Welcome to the WJETT blog
What is WJETT?
The WJETT blog or Warwick Journal of Education - Transforming Teaching blog is designed to encourage staff and students to disseminate good practice and to engage with their peers on academic cultural critique or areas of research that they find interesting. With the increased focus on ‘teachers as researchers’ in the sector, many qualified teachers are expected to publish the outcomes of any action research projects they undertake. The WJETT blog can be the first step on your journey towards publishing and enables you to experience publishing and reviewing in a friendly and supportive environment.
You will need to scroll down the page below the tags to see the posts.
Building Effective Client Proposals
Effective pitching to business leaders is a critical skill, particularly for those involved (or who aspire to be involved) in consultancy and business transformation. Drawing from extensive experience at IBM and teaching at Warwick Business School, Matthew Lucas has produced a new articleLink opens in a new window that outlines key strategies for students to craft and deliver successful business proposals. The process is broken down into four main stages; research, formulation, development, and delivery:
- Research: The research phase is crucial for grounding the proposal in a thorough understanding of the client's problem and business context. The article recommends starting by investigating the client and their requirements and discusses the various information sources such as company reports, external messaging, and competitive analysis to gain a comprehensive view.
- Formulation: In this stage, ideas are developed that address the client's requirements, often utilising a process like Design Thinking. The article recommends a brainstorming session to generate a wide range of ideas, which are then narrowed down in to one or two feasible and high-impact concepts. It describes the key considerations when refining your ideas, including the benefits for various stakeholders, success criteria (using SMART targets), associated costs, potential risks, alternative solutions, ethical considerations, and implementation guidance.
- Development: The development phase involves creating a presentation or other documentation to convey your ideas effectively. The article recommends a presentation structure that’s designed to be clear and comprehensive, and with the best chance of success.
- Delivery: Effective delivery of the material is as important as the content itself. This section gives recommendations on how to prepare for and pitch any client presentation, with techniques to control nerves and mitigate the chances of things going wrong on the day.
By following the strategies in this article, students can enhance their ability to influence and persuade business leaders effectively.
Writing guidance
Can I write about anything in my blog post?
Yes pretty much. Academic cultural critique (Thomson and Mewburn, 2013) is always a good source of content for academic blogs. This can include (but is not limited to) comments and reflections on funding; higher education policy or academic life. You might also want to consider blogging about:
- Academic practice (Saper, 2006)
- Information and/or self-help advice
- Technical, teaching and careers advice
- Your research or practice
- How you’ve undertaken research
- The impact of research on your practice
- An area of research/practice that interests you
- Your teaching experiences/reflections
How long can my blog post be?
Each individual blog post should be no longer than 500 words. Long blocks of text are sometimes hard for readers to digest. Break up your content into shorter paragraphs, bullet points and lists whenever possible. Also include a list of keywords or tags as this makes it easier for Google to find your work.
Do I need to use citations?
No, this is a reflective piece so it does not need to include citations (but you obviously can include them if they are relevant).
Can I include links or images?
We would encourage you to include links to any articles that you have considered whilst writing your blog post. We also welcome the use of images (as long as you have permission to use them) as they can often help to illustrate a point and obviously will not be included in the word limit. Please remember this is a public site so if you want to include images of your students in your classes then you will need permission to do this.
What is the process for submitting a piece of work?
Your blog post should be emailed to A.Ball.1@warwick.ac.uk. Once the submission has been reviewed it will either be uploaded at the beginning of the next available week or sent back to you for editing if it requires amendments. You should then send the amended work to me once again and I will then upload it.