Proposal Critique/Design Value: 35% Length: 500 word blog, plus 2000 word proposal Submission method options EASTS (online) Task Read: A Business Proposal – Customer Records Management Replacement System for the fictional organisation Tangle Corp that is presented in this subject. This document will be made available via the Resources section of Interact for this subject. The document you are to read is a fictional business proposal aimed at the senior management of a fictional company Tangle Corp. This proposal is an attempt by members of the line management team to convince the key executive decision makers of the value of such an investment for the business and why they should approve it. Part A Length: Two blog posts, each 250 words You are to analyse and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the Tangle Corp business proposal to achieve its intended purpose in two key areas: • The persuasiveness of the document and its ability to gain buy in • The communications and leadership scenario between the key stakeholders and how this might affect the outcome of this proposal. Your first post is to state your own analysis and position on the two items above. Your second post should be a response to another student's initial analysis post. This second post is intended to elaborate, discuss, debate or otherwise expand usefully on the initial post by that student. For this discussion task the cohort will be divided into groups of approximately 10 students within which you may freely discuss your views. Thus, each student will only have to read and respond to a small selection of the cohort's posts. Part B Length: 2000 words You are to create your own alternative proposal to the one created by the Tangle Corp line managers. Your proposal has the exact same objective and should follow the same technical intentions. You are merely redesigning the document – NOT the solution. Be careful to avoid replicating the content of the existing sample proposal – use your own words. Your proposal will need to succeed in the following areas: • The structure, layout, and logic of the message in the document. How the points made are structured and sequenced, and how they interact to form a clear message. • The language style, written expression, and other aspects of written business communication. How you use language to express your points. • The Persuasiveness of your proposal and its ability to gain support and buy-in from its intended audience. • An effective executive summary. You will be required to write an introductory email addressed to the intended audience of the original proposal. This email should provide a brief executive summary of your proposal and should use no more than 300 words of your total word count. Marks will be deducted for longer summaries. This "email" should be shown immediately following your cover page for your assignment, on a page of its own. Include an appropriate subject line for this email, but no other headers are needed. This email is instead of any executive summary you might normally include in your full proposal document. There is no need to create an additional executive summary within the document itself. Rationale Students will develop an understanding of how written communication can be used to present ideas, and how such presentation can influence decision making. Students should demonstrate knowledge of how even the smallest aspects of such documents can be relevant by highlighting them as either strengths or weaknesses of the provided proposal document. Students should also demonstrate knowledge of communication art, theory and practice in the creation of their own proposal by leveraging or adhering to all of the principles they have studied in this subject. Students should demonstrate an understanding of the role of a summary and show their ability to condense key meanings from a long document into a brief abstract. This assessment task requires students to demonstrate the knowledge and skills listed in learning outcomes 2, 3 and 4 for this subject. Students will be assessed on their ability to: • be able to design, leverage and manage practical communication tools and methods; • be able to critically evaluate current human interaction theory and psychology in leadership and apply this to a variety of communication scenarios; • be able to facilitate group outcomes by using effective personal communication; Marking criteria Marking Criteria Marks Part A Analytical post on the strengths and weaknesses of the Tangle Corp proposal. 10 Discussion of another student's analysis. 10 Subtotal /20 Part B Your structure and layout of your proposal document. 16 Your logic, clarity and flow of the message expressed by your document 16 Your language, written expression, and other aspects of written business communication 16 The persuasiveness of the message and its ability to conjure support and buy in from its intended audience (the senior management of Tangle Corp). 16 A concise but thorough executive summary of the key points from your critique in email format. 16 Subtotal /80 Total Marks 100 Rubric HD DI CR PS FL Part A 2 blog posts Has presented a clear and comprehensive analysis of the persuasiveness of the document and its ability to gain buy in and a clear and comprehensive analysis of how the communications and leadership scenario between the key stakeholders might affect the proposal. Has presented an effective analysis of the persuasiveness of the document and its ability to gain buy in and a clear and comprehensive analysis of how the communications and leadership scenario between the key stakeholders might affect the proposal. Has presented a good analysis of the persuasiveness of the document and its ability to gain buy in and a clear and comprehensive analysis of how the communications and leadership scenario between the key stakeholders might affect the proposal. Has presented some analysis of the persuasiveness of the document and its ability to gain buy in and a clear and comprehensive analysis of how the communications and leadership scenario between the key stakeholders might affect the proposal. Analysis of the document is unclear or incomplete with little understanding of how the communications and leadership scenario between the key stakeholders might affect the proposal. Part B Your structure and layout of your proposal document Has used a clear and effective structure and layout that supports the information included in the document. Has used an effective structure and layout that supports the information included in the document. Has used good structure and layout that supports the information included in the document. Has put some thought into structure and layout and it mostly supports the information included in the document. Structure is ill considered or illogical and does not support the information included in the document. Your logic, clarity and flow of the messageexpressed by your document. Has presented a clear and logical message which is consistent throughout and builds constructively as it progresses. Has presented a logical message which is consistent throughout and builds constructively as it progresses. Has presented a mostly clear and logical message which is generally consistent and builds as it progresses. Message is present but lacks clarity and at times not logical throughout. Message is unclear and illogical. Your language, written expression, and other aspects of written business communication. Written expression is clear, compelling, informative, makes efficient use of word count, and professionally delivered with no spelling or grammatical errors Written expression is clear and informative with a professional tone and no spelling or grammatical errors. Written expression is clear and professional, giving most of the information needed with very little spelling or grammatical errors. Written expression has a mostly professional tone, but is at times overly colloquial or too formal. Most of the information required is present, but some spelling or grammatical errors exist. Written expression is not appropriate for a proposal. Spelling and grammatical errors are present. The persuasiveness of the proposal and its ability to conjure support and buy in from its intended audience (the senior management of Tangle Corp). Document has been clearly targeted to senior management at Tangle Corp and is effective and successful in creating buy-in and support. Document has been well targeted to senior management at Tangle Corp and is mostly effective and successful in creating buy-in and support. Document has been targeted to senior management at Tangle Corp and has created some support and buy-in. Document has created some support and buy-in but could be more specifically targeted to the senior management at Tangle Corp. Senior management has not been targeted by the proposal. Provide a concise but thorough executive summary of the key points from your critique in email format. Has created a clear and thorough summary of their document which flows logically and contains the most salient points. Has created a clear summary of their document which flows logically and contains most valid points. Has created a detailed summary of their document which uses some logic and contains some key points. Has created a summary of their document which is understandable and contains at least one main points. Executive summary is too long, containing too many irrelevant details, or too short and doesn't cover the major points. Presentation Part A should be posted initially within the correct Interact2 sub-forums and then reproduced exactly (without alteration) into a single Word document. Each post should be clearly separated. Your response post should mention (or include) the initial post. This should be submitted via EASTS. Part B should use a report format, with correct grammatical protocols and accurate spelling, punctuation and word count. Feel free to use headings and bullet-lists and ToC where you think this is appropriate. Refer to the Presentation section of this Subject Outline. Requirements Word count for this assignment is taken seriously. The word count reflects the level of detail you are required to put into your assignment. Students who exceed the word count by more than 10% will be penalised, and students who exceed word counts by an excessive amount may not have their assignment marked beyond a certain point to ensure fairness to other students who have completed the assignment within the guidelines given. Administrative sections of your assignment such as headings, table of contents, reference list and other diagrams & figures are not included in the word count. In text citations are included as part of your word count. Students who submit in PDF form should include a word count on their cover page.