Part 2 of Part 4 of the Harty Reading

Questions to ask when including a visual:
Why include your visual?
Is the information in your visual accurate?
"Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.""
- Autobiography of Mark Twain
Is your visual focused?
Are terms and symbols in your visual defined and consistent?
Does your visual specify measurements and distances?
Is the lettering readable?
Is the caption clear?
Is there a figure or table number?
Is a list of figures or tables needed?
Are figures or tables needed?
Are figure or table numbers referred to in your text?
Are visuals appropriately placed?
Do visuals stand out from the surrounding text?

Elements included in a table:
Table number
Table title
Boxhead
Stub
Body
Rules
Source line
Footnotes
Continuing tables

You have to have sources or a credit line when reprinting a graph or using data printed to create your own graph.

Visuals are necessary because some of your audience may be visual learners. In addition, your audience will obtain a greater understanding of your speech by including visuals. Nonexperts require a lengthier explanation than experts do as a rule. Visuals aid in determining the correlation between data.

Rules every persuader should know:
1. Consider whether your views will make problems for readers
2. Don’t offer new ideas, directives, or recommendations for change until your readers are prepared for them
3. Your credibility with readers affects your strategy
4. If your audience disagrees with your ideas or is uncertain about them, present both sides of the argument
5. Win respect by making your opinion or recommendation clear
6. Put your strongest points last if the audience is very interested in the argument, first if it is not so interested
7. Don’t count on changing attitudes by offering information alone
8. “Testimonials” are most likely to be persuasive if drawn from people whom readers associate
9. Be wary of using extreme or “sensational” claims and facts
10. Tailor your presentation to the reasons for readers’ attitudes, if you know them
11. Never mention other people without considering their possible effect on the reader
Ex. Bush exclaiming that China should be more like Taiwan a day before he was to visit China

Why did public opinion towards the war in Iraq drop so quickly?

Politicians use which of the above rules of persuasion when running for office. Which do they not use or disobey?

Mr. Drye, a stand up comedian and COMM 250 professor, comments that part of public speaking (especially after dinner) is getting to know your audience. Dinner is not a time to enjoy but a time to prepare and to get to know your audience.

Guidelines for writing a successful proposal
1. Approach writing a proposal as a problem-solving activity
2. Regard your audience as skeptical readers
3. Research your proposal carefully
4. Prove that your proposal is workable
5. Be sure that your proposal is financially realistic
6. Package your proposal attractively

How many of the guidelines did you follow when writing your own respective proposals?

The organization of an internal proposal
The introduction
Background of the problem
The solution or plan
The conclusion

Sales proposal questions:
Does the writer’s firm understand our problem?
Can the writer’s firm deliver what it promises?
Can the job be completed on time?
What assurances does the writer offer that the job will be done exactly as
proposed?

Organization of a Sales Proposal
Introduction
Statement of purpose and subject of proposal
Background of the problem you propose to solve
Description of the proposed product or service
Carefully show your potential customers that your product or service is
right for them.
Describe your work in suitable detail – what it looks like, what it does, and
how consistently well it will perform its job
Stress any special features, maintenance advantages, warranties, or service benefits
Timetable
Costs
Qualifications of your company
Conclusion

Our project proposal was a sales proposal.

Guidelines for writing plain sentences
1. The subject should be what the sentence is about
2. Make the “doer” the subject. Subject is the “doer”
3. State the action in the verb
4. Put the subject early in the sentence
5. Eliminate nominalizations
6. Avoid excessive prepositional phrases
7. Eliminate redundancy
8. Make sentences “breathing length”

IN SHORT “KISS” – KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID

The elements of a paragraph
Transition sentence
Topic sentence
Support sentences
Point sentences

Align sentences in a paragraph
The Given/New method – write something the readers already know into each sentence of every paragraph

Passive Voice is appropriate in scientific and technical proposals because who will be doing what is not always predictable.