Proposal arguments are one of the most common types of arguments that you will read or write in many workplace settings. Proposals typically call for some kind of action or change; they call on an audience to come to a decision and to do something. In light of this, proposal arguments typically rise out of existing problems and are most often framed as suggested solutions along the lines of “We should do X.”
Your goal is to identify a local issue of public concern and write a practical and original proposal which calls for a specific course of action to solve this problem. In order to do this you must research and educate your audience on both the causes of your chosen problem and why your proposal will be the best course of action to take in order to solve the issue. Essentially, you want to persuade your audience to believe that a problem of importance exists, to agree with your stance on the argument, and to act upon your recommendations to do something. In order to do so, keep in mind the essential pieces of a proposal:
- Convince your target audience that a problem exists and that it needs immediate attention.
- Convince them of the course of action that needs to be taken to solve the problem.
This project requires you to do a substantial amount of research on your issue (you must utilize 6 – 10 secondary sources in your final paper). By the time you sit down to write your paper you should be an expert on your chosen topic. You are encouraged to use the resources offered by ASU libraries, including online periodicals, print materials, documentaries, and the like. If relevant you may also use first hand interviews as a source. The secondary source material used must either help establish context, validate the steps in your causal chain, or support your chosen proposal. You may use any or all of the sources you wrote about in Writing Project 2, the Annotated Bibliography, in this essay.
Assignment Steps
Writing a proposal is a complex task. As a result, there are several steps you will need to take in order to be successful:
- Identify a problem or issue.
- Uncover the problem (this requires you to explore the causes and consequences of the problem).
- Consider potential solutions to the problem and think through the reasons to support these solutions.
- Consider objections or alternative proposals and think through why you should concede or refute these objections.
- Identify the big picture of whats at stake and what specific tasks you want your audience to act upon.
- Propose an original course of action. It is not enough to simply agree with anothers proposal, you must craft an original proposal based on your research and ideas.
Project Submission
Your process work assignments will be submitted in Canvas within the weekly modules.
Your final project (2,400 – 3,000 words) will be submitted here as a PDF file. Your essay must be an APA formatted document, including a title page and abstract. If your essay submission is late, then the late assignment deduction will be applied.
