Page 280 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

Internal Proposals (Make Certain They’re Not Reports) 271

Now, let’s look at a much more traditional and frequently presented structure
that I have seen in many reports submitted to me and that, perhaps, you have
used. Note how this reporting structure, in Figure D.2, is much more difficult to
understand using the writing patterns typically found in most reports.
Here, the boxes on the second level don’t answer any clear-cut question that
could be posed after hearing or reading the recommendation. The body of the
report contains separate buckets for findings, conclusions, and recommenda-
tions. The findings bucket typically consists of a data dump of facts and figures.
The conclusions bucket usually contains a large number of conclusions that are
difficult to connect to the previously discussed findings. To make matters worse,
in reading some reports, I don’t even know the recommended answer until I’ve
been overwhelmed with findings and conclusions. Then I’m subjected to a recom-
mendations bucket and forced to tie together previously presented information to
determine whether the recommendation is supported.
When you use a logic tree, however, the categories of findings and conclusions
are irrelevant. Instead, you just focus on answering at any level my question on
the level above. Embedded within the argument may be the notion of “better”
or “best.” That is, Option A may be preferred because it is at least better in some
ways than other options, and overall it’s the best of all possible options. Therefore,
the boxes on your second line, as shown in Figure D.3, might express these com-
parisons: “A is more cost-effective” or “A is easier to implement.” Even if your
argument is that “A is cost-effective,” the implication may remain that Option A
is more cost-effective than something else. Therefore, you should be certain that
the argument supporting the claim “A is cost-effective” considers the relative, not
just the absolute, value of the recommended alternative.

We recommend
We recommend
Option A.
Option A.
(. . . ?)

Findings Conclusions Recommendations
Findings
Recommendations
Conclusions

epor
e of a r
tur
RE
D
GU
FIGURE D.2 The traditional structure of a report t
FI

he traditional struc
T
.
2