For your #TuesdayTutorial, I’m sharing a series of videos on Lynda.com that goes over the different parts that make up a proposal. Altogether, the videos will take 28m53s of your time. The videos include information all of the following sections:

• Overview of proposal parts (4m40s)
• Prefatory parts (5m28s)
• Body parts (5m7s)
• Ending parts (4m31s)
• Appended parts (4m22s)
• Visuals (4m45s)

Log in to see the video series. A preview is below:

Writing a Proposal by Judy Steiner-Williams

Comments?

In the midterm evaluation, some class members said that the comments on the Daily Discussion Posts were often redundant. To help make the comments more original, I am adding some specific questions that you can respond to.

After watching the videos in the series, read through the comments to see what others have already said. It’s your responsibility to add something new to the discussion. Think of comments like class discussion: You wouldn’t repeat what others in class said in a classroom, so don’t repeat ideas in our online discussion. Aim to say something new.

Here are some discussion starters to inspire your comments:

• What one piece of advice from the videos stood out to you as good (or bad) advice, and why?
• If you have written or used a proposal in an internship or job, how did the proposal in the workplace compare to the advice in the videos?
• Choose one of the sections of a proposal and a specific audience of readers. Tell us how you would customize the section for that specific audience. For example, what would you include in the prefatory parts if your readers were potential new clients who were unfamiliar with how your company works?
• An elevator pitch is a short, oral kind of proposal. If you only had one to two minutes to persuade someone to follow your recommendation, which part of a proposal would you include, and why?
• What parts would you leave out of your elevator pitch proposal, and why?
• Visit the Search page on the U.S. Grants website. Find a grant that relates to your career field, and compare the information on the sections required for the grant to those described in the videos. If you notice differences, talk about why the changes are there. Be sure to include a link to the grant you are discussing.

In addition to these specific questions, feel free to comment on anything else you noticed about the videos, just as you have in the past. You can also reply directly to someone else’s comments.