Chapter 8 Preparing Persuasive Business Proposals

21) Conducting research to develop your proposal ________.

A) should not be considered during your analysis of content needs

B) is never necessary to propose realistic costs

C) must wait until the composing stage of the ACE process

D) could be necessary to learn more about competitors submitting competitive proposals

E) will take away valuable time you should be spending on more important issues

22) Internal proposals ________.

A) typically are structured like a formal report

B) cannot take the form of an email

C) should not be casual or unstructured

D) always take the form of a proposal letter

E) do not need to be convincing or detailed

Dakota and his team are creating a proposal for their supervisor to recommend that the company's database be redesigned.

23) Dakota is deciding how to state the opportunity for capturing additional information and more efficiently processing data that this redesign will present, and how the database his team proposes will be different from their current one. He is hammering out the details as to how it will be created and rolled out, as well as how much the development, hardware and software, and training will cost. What aspect of the composing stage is Dakota engaged in?

A) choosing the best medium for his proposal

B) deciding what content must be included in his proposal

C) determining how his proposal should best be organized

D) assessing how formal or informal he should make his proposal

E) determining the purpose of his proposal

24) Dakota is working on a succinct description of the database proposal, which encapsulates in it the opportunity for cost savings and increased functionality the new system presents, as well as its other key ideas. He is struggling to create content that while brief, will enable his audience to understand the proposal's main ideas without having to read the whole document. Dakota is working on the proposal's ________.

A) introduction

B) executive summary

C) body

D) references

E) closing

25) Which of the following would be best for Dakota to include in his proposal?

A) After the database redesign is approved, the developer will be contacted.

B) The developer will be contacted after the database redesign is approved.

C) After you approve the database redesign, the developer will be contacted.

D) After you approve the database redesign, I will contact the developer.

E) I will contact the developer after the database redesign is approved.

26) The proposed developer employed only certified programmers. Over the past five years, they have redesigned more than 50 databases for local businesses. They will add innovative new functionality to our system, while increasing the efficiency of our current system's capabilities.

Which of the following most improves the section of Dakota's text excerpted above?

A) replacing "employed" in the first sentence with "used to employ"

B) replacing "employed" in the first sentence with "employs"

C) replacing "have redesigned" in the second sentence with "will redesign"

D) replacing "will add" in the third sentence with "add"

E) replacing "will add" in the third sentence with "have added"

27) After reading the ________ your audience should understand your main ideas without having to read the entire proposal.

A) analysis

B) introduction

C) overview

D) context

E) requirements

28) In a proposal, use ________ to describe services you will provide and the activities your audience must complete.

A) passive voice rather than active voice

B) active voice rather than passive voice

C) "you" language rather than "I" language

D) "I" language rather than "you" language

E) abstract language rather than concrete language

29) When you write about what you propose, use ________ tense; when you write about your capabilities, use ________ tense.

A) present; present

B) present; future

C) future; future

D) future; present

E) future; past

30) Which of the following would be best to use in a proposal?

A) Our equipment does the job in half the time it takes our competitor's equipment.

B) Our equipment will do the job in half the time it will take our competitor's equipment.

C) Our equipment did the job in half the time it took our competitor's equipment.

D) Our equipment has been doing the job in half the time it has been taking our competitor's equipment.

E) Our equipment has done the job in half the time it has taken our competitor's equipment.