My group has decided to focus on public works proposals. We were all interested in the methods by which someone can go about persuading an audience that their goal is worth investing in. Proposals are common among any field that requires funding, action, or permission. Since proposals can be constructed by such a wide variety of people, it is interesting to see how different areas of society put different levels of importance on the same features.
Public works proposals are often the first step in an assemblage of texts that will complete a goal. Once a problem/ area of improvement is identified, a public works proposal will be submitted to a governing body, usually a town or state, that will then decide if the proposed improvement is worth pursuing. If the proposal is accepted, there will then be a RFP, request for proposals, sent out to the public that allows contractors to bid on the job. Once a contractor is selected, a contract is drawn up which will then lead to job completion. This entire process is kicked off by one’s ability to convince others that their proposal is worth investing in. Public works proposals have so much power because although they can be rejected, they also are unrestricted and do not require any preceding documents.
There are many types of proposals but I tend to look at public works proposals as parts of genre sets. They can be submitted from one person to another and are the start to a sequential set of actions. That being said, there is definitely some overlap when a group is constructing a RFP, they must refer back to the proposal to ensure that the original goal is properly explained. Similarly, all responses to a RFP will be going down a list, making sure all features of the RFP are addressed at some point.
