MEMO
To:
From:
Date:
Re:
Business 2200 Colleagues
Lily Khaysavang
September 27, 2012
Project Proposal – Writing Training Program
Overview
The focus of this proposal is to introduce to the class how a uniform writing program can aide
current and future employees in writing business documents for any company efficiently, by
catering to the company of choice’s main focus or goal.
Question
Knowing the basics of good business communication is essential for any employee in any
company. By utilizing a writing program to train new employees and re-train current employees,
it keeps a uniform style consistent and it will allow the company to become known by their
exceptional writing.
For example, in the career I intend on going into, a well-known company by the name of EA
could benefit from using a writing program because it would allow their main producer,
programming lead and artistic leads to have uniform documents to submit to their superiors and
the board of directors who approves all new proposals.
Rationale
By learning the answer to how to utilize a writing program in the most efficient way, we gain an
advantage above our fellow employees. We will learn the most uniform styles in writing and how
best to deliver your message when writing a proposal, memo, etc.
My team and myself will learn more about business communication when we complete this
project by learning how to be more efficient in our writing and how to teach others to be more
efficient in their writing. By doing this, we create a more uniform style of business writing.
The target company/organization, the University of Utah’s EAE department, will gain knowledge
in learning how to train their students to write successful proposals that have their trademark in
exceptional writing that is uniform across all divisions.
Evidence
The first bit of evidence is this eHow article on how to “equip your staff with new skills or
improve upon what they're already doing”. This article explains how best to set up an ongoing
training program and make it a success. It outlines the criteria for location, how to write an
education plan, and how to use learning aids to your benefit.
Read more: How to Develop an Ongoing Training Program for Employees | eHow.com
http://www.ehow.com/how_5154887_develop-ongoing-training-program-employees.html#ixzz27hUUiAS3
The second piece of evidence is a PDF file published by a company named Sage Publishing.
Sage Publishing posts articles and PDFs about authors in the educational and professional
markets. This PDF file overviews how to train management in human resource departments.
There are two sections that mention writing, the first is on page 200. The point states about
skills that HR management needs, “Writing—Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate
for the needs of the audience.” The second states about skills an employee needs regarding
processing paperwork, “Writing reports, memos, letters, etc.”
See: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/26858_7.pdf
The last bit of evidence is an article written by Jane Watson. Ms. Watson writes many articles
for a website called Presentation-Pointers.com. She writes frequently about how to best
communicate in business. In this article, she speaks specifically about writing programs and
how they can best help your business. She also outlines some of the best ways to go about this
such as following up after the program is over, instructing managers at providing good
feedback, and how to deliver workshops.
See: http://www.presentation-pointers.com/showarticle/articleid/147/
The first company I believe would be willing to participate is Gamestop. Gamestop is a
corporation that is geared towards the market of video games and technology. In the company,
managers consistently correspond through email and conference calls. By learning a more
uniform way to write these correspondences, it would help the employees represent the
company more efficiently.
The second company I believe would be willing to participate is PEHP. They are a state
employee health organization and as such, are required to write in consistently uniform styles.
Should they not follow protocol in writing business correspondence, the employees could get
reprimanded quite severely. They can emphasize the importance in writing in a uniform
business style.
Materials
We will select survey respondents by viewing their positions and how often they write business
documents/correspondence.
Personnel
Personnel in the company we plan on researching will more than likely be employees in higher
positions such as management. Management tends to understand how best to use writing in
business and will do it more often. However, we will also include entry-level positions that write
correspondence to gain even and fair statistics. I recommend about four people per group for
this project to be successful. There should be a writer who takes notes, someone who conducts
the interviews, another person to create the surveys and questions, and a final person to collect
data and organize the material.
Time Frame
10/01/12: Turn in project proposal memo.
10/03/12: Choose final project, form teams.
10/08/12: Make first contact with prospective companies.
10/10/12: Create interview questions, first meeting with company, conduct interview.
10/12/12: Gather survey data and input into graph.
10/15/12: Organize interview questions and finalize material.
10/17/12: Present finished proposal.
Hurdles
Some potential issues with this project are finding cooperative companies that would utilize a
writing program as well as following the deadline. A plan for dealing with finding a cooperative
company is rather than depending on only a couple companies, having each member of the
group find at least two companies they could reach out to and ask to participate. A plan for
following the deadline, allows for a couple days of wiggle room. I made the time frame very tight
because if things should take more than a couple of days to organize, it leaves until the end of
the month. The true final deadline would be October 31st.