A proposal essay is similar to any other business proposal with the exception that it is only applicable in academic setting. Like a business proposal, a proposal essay discusses an issue and offers relevant proposition. A proposal essay incorporates elements of any other proposal i.e. introduction, statement of purpose, action plan, significance and outcomes.

Before writing a proposal essay, you must identify the issue you are going to address and then formulate the solution. A proposal essay is based on one’s personal beliefs and thoughts and how one sees an problem. So the deciding factor will be your opinion and attitude towards the issue and why it is meaningful to you . This will allow you to get a hold of the problem and write it convincingly. For a proposal essay, you can consider the following themes:

Address an Issue

Discuss an issue that needs the official authority’s attention. Consider the problems you are facing in your society or community . Think about the local issues such as bad Law and Order situation in your area or a more significant problem such as unfair voting system. After you have pinpointed a problem, you have to a find a solution and the arguments surrounding it. Brainstorm the issue and then design a plan of action. Come up with relevant arguments to support your plan of action.

Reflect your Beliefs

Whatever topic you choose for a proposal essay, it must first hit your mind. Personal viewpoints or beliefs are subjective. What you think as an issue may not necessarily be a problem for others. So whatever you choose for a proposal essay, it must stem from your beliefs and convictions. Are you in favor of capital punishment? Do you oppose a particular law? Unless you feel obliged to address an issue, you will never be able to strongly put it across. Write your thoughts to argue or counter-argue it. If, for example, you are affiliating with a cause then you can give reasons why it needs more funding from the government. Since a proposal essay is based on a personal point of view, it is important that it reflects your beliefs.

Provide Substitutes

While considering a proposal essay, come up with something that can give people a choice in terms of solutions. For example, if you feel strongly negative about a certain ordinance or rule, you can give different propositions to amend it. While the issue remains the same, the propositions could be more than one. This will show that you are honest with your judgment and will reinforce your arguments.

Here are some of the themes that can make for some interesting debatable topics for persuasive writing:

Personal Persuasion

Personal persuasion can focus on ideas such as abortion, immigration or euthanasia and applies practical rhetorical techniques . Tell students to write a persuasive paper on issues, such as convincing someone to affiliate with a political party or endorse a cause. This will help students understand the power of persuasion and will also allow them to have a command of this refined skill, ultimately enhancing their persuasive writing skills.

Political Issues

Political issues are also a perfect choice for a persuasive paper. They are the most debatable topics among students and tend to touch their emotional buttons. So you can expect some fieriest arguments from them. Tell them to discuss something currently in the headlines, such as gun laws, and create arguments around it. Or ask them to pretend as the leader of a political party and then argue for their agendas.

Famous Quote

Tell students to write on any famous saying or quote to argue for or against it. Examples include “First impression is the last impression” or “Evil begets evil”. Ask students to come up with similar sayings and then back it up with facts and logic. Give them a list of sayings or let them choose their own.

School Themes

Ask students to write on issues they face in their schools and how those issues affect them. Some issues have significant impact on their academic life such as changing school uniforms, providing expensive education or school bullying. These issues are among the major problem the students face in on daily basis, so there is good room for strong arguments and counter-arguments.

From a recent study by Stephen Gorard, it was revealed that cash rewards motivates the poor students to do better at studies.

Stephen Gorard, professor at Birmingham University, stressed on the use of cash incentives to promote performance and attendance of pupils. He suggested that school should allocate £130/yearly for each student which will be cut down in case a student lapses in any of these departments.

Many British schools have already emulated this policy to enhance academic trend among the students. Vivo Miles is an example of this program that allocates points for students and rewards them with valuable presents, such as iPod, bike accessories, digital camera and cellular phone etc based on their performance.

Professor Gorard criticizes the idea of awarding students for annual exams for it is extremely difficult for the pupils to boost their grades in the final exams.

Times Educational Supplement, a weekly UK publication revealed that little bribes are like ‘small steps’ that build on the student’s academic progress to the final exams. The program focuses on improving the conduct, punctuality, demeanor and attendance of the students through the final academic year.

According to Gorard study, conducted in four cities in the U.S, cash incentive is a better way to boost the student’s academic trend over other available schemes. The study was consisted of more than 40,000 students, targeted to enhance their approach towards school.

