Proposal Essay
Executive Summary
Students will select a current socio-political issue and propose a realistic, research grounded solution to it, to a specifically defined hypothetical audience that the issue impacts.
Required Reading/Sources
Chapter 11, Becoming Rhetorical
4+ Additional sources, 3 of which can be taken from your Annotated Bibliography
Assignment Description
A Proposal is a type of rhetorical act with the explicit goal of getting people to act. For this assignment, you will create your own Proposal to address a current socio-political issue (of as large or small a scale as you would like), and address it to an explicitly defined group as an audience. For example, you could pick an issue and target your classmates, the Nashville City Council, the United Nations General Assembly, or a group of any size or scale that you choose. After identifying a problem and a specific audience, you must:
Identify the audience’s need that your proposal will address
Clearly state what should happen in addressing that need (called a Proposal Claim)
Provide supporting arguments on why this proposal is feasible, beneficial, and better than other options
Explicitly and openly acknowledge potential problems
Demonstrate or exemplify how the proposal will impact people or address the problem
In order to complete those actions, though, you must first define the problem you are addressing, by clearly answering the five following question:
What is the problem or need, exactly?
What are the manifestations of the problem?
Why is the problem occurring?
How does the problem affect your audience? Be sure to clearly define your audience
What will happen if the problem isn’t solved?
In order to accomplish all of this, you will need to thoroughly and clearly explain the rhetorical situation in which this proposal is being put forth, including the history of the topic, how it has been represented in other media across time, and the interests behind various viewpoints on the topic. The paper therefore will include:
A-E above are answered here
A definition of your topic/problem
An explanation of the topic’s/problem’s history across media
C
Numbers 1-5 are addressed here
urrent views on the topic/problem
A Proposal to solve the issues created by the problem
Topic Selection
All proposal topics must be approved by your instructor.
Drafting
There will be two drafts of this paper. The first is a rough draft which will be less than half the length of the final and for which you will only need to have found three (3) additional sources. After the first draft is submitted, it will be returned to you ASAP with feedback and suggestions for expansion/improvement. A first draft must be submitted in order for you to receive any grade on the assignment. However, a first draft does not need to be edited, formatted, or have any clear direction. It mostly just needs to be turned in.
Requirements
First Draft
Length: 500-800 words
Sources: Chapter 11, Becoming Rhetorical, plus 3+ additional sources (these should be the sources from your Annotated Bibliography)
Format: Open
Peer Review Draft
Length: 500-800 words
Sources: Chapter 11, Becoming Rhetorical, plus 3+ additional sources (only having the same sources as your first draft is acceptable)
Format: Open
Final Draft
Length: 1250-1750 words
Sources: Chapter 11, Becoming Rhetorical, plus 4+ additional sources
Format: 12 pt. Times New Roman font, Single Spaced, MLA format, including full MLA Citations for each source
