Commentary - Introduction
According to the Handbook of Technical Writing (Alred, Brusaw, and Oliu, 2000) a proposal is "a written document to persuade someone to follow a plan or course of action… because a proposal offers a plan to fill a need, readers will evaluate your plan based on how well you answer their questions." As a WLP professional, writing the needs assessment proposal is important, as it is your chance to persuade someone to follow the plan you are recommending to address a performance gap and also serves as an agreement between you and the client to clarify expectations.
There are several authors who provide guidelines for proposal writing, however there are key elements that must be present in order for the reader to gain a complete understanding of the issue at hand, the recommendations, and the process/methodology to be used. In the text, the following components are identified:
- Title page
- Brief executive summary
- Description of the problem/purpose
- Outline of the proposed solution (process, resources required, timeline, costs)
- Terms
- Appendix
Always keep in mind the audience that you are writing for, and remember that using jargon or acronyms will not always be useful and may confuse the customer. Writing a proposal is the first step in gaining buy-in for the needs assessment to take place. The proposal also assists in writing the final report. If the proposal is complete, then putting together the final report after the completion of the assessment process will be less stressful more thorough.