2. Topic or Subject or Problem: Define your topic or subject or problem as specifically as possible. The better you understand it now, the better you can help me understand it.
3. Brief Background of the Topic or Subject or Problem: Prove that you already understand and know about this issue. You don’t need to show that you have conducted extensive research on it, but it should be obvious that you have done some preliminary reading and have assessed this issue to be worthy of your time.
4. Purpose of Your Report and Intended Audience: Why exactly will you be preparing the Formal Proposal? What kind of recommendations do you see yourself making? Who will be the audience for the Formal Proposal and why did you choose them?
Note: Your audience must be a specific individual, such as the Director of Nursing at a Community General Hospital, or a specific group I will expect you to know the names of the individuals you will be addressing, and I will expect that you know why you are addressing them in particular.
5. Benefits of the Report: Who will benefit from your recommendations and how? You must remember that self-interest is key here. What does your audience stand to gain from following through with your Formal Proposal? The more you can prove you solution is beneficial, the more likely your audience will be to act on your behalf.
6. Scope of Inquiry: What exactly will you be considering in your report? What aspects of the topic will you not consider and why? While you don’t necessarily need to discuss each chapter of the Formal Proposal in detail, you should raise the sub-topics you hope to discuss in the Formal Proposal here.
7. Method of Inquiry: what research will you undertake? Be very specific. List names of people you plan to interview, books and articles you have already found, websites you can consult, etc. Tell me why these sources are relevant to the issue you will be looking at. How confident are you that you can find the information you seek? What if you can’t get the information you need, what then? Consider what your plan B options will be, should the research fall through, should you not get the opportunity to interview the individuals you would like to, should you not find the answers you hope to.
8. Project Timetable: This is one of the most crucial but often-overlooked aspects of the
Memo Proposal: When will you conduct your research? When will you plan and draft
your report? be more specific. And use lists. Don’t
cram everything into a paragraph; set specific dates for yourself in list format and stick to
that timetable. If you need to pad dates for possible problems (for instance, anyone you
might want to interview will likely not fit easily into your timetable), give yourself extra
time at crucial periods during the Formal Proposal’s development
