MPU32193 ENGLISH FOR PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATIONS

Assessment 2:
TECHNICAL PROPOSAL

INTRODUCTION:
This assessment is designed to evaluate and assess your ability to work as a team to solve
simple problems through the preparation of a technical proposal to an external client.
Information concerning the assessment:
File type : PDF format
No. of Pages : not more than 15 pages excluding Appendix.
Suggested Font : Arial/ Times New Roman
Font Size : 12 point
Paragraph : 1.5 spacing
Submission Deadline : Week 10
(Day, time and method of submission will depend on each tutor)

Tutorial Activity (Week 5)

GROUP ACTIVITY
1. Formation of Work Groups for Informal Proposal Writing. (4-6 members per group).
Groups can be formed only with members from the SAME TUTORIAL CLASS. Please
form groups according to courses, if possible, e.g. QS, ME 3E, CL, etc.

Planning and discussion of informal proposal

i. Identify an issue/problem to work with
ii. Identify FACTORS that have contributed to the occurrence of issue/problem
iii. Identify other relevant issues as per the lecture slides
iv. Define the PROBLEM STATEMENT which your team will set up to
solve/mitigate the problem according to the following aspects (research
activity)
v. Discuss on an initial solution

2. Present and discuss items 2 (i) to (v) with your Tutor when completed.
MPU32193 English for Professional Communications Assessment 2: Technical Proposal

Suggested Activity for Week 6-7 (Information Gathering)

Work on the components of the Proposal as per the section on Suggested Structure of the
Technical Proposal

 The team should set up fixed timetable to engage in information gathering for the
proposal.
 Each team member should work together or be engaged in a specific part of the
proposal preparation.
 If your solution indicates the need for a survey, please include the survey
questionnaire as part of the appendices.

Suggested Activity for Weeks 8-9 (Draft of Proposal)

 After the information gathering phase is completed, your team can start drafting out
the actual document.
 At this point, a consultation should be arranged with your respective tutors to verify
the draft’s direction at the end of WEEK 9.
 The tutor is NOT responsible for proof-reading your document as the lecture topic on
Active and Passive Voice in Sentence Structure (Lecture 2), should suffice for your
team to engage in peer review of the accuracy of your team’s document.

Suggested Activity for Week 10 (Submission Week)

 Consultation with the tutor.

 Any errors that have been identified should be reviewed and amended if necessary,
during this phase.
 Final proofing as well as formatting checking is highly encouraged.

Your submission document should include the following:

 UTAR Assessment 2 Cover Page (Use template provided)

 Proposal Cover Page
 Table of content
 PROPOSAL
 Appendices

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MPU32193 English for Professional Communications Assessment 2: Technical Proposal

SUGGESTED STRUCTURE OF THE TECHNICAL PROPOSAL

COVER PAGE
 Prepare a cover page for the company you are writing to. This page SHOULD consist
of your company’s name, the name of the company you are writing to and the title of
your project/proposal. You may include any other details such as an image,
illustration, company logo, etc.

INTRODUCTION – TRANSMITTAL LETTER/COVER LETTER/EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 Remember that you are writing to the other company in a FORMAL LETTER format.
Before you start writing, remember to write your company’s address, the receiving
company’s address, the date of letter, salutation to the person you are writing to and
the title of your letter. You may also design your own company’s letterhead to include
these details to make your letter look more professional.

 The proposal should be directed at an external party to which your company is either
responding as part of a tender exercise (meaning the external party is inviting
companies to do work) or responding to a human problem in which the company is
taking the initiative to propose a solution. For the latter, your team must be clear as
to which external party would be the appropriate respondent (i.e. construction
projects usually are directed to the company asking to build something as well as the
local government)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 This page tells the reader what is inside the proposal, the main/sub-sections, figures
and tables (if any) and what page number they are on.

BACKGROUND OF COMPANY
 In this section, present details of your company such as the history of your company,
past projects that your company has been involved with, past companies that you
have probably worked with and etc. The purpose of this is to convince the reader of
your company’s credibility and to develop trust of your readers.
The following represents elements of a typical company background:
1. Type of Industry the Company is in e.g mechanical engineering, chemical
engineering etc.
2. Company Vision and Mission
3. Size of the Company
4. Nature of Projects the Company is involved in (must be related to the problem)
5. Previous Projects

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MPU32193 English for Professional Communications Assessment 2: Technical Proposal

PROBLEM STATEMENT
 This is where you state the current problem(s) that you are trying to overcome.
Provide details of how you knew of this problem (by a survey, questionnaire, news
report, etc).

PURPOSE OF PROPOSAL
 In this section, relate the current problems that you have previously stated with the
purpose of you writing this proposal. You may include the benefits of your proposed
plan for both you and more importantly, the receiving company.
 ONLY ONE short paragraph is needed.

DETAILED PROPOSAL PLAN

 In this section, present an in-depth and detailed project planning for your proposed
plan of action. Include how you plan to carry out the project and include all the
necessary information that may be needed for your reader’s understanding.

 Be sure to ensure that all relevant PHASE, ACTIVITY and TASK headers are used
together with relevant elaboration. (See the sample proposal for an example of an
elaboration)

SCHEDULE OF WORK/ PROJECT TIMELINE

 This section presents the timeline of your proposed project. State how long the project
will take and give details on what your schedule will look like, for example, working
hours, working hours per day, what work are scheduled etc. This section is typically
presented in a table format. Use a table to represent your proposal activities in this
section.

 For a detailed description of the timeline, please include a Gantt chart (compulsory)
in Appendix. You are advised to use the landscape format for the chart.

PROJECT BUDGET

 This section provides information to the external party of the costs of the proposed
project. In other words, tell the receiving company the amount of money that they
will need to pay to you to complete the project. This section is also usually presented
in a table format. You may provide the details of costs in several lump sum amounts.
The sections of the costs should reflect real budgeting for a similar project.

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MPU32193 English for Professional Communications Assessment 2: Technical Proposal

STAFFING / PROJECT TEAM

 This section usually outlines the project team that would be executing this proposal.
For this assessment, this includes the names of your team members who are working
on the task at hand. (Use your own names for this part) Each team member of your
group should be assigned a role as per real world scenarios.
 Suggested project team roles may include Project Lead/Team Lead/Project Manager,
Project Engineers/ Project Financial Controller etc.
 You should also write a brief background for each member for example mentioning
where they graduate from, their years of experience, how long they have been with
your company, past projects they were involved with, awards and recognition they
may have received and etc.

CONCLUSION

 This section reverts back to the formal letter. In this section, you can:
 reiterate your company’s credibility and reputation and your project team’s
strengths to execute the proposal. As per normal formal letter conventions,
this section also a call to action that provides the reader with the opportunity
to ask further questions or forward any other enquiries by giving your name
and contact details should they feel the need to do so.
 State the deadline for the reader to reply to you and a deadline for when the
offer will expire.
 State that should the reader agree to your proposal, your company will follow
up with the contract signing details later.
 End with your signature, name, position and also your company’s name.

APPENDICES

 You may include any other relevant details in this section such as images or
illustrations, floor plans, construction plans, survey data as well as any other relevant
information that is too bulky to include in the main document. A Gantt chart and
reference list are compulsory to be included as part of this section.
 Appendices are not counted in the page count for the proposal.

This assessment carries 30% of the total marks for the course and is a critical academic
exercise with real-world applications. As such, students are reminded to treat this
assessment seriously.