Master the Art of Proposal Writing

Describing Features in a Project Proposal

• Features are the easiest part of a project proposal to discuss, but it is important to avoid the Curse of Knowledge and make them accessible to the reader.
• Describing Features requires thinking about the audience and what they need, as different contexts may require different emphases.
• The Features emphasized should help to connect the Advantages and Benefits of the project.
• When describing Features, use basic dimensions such as outputs per month, person-days of work, countries of operation, total number of computers distributed, people participating, or number of activities.
• It is important to consider which metrics are most meaningful to the reader.
• The reader's proximity to the context being described affects how they view the Features, and it is best to break up the description of Features to account for this.
• The Terminologinator is a robot bureaucracy that kills communication; words may not mean the same thing to the reader and using the wrong terminology can hinder understanding.
• It is important to know the audience's terminology and to maintain principles of clear writing.
• The Tyranny of Distances refers to the different distances readers have from the context being described and how this affects their understanding of the Features.
• It is difficult to predict who will read the proposal, so it is best to provide a basic description of Features and refer readers to an Annex for more detail.
• It is important to emphasize Features that are related to the donor's purpose and motivation.
• Bruce Lee's advice to "just enough is enough" applies to describing Features in a project proposal.