Bullying Essay.

· Stress the importance of the topic to the readers. Tell readers why they should care about this topic.

In the introduction to a proposal, you should almost always state your topic, purpose, and main point. The other two moves are optional, but they become more important and necessary in larger proposals.

Description of the Problem, Its Causes, and Its Effects

You should now describe and analyze the problem for your readers, showing them its causes and effects. Look at your concept map and your research notes to identify the two to five major causes of the problem. Then draft this section of the proposal around those causes.

Opening Paragraph.

Use the opening paragraph to clearly describe the problem and perhaps stress its importance. Here is an example of one student’s essay:

· The problem we face is that our campus is overly dependent on energy from the Anderson Power Facility, a 20-megawatt coal-fire plant on the east side of campus that belches out many tons of carbon dioxide each year. At this point, we have no alternative energy source, and our backup source of energy is the Bentonville Power Plant, another coal-fire plant 50 miles away. This dependence on the Anderson Plant causes our campus’s carbon footprint to be large, and it leaves us vulnerable to power shortages and rising energy costs.

Body Paragraphs.

Explain the causes of the problem, providing plenty of support for your claims. Here is an example discussion of one cause among a few others that the writers want to include.

· The primary reason the campus is so reliant on coal-fire energy is the era when the campus was built. Our campus is like many others in the United States. The basic infrastructure and many of the buildings were built in the early twentieth century when coal was the cheapest source of energy and no one could have anticipated problems like global warming. A coal-fire plant, like the one on the east side of campus, seemed like the logical choice. As our campus has grown, our energy needs have increased exponentially. Now, on any given day, the campus needs anywhere from 12 to 22 megawatts to keep running.

· You might consider closing this section with a discussion or summary of the effects of the problem if no action is taken. In most cases, problems grow worse over time, so you want to show readers what will happen if they choose not to do anything.

· Our dependence on fossil fuels for energy on this campus will begin to cost us more and more as the United States and the global community are forced to address global climate change. More than likely, coal-fire plants like ours will need to be completely replaced or refitted with expensive carbon capture equipment (Gathers, 12). Also, federal and state governments will likely begin putting a “carbon tax” on emitters of carbon dioxide to encourage conservation and conversion to alternative energy. These costs could run our university many millions of dollars. Moreover, the costs to our health cannot be overlooked. Coal-fire plants, like ours, put particulates, mercury, and sulfur dioxide into the air that we breath (Vonn, 65). The costs of our current coal-fire plant may seem hidden now, but they will eventually bleed our campus of funds and continue to harm our health.

Drafting the Problem Section

An effective analysis of the problem will discuss its causes and effects. Make sure you offer good support for your statements.

The Conclusion

Your proposal’s conclusion should be brief and to the point. By now, you have told the readers everything they need to know, so you just need to wrap up and leave your readers in a position to say yes to your plan. Here are a few moves you might consider making in your conclusion:

· Restate your main claim. Again, tell the readers what you wanted to prove in your proposal. Your main claim first appeared in the introduction. Now bring the readers back around to it, showing that you proved your argument.

· Restress the importance of the topic. Briefly, tell the readers why this topic is important. You want to leave them with the sense that this issue needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

· Look to the future. Proposal writers often like to leave readers with a description of a better future. A “look to the future” should only run a few sentences or a brief paragraph.

Your conclusion should not be more than a couple of brief paragraphs, even in a large proposal. The goal of your conclusion is to wrap up quickly.

Pay Attention to Sentence Length.