Essay Proposal

INTRODUCTION
Problems are a part of life, and proposing solutions is necessary for a functioning society. Proposals may not always be obvious, but they are common both in the workplace and in everyday life. For example, you might have an idea about how to improve your child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) or a solution to lower production costs at work. Creating an effective and clear proposal can help you persuade others to adopt your perspective and take action.

For this task, you will gather credible sources and synthesize the information to determine one or more logical solutions to a problem. By successfully completing this assessment, you will prove that you have the skills necessary to create effective proposals in the real world.

REQUIREMENTS

Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. The similarity report that is provided when you submit your task can be used as a guide.

You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.

Tasks may not be submitted as cloud links, such as links to Google Docs. Google Slides, OneDrive, etc., unless specified in the task requirements. All other submissions must be file types that are uploaded and submitted as attachments (e.g…docx..pdf.ppt).

A. Create a proposal (suggested length of 2-4 pages) by doing the following:

1. Identify a problem that is relevant to a professional setting.
2. Describe the significance of the problem.
3. Provide a statement of purpose at the beginning of the proposal that recommends a solution(s) to the problem.
4. Explain the proposed course of action with 2-4 logical steps or justifications (suggested length of 1-2 paragraphs per step or justification).
5. Justify how your proposed course of action supports the solutions(s) listed in part A3 and is a suitable choice, using three credible sources to support your response.
6. Identify the challenge(s) that might be encountered while implementing the solution(s) and explain how the challenge(s) could be overcome.
7. Provide a conclusion for the proposal.

B. Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.

Task 3 Guide
A1. Topic
Ideally, your topic should be the same topic you have for Task 2 so you can use the articles you have already found, but you can use a new topic and/or new sources for Task 3. If you don’t have a topic, think about something you’d like to propose in a workplace (real or imagined) or choose a topic from the Scenarios and Topics list at the end of the Task 2 instructions.

Mode
For this task, the proposal will be in an essay format. Write in complete sentences (rather than bullet points, as in some professional proposals) and look at the Sample Tasks in the Do It Yourself Cohort to get a sense of what your own task should look like. We recommend labeling sections as follows:
Significance of the Problem
Statement of Purpose
Course of Action
Challenges and Rebuttal
Conclusion
References

A2. Significance of the Problem
Think of this section as an introduction paragraph. This is a chance to convince your audience that change is necessary. Here, you will identify the problem, explain why it is a problem, and list some of its effects. You can also explain, for example, how long the problem has been around, who it affects, and what might happen if the problem isn’t solved.

A3. Statement of Purpose
The statement of purpose essentially tells the audience your plan. In most cases, it will name the problem and then a solution, though it could also list steps for implementation or the benefits of the proposed idea. Here are three templates you can choose from:

1. “To solve the problem of _______ I propose that [briefly/name/describe the solution].” Or a version of this steps,
2. “To solve the problem of _______ this proposal recommends that we [name solution] by doing X, Y, and Z.”
   Or a version that gives multiple benefits or justifications,
3. “To solve the problem of ______ this proposal recommends that we [name solution] because Reason #1 and Reason #2.*

A4. Course of Action
The Course of Action will explain each of the points you outlined in the Statement of Purpose.

If your Statement of Purpose looks like the first template above and only names a solution, then be sure to discuss 2-4 steps or justifications for implementing it in the Course of Action section. We recommend writing one paragraph for each point. If you use the second or third models above, you might set your course of action up like this:

If you use the second template for your Statement of Purpose, your Course of Action would look like this:

• Paragraph on Action Step #1, with detail
• Paragraph on Action Step #2, with detail
• Paragraph on Action Step # 3, with detail

If you use the third template for your Statement of Purpose, your Course of Action would look like this!

• Paragraph on Justification #1, with detail
• Paragraph on Justification #2, with detail

As a rule, the Course of Action should be at least one page long.

We recommend using all three of your sources in this section to help you prove your points. Those can be part of the “detail” in the outlines above. Try to cite at least one source in each paragraph (something that helps you.