Students ask…How do you write an effective proposal? What are the essential elements of an effective proposal? And many other questions. That’s simply because proposal writing isn’t an easy task. Don’t worry. In this article, you’re going to learn how to write an excellent proposal.
But before we get started, let’s understand something.
What is a Proposal Essay/Paper?
A proposal essay or paper is a piece of writing that recommends an idea and provides evidence to persuade the reader why the idea is worthy or unworthy.
Even though proposal writing is hugely done in business and economic transactions, it’s also one of the tasks students in colleges are required to do.
If you’re a student struggling to write an effective proposal then keep reading to learn how to do that.
Proposal Pre-Writing
Before you start writing your proposal, it’s a good idea to spend some time on the following elements:
Of course, you can seek professional help with your proposal in case you’re not sure where to begin. The internet is awash with professionals who offer proposal writing help for students at affordable prices. You can ask them about the format, what elements to include in your proposal, and more. Remember to be guided by your professor’s instructions when seeking help from these experts though.
Sounds good? Alright, let’s get into proposal pre-writing strategies:
Determine Your Audience
As stated above, a proposal is a piece of writing that proposes an idea and provides evidence to convince the reader why the idea is good or bad. In this case, you need to know who you’re convincing. Are you trying to convince business professionals, academic professionals, or government officials?
Research
To make your proposal convincing, you need to support your claims with high-quality sources. Spend some time researching sources on the internet or talking to the experts.
Once you have researched, brainstorm outstanding ideas then determine how you should organize them.
Essential Parts of Proposal Writing
Similar to other pieces of writing, proposal writing can be divided into the parts outlined below: Remember that depending on your type of proposal, some parts may be added or removed.
You can also reorganize the parts below to suit the proposal you’re writing except the introduction and conclusion:
Introduction
The proposal introduction is just as the name suggests. It’s purposely meant to introduce the idea/topic/subject to the reader. Given how important the proposal introduction is, you need to propose the idea and convince the readers why they should care about it. To nail your proposal introduction, start with an interesting fact, statistic, or question to grab the readers’ attention.
Proposal
The proposal section discusses your actual proposition. Keep it brief depending on the proposal length. Avoid providing details about how you intend to carry out the proposal.
Plan of Action
The plan of action describes the strategies you intend to use to achieve your proposal. Keep this section as detailed as possible as you discuss how you intend to implement what you propose.
Proposal Viability
Will the proposal work? Demonstrate why your proposal work using similar past experience to convince your readers. If you lack past experience, be creative and convince your readers.
Proposal Goals
What are the goals of your proposal? In other words, what do you intend to achieve with your proposal? While this might seem repetitive (since you will have mentioned the benefits somewhere in the proposal) it can help to drive the point home.
Necessary Resources
In this part, talk about the resources you need to complete your proposal. This could be money, human labor, papers, etc.
Preparations Made
In your proposal, let your audience know that you know what you’re doing. The preparations you can make or break your proposal.
Conclusion
The last part of your proposal writing. Here, you may or may not restate each section above depending on how you started your proposal.
Once done, don’t forget to cite your sources properly. Use Work Cited if you quoted anything from resources or Work Consulted if you did not quote any material word for word.