It is necessary at various times to convince others to go along with things. At its simplest, this is what a proposal is: putting forth an idea and convincing others that they will benefit from supporting that idea. This is the basic principle behind the proposal assignment.
For the ENG 202 proposal, students will select one of the weaknesses identified in the process analysis and evaluation and draft an external, formal, solicited grant proposal eliciting aid from the same agency to which the standard business letter was addressed. Generally, the proposal will need to follow the form discussed in class and in the course textbook, beginning on page 188; it will need to include the following features:
Letter of Transmittal--a standard business letter noting that a proposal is being submitted and detailing the rationale for sending it to the agency to which the earlier business letter was addressed
Title Page
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations or Figures--optional; this is not needed if there are no illustrations or figures, or if all of the illustrations or figures are gathered into a single appendix near the end of the proposal
Executive Summary or Abstract--a short synopsis of the contents of the proposal
Introduction--introduces the context in which the proposal exists; lays out the circumstances of a process, identifies a problem or weakness within the process, and articulates why it is problematic or weak
Discussion--identifies a corrective to the problem or weakness, lays out what steps will be undertaken to enact the corrective, explains why the selected corrective is most appropriate, specifies what support will be necessary to enact the corrective
Conclusion--identifies what the agency to which the proposal is directed will gain from supporting or agreeing to the proposal
Glossary--optional; a list of potentially unfamiliar terms and definitions of them as they are used in the proposal (as distinct from dictionary definitions)
Appendices--optional; supplementary explanatory information, such as tables, transcripts, equations, and side-discussions, which help illustrate points made in the body of the proposal but are not strictly necessary to it
Works Cited--a standard MLA-style Works Cited page providing citation information for all works referenced in the proposal
The assignment will be graded based on 1) general effectiveness of the proposal; 2) clarity and intelligibility of the discussion; 3) adherence to the formatting standards established for the Letter of Transmittal, Title Page, and Works Cited, and clarity of formatting through the rest of the document; 4) completeness and accuracy of information throughout, and 5) adherence to the conventions of edited academic American English as discussed in the current edition of the MLA style guides throughout. (Please see the Purdue University Online Writing Lab for more information regarding those standards, here; be sure to follow MLA rules.) Each category will be assigned a grade, A+ through 0, and the average of those category grades will be recorded as the total assignment grade.
The assignment must be submitted as an attachment via email to geoffrey.b.elliott@gmail.com prior to the beginning of class on the day the course calendar indicates the assignment is due. Acceptable file formats for the attachment are limited to Rich Text Format (.rtf) and Microsoft Word documents (.doc or .docx); no other file formats will be accepted. Typed hard copies may be submitted only with PRIOR approval of the instructor, offered on a case-by-case basis by direct consultation. Handwritten copies are not acceptable in any case. Failure to follow stated submission guidelines will result in the submitted assignment being discarded.
Students are reminded that appropriate citation must be provided for any externally referenced information, and all included information must be justified. That is, any time external information is included, there must be a reason, expressed along with that information, for its inclusion. Such materials must also be appropriately integrated into the student's writing. Acceptable standards for doing so appear on the Purdue University Online Writing Lab, here; be sure to follow MLA rules. FAILURE TO ACCOUNT FOR SOURCES IS PLAGIARISM AND WILL BE DEALT WITH HARSHLY.
A sample of a successful proposal appears as an attachment below. While it does not strictly adhere to the specific guidelines of the assignment detailed above, it does offer a useful model of how proposals can be formatted in the world outside the classroom.