STOP, GO, and the state of the art in proposal writing

摘要

It is shown that the state of the art in proposal preparation makes available a wide array of techniques and devices to help make the proposal compliant, clear, convincing, and appealing. The techniques discussed are modular format, topical outlining, topic thesis sentences, required figures for topics, graphics oriented (GO) charts, figure enrichment, expanded figure titles, phrased topic titles, action topic titles, key issues visuals and lead topics, topic level storyboards, group wall review of storyboards, proposal manager's win strategy worksheets and customer's requirements worksheets, section level win strategy worksheets, compliance control system and worksheets, and early red team reviewing. In particular, the Sequential Topical Organization of Proposals (STOP) system, which introduced the modular format and topical storyboarding, is described.