: londiem@email.arizona.edu. The subject line, just as in your memos, should be descriptive and useful. Your e-mail should follow formal guidelines similar to those for a letter. Here are some more guidelines for formatting your email: Don't use a colorful background or other stylized font choiceuse the default formatting for your e-mail. Many e-mail programs cannot read the elaborate or decorative e-mail message formats. Greet the contact person formally, using Mr. or Ms. and his or her full name. Follow this greeting with a colon or comma. Create clear paragraphs developing the message as instructed above. Clearly state who you are, why you are contacting the client, your goals and intentions in making contact, and requests from the client. Establish a friendly yet professional tone. Close the message with "Sincerely" or a similarly professional closing. Be certain, then, to provide your full names and contact information (e-mail addresses, phone #s, preferred calling times if you have restrictions).

How can I develop a stakeholder relationship with my client?

In order to be successful, you need to think of both yourself and your client as stakeholders in the project. You will be gaining valuable experience as a writer of professional documents and complete a major assignment in your English 307 course, and the client will be getting a document(s) that you propose based upon your analysis of the client's needs. You will conduct field research in the form of an interview and create a proposal written directly to your client that determines the deliverable(s), explains the project's usefulness to the client organization, and provides relevant information about time and costs.

What research should I conduct?

Prior to developing your client proposal, you will want to know about the organization's history, its purpose, its clientele and role in the community, its organizational structure, its communication needs, and possible top priority jobs in terms of written deliverable(s). Additionally, you should collect example documents similar to the deliverable you will be creating, and you may want to consider other forms of researchlibrary and web searchesthat can help you make content and design choices appropriate to your client.

Developing effective interview questions

Based on the initial research you conducted with your group members, you will develop a list of hypothetical interview questions. In a real world client relationship, you would use the interview opportunity to learn more about your clients needs and how you can best meet them. In this simulated activity, you will develop interview questions as a way to brainstorm. In other words, the interview questions you develop will help you better determine the kind of deliverable your

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client might need and the kinds of information you still need to learn about your client in order to produce the deliverable. Your goals for this simulated interview are threefold: 1. to gain useful and relevant data about your client. 2. to guide other aspects of your research process. 3. to establish client-consultant rapport. The following are points to consider as you draft your interview questions. As you plan your interview, think about not only the individual questions but also the shape of the interview as a whole. Avoid asking questions for which you already have adequate answers. Have at least 10 well-developed questions, but don't let these questions stifle the natural flow of the conversation. Avoid questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. Avoid asking questions that are too broad. Avoid starting the interview with questions that are too narrow. Avoid asking leading questions that assume a particular answer and discourage the interviewee from voicing alternative interests/concerns.

How should I construct my client proposal?

Based upon your groups research and the brainstorming you did while developing potential interview questions, you should construct a proposal that articulates a well-defined set of recommendations about the possible deliverable(s), a timeline for research, drafting, and revising of the deliverable(s), and resource expenditures related to the production and maintenance of those deliverable(s). The proposal should provide persuasive evidence from your interview about why the course of action you recommend is beneficial to your client. Appropriate formatting of your proposal entails: client directly addressed rather than referred to in 3rd person; title page with descriptive report title, author's name, date proposal completed, client name, and appropriate graphic;1-inch margins; left justification; no line spaces within paragraphs; single spaces between paragraphs; 12-point font for body text; serif font for body text; heading font larger than that of the body text; sans serif font for headings; bolded headings; descriptively titled headings; no underlining; appropriate use of borders; and page numbers on proposal itself but not on letter of transmittal and title page. Below is a format to follow for your report. In order to better understand each of the items you will need to include in your proposal, your group will need to do research. For example, if you do not know what a letter of transmittal is, you will need to research the genre in order to meet the expect conventions. 1. letter of transmittal Your letter of transmittal should address your client, and it should briefly explain the title of the enclosed proposal, denote the research completed to produce the proposal, and outline a guide to help the client follow the major sections of your proposal. You also should request a response to your proposal within one week, if possible. This response

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can be handled in a formal meeting, via e-mail, or over the phone depending upon the client's response to the proposal. The letter of transmittal establishes good will and contextualizes the proposal for the client. Use full block format and follow the formatting guidelines on the Reference Sheet for Formatting page. You also can reference the letter template available on D2L. 2. title page Your title page should include a title for your proposal, your name, the date on which the proposal was completed, the name of your client, and an appropriate graphic. 3. abstract of proposal Your overview should briefly summarize your proposal. Traditionally, this overview is only a paragraph. Note what information is included in each section of your proposal including the deliverable(s); a quick summary of your time line for producing those deliverable(s), research, planning, drafting, peer and client review, revision, and submission to client; and a brief nod to cost factors related to the production and maintenance of the deliverable(s). 4. need statement Your need statement should identify the mission of your client and explain the primary need related to that mission. (Remember this "need" is abstract and intangible--it is not the deliverable(s) that you will be creating.) Describe the evidence from your research that demonstrates this need is the primary one for the client, listing at least two to five significant signals that this is so. Explain some other related needs of your client. 5. project description Your project description section should outline a specific professional writing deliverable(s) that will fulfill the need that you identified. In this section, you also should explain why this particular deliverable(s) will fulfill the client's need and why it is the best choice for the client. Again, you need to support your claims of why with research data from your interview, document collection, and other research. Remember to emphasize the target audience for your deliverable and how your choices address this audience. 6. plan & progress checks In this section, you should define a step-by-step plan to produce the deliverable(s) and note how your progress to these goals will be ensured through work in our course and your team's plan outside of class time. Your plan explains each step to get to the deliverable(s) and when each step will be accomplished, and your progress checks section describes the methods of evaluation of progress that will be implemented as part of your plan. In addition to your written explanation, provide some kind of visual here either a timeline or chart for the client. Remember to set your deadline for the deliverable(s) for June 1. 7. budget section Your budget section should consider the resource expenditures of the client based upon

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your proposal. Since you are gaining valuable experience to help you develop as a professional writer and class credit for this project and the client is (hypothetically) gaining a deliverable(s), your person hours are accounted for. You must also consider time and other costs. For example, if your deliverable(s) are two brochures then you must consider paper, printing, and updating costs of these print documents as well as the time factors involved in the future "maintenance" of these documents--how often will they need to be reviewed for revision?

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Once you send your proposal to me, I will act in the role of your client and provide you with feedback to your proposal. Based upon my review of the proposal, either update the proposal for resubmission (I will give you a deadline) or begin working on deliverable(s) as outlined in the plan of your proposal.

How can I learn more about professional e-mails and proposals?

To find out more about creating professional e-mails and proposals, please review these sites: professional e-mail messages Top 7 Recommendations for Professional Email Netiquette by Bill Montgomery http://top7business.com/?Top-7-Recommendations-For-Professional-Email-Netiquette&id=492 proposals How to Write a Project Proposal by Worcester Polytechnic Institute http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Projects/writeproposal.html Proposal Writer's Guide by University of Michigan http://www.drda.umich.edu/proposals/pwg/pwgcontents.html Proposal Writing Short Course by The Foundation Center http://fdncenter.org/learn/shortcourse/prop1.html

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