Video: Language of Proposals

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From the course by University of Washington

Business English: Capstone Project

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University of Washington

Business English: Capstone Project

34 ratings

Course 5 of 5 in the Specialization Business English Communication Skills

The capstone project will give you opportunities to demonstrate your competence in the learning objectives for this Specialization. For the project, you’ll use formal, written methods and more casual visual and audio methods of communication to demonstrate your ability to use language appropriate for different business contexts. The goal of this course is to demonstrate competence in writing and presenting a plan using skills and language appropriate for business. Course Learning Objectives • Use appropriate vocabulary to write a mini business plan • Communicate a business plan orally in an organized and engaging presentation

From the lesson

Week 5: Being Persuasive

In Week 5, we will review lectures on being persuasive and you will complete a rough raft of your mini business plan.

Video: Organization of Written Proposals7:58

Video: Language of Proposals8:07

Video: Improving Proposals9:01

Meet the Instructors

Richard Moore
Extension Lecturer, International & English Language Programs
UW Educational Outreach

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Let's take a look at the language that is used in writing a proposal.

In the introduction you're going to explain the purpose of the proposal.

Here, we'll look at the expressions we can use to introduce the purpose.

If you want to write something more formal,

you can use the phrase the purpose of is to.

If your writing your proposal as a report,

you can use the purpose of this report is to.

If your writing it as an email or

letter, you can say the purpose of this email or letter is to.

You can also choose a more typical phrase like I am writing to.

Next you will use a verb phrase like recommend, suggest or propose.

>> The purpose of this report is to recommend.

>> The purpose of this email is to propose.

>> I am writing to suggest.

>> Unless you are writing an executive summary, where you summarize

the whole report, you don't have to give the specific recommendations.

Instead, you can use more general nouns after these verbs.

>> The purpose of this report is to recommend a location for our new store.

>> The purpose of this email is to propose a solution to our budget shortfall.

>> I am writing to suggest a way to increase sales.

>> If your proposal includes more than one option,

you can include some information like this in your opening sentence.

>> The purpose of this report is to compare the different options and

to recommend.

>> The purpose of this letter is to evaluate the different choices and

to suggest.

>> An alternative way to introduce the purpose

is to just use present forms of the verb.

For example, this report compares and recommends.

This proposal evaluates and suggests.

Notice the s ending on the verbs, too.

If you remember,

the introduction should also give the reader an outline of the proposal.

Look at this example.

Can you see how the proposal would be organized in the body?

First the writer would include three years of quarterly sales figures for

their product.

Then, the report will look at some options to increase sales,nd then there'll be

some recommendations to change their marketing strategy and product line.

We also mentioned that it might be necessary to include who the writers are.

This is more likely in a more formal report,

where more than one person is involved.

Notice the phrase, the report was prepared by, to say who wrote the report.

The phrase, at the request of, means the Executive Directors asked for the report.

Both these phrases are more formal.

Let's now take a look at how to make a recommendation.

Often, a proposal includes the verbs recommend, propose, or suggest.

Sometimes, these verbs are little difficult to use.

Look at these examples.

>> We recommend that we open a store near the university.

>> Notice the verb recommend is followed by that and a subject.

And then the verb, open.

The grammar structure after propose and suggest is the same.

>> I propose that the company focus on a new chocolate collection.

>> Also, notice that the verb, focus, doesn't have an ending.

Even though the subject is company, we don't say the company focuses.

>> Our team suggests that we not start construction until next year.

>> And in this example when we want to use a negative,

we say not start, instead of don't start.

So recommend, propose, and suggest follow the same pattern.

This is a very formal written style.

Now you try some examples.

What is the best form to complete these sentences?

After suggest that, we just need the verb.

We don't need to before the verb.

After propose that, the verb doesn't change form.

That means we don't need to use the past form or add s.

After recommend that If we want to make a negative,

we use not before the verb, instead of using don't, doesn't or didn't.

We can also use the verb recommend, propose and suggest in another way without

including that or a subject and using the ing form of the verb.

This is a little more formal than the examples before.

>> We recommend opening a store near the university.

>> I propose focusing on a new chocolate collection.

>> Our team suggests not starting construction until next year.

>> In a simple more informal proposal,

we can use the following language to make a suggestion.

>> I think we should introduce a new spring flavor chocolate.

>> If the proposal includes research, you can use the phrase based on,

to connect the results of the research to the recommendation.

>> Based on this research, I recommend.

>> Based on these findings, we propose.

>> You will often need to persuade the reader that your recommendation is good

by describing the possible outcomes.

We often do this by using models like would, could, and should.

Look at these examples.

>> This would increase sales in the summer months.

>> Using would means I'm fairly sure of the outcome.

>> If we did this, we could focus more on our other products.

>> Using could means the outcome will give us the ability to do something

>> We should see sales increase.

>> When we use should like this, it means that I expect this will be the result.

If you're not so sure about an outcome, you can use modals like may or might.

>> We might attract younger customers too.

>> We may see an increase in our online business.

>> Now you try some more examples.

What is the best way to complete these sentences predicting outcomes?

Using would, help shows that we are predicting a possible result.

We used the modals would, could, should, might, and may.

Maybe is not a verb.

We need to say maybe we could save.

We use should when we expect something to happen.

We use might when we are not sure.

[MUSIC]

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