Multimodal Research Paper: A Proposal Description: Proposals require change: something should, must, or needs to happen. In Inventing Arguments, authors John Mauk and John Metz explain that proposals almost always arise from a crisis, since in a crisis, “thinking [and acting] in the same old ways …can be…dangerous” (250). Hence, the need for change. Proposals are also often “layered.” Embedded in them can be other claims: claims of fact, definition, cause/effect, and value. Every arguable statement within a proposal must be proven to make an effective argument. For example: Because boxing is inhumane, the sport should be banned. Claim of definition: What constitutes inhumane activity? Claim of value: Why does boxing meet the definition? Claim of policy (proposal): Boxing should be banned. Engineers must revise their plans for a bridge project to account for new information about shifting sediment on the river’s flood plain. Claim of fact: Sediment on the river’s flood plain is shifting. Claim of cause/effect: [cause]: New information documents shifting sediment [proving above claim of fact], and current plans do not take shifting sediment into account [must prove new claim of fact]; therefore, [effect] the shifting sediment makes current bridge plans obsolete. Claim of policy (proposal): Engineers must revise bridge project plans to account for shifting sediment (Mauk and Metz, Inventing Argument, 251). Instructions: In an eight-to-ten page paper written in third-person and formatted in APA Style, write a proposal to defined audience(s) and purpose(s) of your choice on an aspect of the crisis of climate change. A proposal asks its audience to act (vote, embrace, listen, ignore, fight, pioneer, revise, be courageous, etc.) or think differently. While the proposal must be written in third person, it should incorporate Aristotle’s three main appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos as well as appeals to value and/or need. Include an effective introduction, layered policy claim, subheadings, adequate evidence (you may use up to two 40 – 60- word block quote[s] and must incorporate one visual or graph), and in-text citations with a references list of at least eight sources, two of which must be peer-reviewed.
