The proposal is often the beginning of a weeks-long research and writing process that goes through many stages until it gets to the end point. In this case, you only submit the proposal once during this process. You may write and submit several related genres of documents: a progress report, an outline report, an annotated bibliography, a graphics draft, a report draft, and upgrade, and so on.

Keep in mind the possibility of multiple audiences, common in profession writing. The audiences for various kinds of documents that may be produced for the same project can vary. Consider the example of a proposal written to a supervisor at a solar power company suggesting the creation of a policy manual for residential solar panel installers. The proposal’s primary audience may be an executive who will make the decision to approve the proposal, but whose knowledge of the technicalities may be very broad.  The executive may request that the proposed budget be reviewed by the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and the technical description by the engineering department (whose staff will use the manual).  Hence the proposal should include distinct sections for such secondary audiences.  The content and language used for these various audiences and situations will need to be adjusted accordingly.