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Gaining Management’s Approval
After you have analyzed your audience and purpose, consider gaining the approval of management before you proceed. The larger and more complex the project and the document, the more important it is to be sure that you are on the right track before you invest too much time and effort.
For example, suppose you are planning a proposal to upgrade your company’s computer-assisted-design (CAD) equipment. You already know your audience and purpose, and you are drafting a general outline in your mind. But before you actually start to write an outline or gather the information you will need, spend another 10 or 15 minutes making sure your primary reader, your supervisor, agrees with your thinking by submitting to him a brief description of your plans. You don’t want to waste days or even weeks working on a document that won’t fulfill its purpose. If you have misunderstood what your supervisor wants, it is far easier to fix the problem at this early stage.
Your description can also serve another purpose: if you want your reader’s views on which of two strategies to pursue, you can describe each one and ask your reader to state a preference.
Choose an application that is acceptable to your reader, and then clearly and briefly state what you are trying to do in the project. Here is an example of the description you might submit to your boss about the CAD equipment. In composing this description of her plan, the writer drew on audience profile sheets for her two principal readers. She describes a logical, rational strategy for proposing the equipment purchase.
The purpose of the memo
A statement of the audience for the proposal
A statement of the purpose, followed by early statements of the scope of the document
A statement of how the writer intends to follow up on this memo
Juan:
Please tell me if you think this is a good approach for the proposal on CAD equipment.
Outright purchase of the complete system will cost more than $1,000, so you would have to approve it and send it on for Tina’s approval. (I’ll provide leasing costs as well.) I want to show that our CAD hardware and software are badly out of date and need to be replaced. I’ll be thorough in recommending new equipment, with independent evaluations in the literature, as well as product demonstrations. The proposal should specify what the current equipment is costing us and show how much we can save by buying the recommended system.
I’ll call you later today to get your reaction before I begin researching what’s available.
Renu
Once you have received your primary reader’s approval, you can feel confident about starting to gather information.