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Type your answers to the following questions. Answer in a minimum of one complet

ID: 330972 • Letter: T

Question

Type your answers to the following questions. Answer in a minimum of one complete paragraph.

Remember, a paragraph has an opening sentence, a minimum of three of more sentences, and a conclusion sentence.

1.      For what reasons would government agencies and other firms use requests for proposals (RFPs)? Name and explain an example of a project that might require an RFP.

2.      What sources are considered secondary sources, and where can they be found?

3.      What is the difference between an open-ended and close-ended survey question? Give a detailed example of each. (Answer with at least two paragraphs.)

4.      Why should report writers document their sources?

5.      Define the term fair use. When might using copyrighted material be considered fair use?

6.      What should the introduction to a formal business report include?

Explanation / Answer

Take a note…

1. Request for proposal is a formal document that is used to share the requirements about a project, reach out to multiple vendors and get a response for the required areas. Typically, RFP`s are documents that have detailed specifications of requirements, expected qualities in vendors, expected deadlines, selection criteria and a detailed background on the project. Government agencies will often share RFP`s to multiple vendors to share any requirement to a public or private work to be undertaken by external vendors. They would then get responses and based on the best offer, they will select the vendors for the jobs. An example of project, will be of constricting a bridge across a river. The RFP in this case would contain, the reason for taking up this project, the detailed requirements in terms of quality, durability etc., expected deadlines and the shortlisting mechanism for the same. The RFP`s are usually floated as public tenders which is shared to a larger audience. The interested vendors can then understand the RFP`s and provide the proposals accordingly.

2. In an RFP, the data gathered to prepare the document can be from primary or secondary sources. Primary sources are the ones where data is present with the sender through his day to day activities. For secondary sources, the data may be obtained through, published documents, bibliographies, analysis documents, journal articles, news articles, historical abstracts, scientific reports etc. Consider the case of bridge construction, the data for such cases can be obtained by public requests, complaints, demographic data, geological data etc. which can support the requirement of a bridge in the locality.

3. Survey is an effective tool that can be used to understand the consumers and the customer psyche. In order to get to the root cause of the problems it is necessary to take the verbatim as it is and project it to the leadership teams. Having a survey is the most effective way to capture such issues. Close ended questions are the ones where the responder only has to select from within the options provided. It can either be a yes no question or rating based on any scale. But it closes the question and provides no scope for getting further details regarding any negative points.

If the question is an open ended question, then responders get to express their opinions and is able to draw more thought provoking responses from them.it also helps in capturing feelings, attitudes and understanding of various aspects of the questionnaire.

4. Report writers usually express their opinions in pieces based on thoughts that have been inspired or provoked by others. It can happen many times that an article which one publishes can be viewed in an entirely different context by another person. In such cases, it is essential to link both articles so that new approaches and discoveries can be made. There can also be cases, where an article is basing his opinion based on some observations done by others. It is therefore vital to document the sources so that if one wants to understand the entire end to end scope and purpose it can be traced and linked together.

5. Fair use can be explained as usage of copyrighted material for non-profitable uses. It can also be described as using a copyrighted material to do further analysis, debate or for educational purposes. If the user is not using the materials to share it without permission or if the user stays away from using the documents as his own then it can be fair use. If the user is sharing the document to multiple parties even though it is for educational purposes then it cannot be considered a fair use. Also suppose a music is used for any single private event, then it won`t be considered as an issue for copyright but if the same is used for any public event it is considered as infringement in copyrights.

6. An introduction to a formal business report should include the following sections:

• Summary of report

• Introduction to the document

• Major issues identified

• Need for report/project

• Major stakeholders involved