ENG 301: Writing for the Professions

Dr. Keith Miller

SECOND ASSIGNMENT: HEY, HO, I'M A CEO!

You have already graduated from ASU. Through some inexplicable accident, your extremely loving grandfather somehow managed to omit your name from his carefully detailed will, leaving all his vast fortune to others. Also, while you are certainly a financial wizard, you have, for some unknown reason, never managed to save money and sometimes forgot to pay those pesky bills. The mortgage company just repossessed your house. Plus you have no job. Lacking resources, you need to write a proposal to potential investors explaining your new company or non-profit. Your goal is to persuade them to invest their hard-earned money in your endeavor instead of in some proven money maker.

You, of course, are no ordinary Joe or Jo, but rather a highly imaginative person who learned far more from your intensive studies at ASU (especially in ENG 301) than lesser people learned at a lesser institution north of Nogales, Arizona. No proper challenge would occur if you simply proposed a company or a non-profit identical to ones that already exist. Boredom alone would ensue. And for imaginative people, boredom is the life's greatest problem. You need to challenge yourself by proposing a truly new company or non-profit, one that does not now exist. In designing your wondrous plan, consider the following criteria:

1) Albeit a marvel, the company or non-profit must be plausible. You need to convince investors that such an enterprise can and should exist, that it can and should serve an important public function. If it's a company, it should be one that will turn a significant profit that will repay investors. If it's a non-profit, it should serve a genuine and important public need and not replicate existent non-profits. Hot dog stands on Mars are not permitted.

2) The company or non-profit should have some substance and size. Earthly hot dog stands are not permitted either.

2) The organization chart should be specific and clear. Each proposed job should be fully explained and justified.

3) The budget should be specific and clear. Each proposed expense should be fully explained and justified.

4) A timeline for establishing the enterprise should be specific, clear, fully explained, and fully justified.

5) The credentials of every employee should be fully explained and should meet the needs of the jobs that the employees will fill.

6) In order to illustrate your ideas, relevant and suitable graphics should adorn your proposal.

7) The location of the enterprise, and its building(s), should be specified and justified as to their suitability and the reasonableness of their expense.

If you wish, you may write this proposal by yourself. Or you may collaborate with either one, two, or three classmates. If you collaborate, you may divide the work as you see fit. But the complete proposal will receive one--and only one--grade.