Suggests five ways to make college proposal-writing assignments correspond more closely to the proposal-writing situations faced by engineers. They include emphasizing sales proposals over in-house planning or research and development proposals, using actual or fictional cases as the basis for assignments, and requiring oral presentations of the…

Discusses a proposal writing project in a technical writing course, in which students develop and actually submit a proposal for possible implementation. (GW)

Suggests that proposal writing can benefit technical writing students by enhancing skills in using persuasion devices with technology. Presents three rhetorical structural steps (beginning, middle, and end) that reinforce a proposal writing exercise suitable for both university and business applications. (HTH)

Technical communications courses, which frequently present the research proposal as part of the report writing segment, rarely teach the grant proposal, even though it can provide the instructor with a vehicle for presenting such rhetorical strategies as audience analysis and persuasive writing. In addition to its problem solving structure, the…