essay 5: Proposal Essay (4-5 pages long)

AUDIENCE AND PURPOSE

Your goal in this paper is to request a solution to a problem and convince your audience that your solution is the best solution of many (this is how the essay becomes arguable). A proposal is actually a persuasive request and shares many characteristics with the position paper we just finished. There are various kinds of situations that require proposals, including the following: funds, research approval, exceptions to the rules, a change in procedure/law, and courses of study or action.

In order to be effective, you must select an audience for your request. In other words, explicitly indicate who your audience is. Consider the following questions before you begin: Who is my audience? How much do they know about my subject? What important goals or values of this audience are relevant to this proposal? What kind of facts/ documentation might be available to support my definition of the problem? What do I think will happen as a result of the proposal? If the answer is “Nothing,” choose another topic!

ASSIGNMENT

For this essay, I would like you to keep the same overall topic of your position paper if possible. For example, a position paper that argues for the addition of a stop sign at a dangerous intersection would become a proposal once the focus shifts to implementing the idea. Or, if you argued for the legitimacy of dress codes in public schools, your attention should now become putting that idea into practice. Now it is a proposal. In other words, you must shift your focus to solving the problem. In that light, you might want to consider the following questions: What steps are involved? What are potential objections?

Some of you may be able to include portions of or ideas from your previous position paper (By the way, this is NOT cheating; professional writers do this all the time). Others of you will have to or will choose to begin with an entirely new topic. In this paper, be sure to relate your topic on an individual/personal level as well as on a societal level. In other words, I want to hear YOUR voice, YOUR opinion, as well as any sources you use, throughout your proposal; after all, it is you suggesting a solution to this problem.

PLANNING AND DRAFTING

Use a combination of evidence, whatever is needed for effectively proposing your solution. Much of the information you collected for your position paper may be relevant here. Like the position paper, you are required (a minimum of three) to include sources with this assignment. If you choose to keep the same topic as Essay 4, it is likely that you have already identified your sources. Remember, when you do consult sources, you do not need an extensive bibliography, but read enough so that you can write as an authority, not a novice. Also be sure that you are applying the standards of academic research as you identify the sources for this essay (ie, no quick google searches, Wikipedia, etc). Include a Works Cited page using MLA style (see Hacker or the Purdue OWL for help with this).

To get you started, most student proposals contain parts that perform the following four functions, although the parts are not necessarily given these names:

1.	Describe the problem
2.	Explain the problem’s negative effects
3.	Propose your solution (and why other solutions will not work)—this will form the “bulk” of your essay
4.	Explain the solution’s positive effects