Chapter 9 Style

Here, the "style" is an important approach to establish echos. It is a chance to represent the author's commitment and confidence in the project, by writing plain sentences and paragraphs. Different from academic writing or literature, proposal is a practical genre. Its main purpose is to inform, to convince, and to persuade. Therefore, the ideas must be expressed clearly and considerately to make sure the readers will interpret it correctly and favorably.

To write plain sentences, it recommends to use active voice in proposal writing--"make the Doer the subject" (164). And in class, Dr. Holmevik mentioned that it worked better to use active voice in proposal. However, I was actually taught it made the writing more objective and professional when using passive voice since I started learning English. (I don't know why. Probably they wanted to teach us academic English.) So I was a little confused.

But now I understand. The proposal is supposed to explain things as clear as possible. So it is important to clarify who is going to that, for instance, who will move the coffee maker, followed by the explanations like why he/she is uniquely qualified, how he/she will make it, and so forth.

On the other hand, if it is hard to predict who, it will be appropriate to use passive voice. And the author may be considered as a considerate and honest person at that point.