Case 16: Revising a Brief Proposal
Case 16: Revising a Brief Proposal
Background
StudentsFirst! Educational Software provides educational software to help children with learning challenges improve their reading, study skills, and writing so that they can succeed academically. The company’s various software products are also used by students whose first language is not English.
The company’s software is purchased by school districts and installed on school computers. Because most school districts are facing tough economic times, the company has created a guide to help school officials write proposals to private foundations that award grants to assist schools. You work in the Marketing Department at StudentsFirst! and report to Alex Haynes, who has called you into his office.
“We haven’t updated our proposal guide in a few years, and I’d like you to help me,” he says to you.
“What do you need?” you ask.
“Take a look at the sample proposal letter from the guide,” he says (Document 16.1). “Let me know if you think the letter is a good example. Is it well written? Does it make a really good case for the school district to obtain funding from the granting agency? And one more thing: I’d like you to annotate it—you know, put a little description in the margin next to each paragraph, explaining what the writer is doing in that paragraph.”
“Can you give me an idea of what you want the annotations to look like?”
“What I have in mind is just a couple of sentences. The first sentence explains what the writer should do. The second sentence explains why. Something like these,” he says, handing you a page with two examples (Document 16.2).
Download the documents below, and then begin your assignment.
Download a copy of Document 16.1. Download a copy of Document 16.2.
Your Assignment
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the case background and documents, complete the assignment below. Your instructor will tell you how he or she would like you to submit your work.
1. Write a brief memo to Alex Haynes responding to his request that you evaluate the sample letter and recommend changes.
2. Using your word processor’s Track Changes feature (see Chapter 4), supply the marginal annotations that Alex requested.
Reflecting on Your Work
Once you’ve completed your assignment, write a reflection about your work using the prompt below.