Making An Impact

You have noticed that there is something wrong in the environment within your community. If this continues the impact will be catastrophic and flora and/or fauna may disappear. Your challenge is to come up with a way to intervene and attempt to gain support for your initiative.

You will create a proposal to convince your classmates/community to support your intervention.

Standards and Criteria for Success

What is the problem?
What caused the problem?
How will you intervene?
Present Evidence/Statistics
Use of Persuasive Language
Consider your audience

Writing Your Proposal

Start with a firm introduction. This should start out with a hook. Ideally, you want your readers engaged from point one. Make your proposal as purposeful and useful as possible. Use some background information to get your readers in the zone. Then state the purpose of your proposal.
- If you have any stark facts that shed some light on why the issue needs to be addressed and addressed immediately, it's a safe bet that's something you can start with. Whatever it is, make sure what you start out with is a fact and not an opinion.
State the problem. After the introduction, you'll get into the body. Here's where you should state your problem. If your readers don't know much about this, fill them in. What is the problem? What is causing the problem? What effects does this problem have?
- Emphasise why your problem needs to be solved and needs to be solved now. How will it affect your audience if left alone? Make sure to answer all questions and cover them with research and facts.
- Don't: rely solely on appeals to emotions or values.
- Do: tie the issue to the audience's interest as directly as possible.
Propose solutions. This is arguably the most important part of your proposal. The solutions section is where you get into how you will address the problem, why you will do it in this way, and what the outcomes will be. To make sure you've got a persuasive proposal, think about the following:
- Discuss the larger impact of your ideas.
- Addressing why you will do something is as important as stating what you will do. Presume that your readers are skeptical and will not accept your ideas at face value. If you're proposing to do a catch-and-release study of 2,000 wild tuna, why? Why is that better than something else? If it's more expensive than another option, why can't you use the cheaper option? Anticipating and addressing these questions will show that you've considered your idea from all angles.
- Your audience should leave your proposal assured that you can solve the problem effectively.
- Research your proposal. The more examples and facts you can give your audience, the better - it'll be much more convincing. Avoid your own opinions and rely on the hard research of others.
Wrap up with a conclusion. This should mirror your introduction, succinctly wrapping up your general message. If there are consequences to your proposal not being undertaken, state them. Summarise the benefits of your proposal. Leave your audience thinking ahead. And, as always, thank them for their consideration and time.
Proofread your work. Editing focuses on getting the content as clear and concise as you can make it. Proofreading makes sure that your content is free of mistakes. Go over your proposal carefully to catch any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.
- Any mistakes on your end will make you look less credible, reducing your likelihood of getting support.

Example Proposal

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