Page 20 - Writing Winning Business Proposals
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CHAPTER 1
Understanding Generic
Structure Logic
ike most people, I like stories, so let me begin by telling you a very short
Lstory—after which I’ll ask you several questions.
Paula was hungry. After she entered and ordered a pastrami sandwich, it was
served to her quickly. She left the waitress a big tip.
◉ Where was Paula?
◉ What did she eat?
◉ Who made the sandwich?
◉ Who took the order?
◉ Who served the sandwich?
◉ Why did Paula leave a big tip?
How is it that you could answer those questions rather easily even though noth-
ing in the story explicitly provides the information necessary for your answers?
Because you have a schema for the concept of “restaurant.”
Schemas are knowledge structures that you have built and stored in your
memory as patterns, as analytical frameworks. Schemas represent generic con-
cepts such as restaurant or airplane or house. Each schema has “slots” that
exist in a network of relations. Your schema for restaurant may have slots for
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