Proposal Survey Instructions
In Chapter 7 of our text, Anderson offers several strategies for conducing meaningful research to help us in our technical writing tasks. One such method is the survey, which is discussed on pages 173 - 178. You might also visit the website Survey Monkey, to see how they suggest posing survey questions.
Consider the project you are currently working on for the Proposal Assignment. On rereading the pages about surveys, consider how a survey could help you in this proposal objective. Then do the following:
• Write a formal memo or business letter to the audience for your Proposal.
• In the document, offer 5 short survey questions that will help you complete your proposal, or target it more specifically to their request. Ensure that your wording in the memo makes your intentions clear.
• Consider the wording and type of questions closely as the book indicates. Thought given here will yield the best results when the surveys are returned.
• Be sure you consider that closed-ended questions are much easier to tally and understand, once you get them back. The more you use open ended questions, the higher your risk for a time consuming task with analyzing the survey results, and you will get results that are not meaningful. So plan your questions accordingly.
• Having read the text material about surveys, be creative with how you want/need your audience to respond:
o They could fill out an attached sheet and return it to you (standard procedure is to offer a prepaid envelope)
o The survey questions could also be on a return post card
o If you email your letter or memo to the recipient, you could direct them to an on-line survey site like Survey Monkey, where the survey could be completed
o And so on.
Specifics:
• Develop a professional business letter or memo of one full page, in which you ask your audience some pertinent questions, specifically regarding your Proposal project.
• Develop a minimum of 5 Survey Questions, based on the guidance for developing questions on our text on pages noted above.
• Direct your audience on how to get the responses to you - but the questions must also appear in the letter or memo body as well.
• Post this document to the link in Module 12 for Instructor review.
Evaluation
This assignment is worth30 points. Evaluation will be based on the following criteria at minimum:
1. Audience: Has the appropriate audience been considered for the document and/or has consideration been given to the scenario described in the assignment?
2. Format: Is the document formatted according to assignment requirements and standard business practices?
3. Document elements: Does the document include all necessary elements, per the assignment and the particular type of document?
4. Survey Questions: Have the questions been well considered, both with the type of question as well as wording, to yield the most useful results?
5. Language, Mechanics, grammatical issues: Does the document use acceptable business language/style? Is the document free from errors in spelling, grammar, mechanics and punctuation?