On the other side, certain objections are leveled against the program, citing it as disapproving for the students  According to David Day, principal at Sheppey Academy, Kent, “We felt that the power of words could be more influential than the power of monetary rewards.” According to him it is the inner motivation of the students that encourages them for academic progress and not the monetary rewards.

Source

A paragraph presents the arguments in an organized and precise way. In a paragraph, the writer uses expressive writing elements to construct the argument in a coherent and clear way. Therefore, it is important to capitalize on this crucial aspect of writing an essay to make it sound more specific and focused. By employing some effective steps, you can easily accomplish this task. In this article, I will inform you the essentials of paragraphing and how you can add them in your writing.

Given below are some important steps to remember when paragraphing an essay:

1.    Find Purpose

Firstly, you need to come up with a topic sentence that you will be building your paragraph on. The topic sentence will be the purpose of your paragraph and all the sentences will be clustered around this point in the paragraph.

2.    Create Thesis Statement

Create a thesis statement that can best reflect the purpose of your paragraph. It should give readers a good idea of what they will get in the paragraph. Keep it brief and to the point.

3.    Provide Supporting Points

Come up with 2-3 supporting points, each elaborating on your thesis statement. Build your paragraphs towards the conclusion by proving or disproving your thesis statement. Back up your supporting points with solid evidence and facts.

4.    Demonstrate Examples

Use suitable examples as a way to demonstrate the points that seem tricky and complex. Be sure that your examples are specific and relevant to the points mentioned.

5.    Anticipate the Outcome

Always use a speculative statement to anticipate outcome of the issue if left unsolved, predicting the seriousness of the problem. Provide reasonable arguments so that the readers truly feel compelled to consider the problem.

6.    Conclusion

Create a precise concluding sentence where you will summarize the main points of your thesis. However, must not just be a restatement of your points discussed in the paragraphs and rather dig a meaningful conclusion out of them. The concluding statement could be exploratory – suggesting a possible result of an action – or introduce a new point for the subsequent paragraph.

7.    Use Transitional Words

Use proper transitional words, such as “firstly,”, “afterwards” or “lastly”, to connect sentences and paragraphs in order to develop a hierarchical sequence between them. Similarly, you can use words like “above”, “next” and “below” to refer the readers to a specific part of your paragraph in a point-by-point sequence.

Writing is all about rewriting. Unless you revise your work and get rid of all the clutter, it is highly unlikely that your writing will make an impact. The wordiness makes for most of the clutter in a work, so it is important that you delineate and remove all the words that have no place in your work. This will not only make your writing simple and easy to understand but will also save you more space to add useful information. It is always the rewriting part that tests your writing skills. Even the seasonal writers seem to be goofing up with this task. However, by applying some simple tips, you can accomplish this task effectively.

•    Make sure that your work is free from wordiness. Having unnecessary words in your work only complicate your writing and confuse the readers. Instead of writing “Through wire transfer, you can send and receive cash at any place in the world”, you should write “Through wire transfer, you can send and receive cash anywhere”.

•    Get rid of all the unnecessary modifiers. Sometimes modifiers tend to only exaggerate the meaning of a sentence and do not describe or modify anything as such. Rather than saying “Having a daily consumption of green tea is a great way to lose weight”, it is better to describe the actual benefits of having green tea than to use a modifier.

•    Avoid using technical or complex words. Use a simpler word or phrase instead of using a technical word. Although you will need to use technical words, especially if you are writing on a technical topic, try avoiding them wherever possible unless otherwise required.

•    Keep away from using clichés. Not only they make your work sound unoriginal but sometimes also make your work questionable. Besides, they tend to elongate the sentence and make it more complicated. While some people write, “First and foremost, …” it is equally acceptable to write “firstly,…” instead .The same goes for “Last but not the least,…” which can be similarly replaced by “Lastly,…”

•    Look out for ‘out-of-place’ similes in your work. Similes can prove to be a powerful tool if used in the right context. But if used incorrectly, they will connote as clichés and will lack purpose. For example, “For a compulsive drug addict, smoking Cannabis becomes as essential as oxygen for life” is a wrong use of analogy to demonstrate effects of a drug. Using similes in such a way will only make your argument unconvincing and weaker.