PROPOSALS
PROPOSALS
Contractors bid on building projects. Musicians and educators apply for grants. Researchers seek funding.
Student leaders call for lights on bike paths. You offer to pay half the cost of a car and insurance if your
parents will pay the other half. Lovers propose marriage; friends propose sharing dinner and a movie. These
are all examples of proposals: ideas put forward for consideration that say, “Here is a solution to a problem”
or “This is what ought to be done.” All proposals are arguments: when you propose something, you are trying
to persuade others to see a problem in a particular way and to accept your solution to the problem. For
example, here is a proposal for reducing the costs of college textbooks, written by an accounting professor at
the University of Texas who is chairman of the university’s Co-op Bookstore and himself a textbook author. It
originally appeared on the OpEd page of the New York Times in August 2007.
This proposal clearly defines the problem — some textbooks cost a lot — and explains why. It proposes a
solution to the problem of high textbook prices and offers reasons why this solution will work better than
others. Its tone is reasonable and measured, yet decisive.
b. [A single solution]
Introduce Explain the Give reasons why Call for action, or
and explain proposed it is the best reiterate your
the problem. solution. or reiterate
solution. proposal.
your proposed
action.
Anticipate and
answer questions.
TOPIC PROPOSALS
Instructors often ask students to write topic proposals to ensure that their topics are appropriate or
manageable. If you get your instructor’s response to a good proposal before you write it, your finished
product will likely be much better than if you try to guess the assignment’s demands. Some instructors may
also ask for an ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY showing that appropriate sources of information are available —
more evidence that the project can be carried out. Here, a first-year student proposes a topic for an
assignment in a writing course in which she has been asked to take a position on a global issue.
Church defines and narrows her topic (from biodiversity loss to the impact of that loss on medicine), discusses
her interest, outlines her argument, and discusses her research strategy. Her goal is to convince her instructor
that she has a realistic writing project and a clear plan.
Source:
Bullock, R. (2009). The Norton Field Guide to Writing (2nd Edition). New York City: W.W. Norton Company, Inc. Pp. 171-179.