Guides

27 August, 2020

16 minutes read

Author:  Mathieu Johnson

Steps Towards Mastering Proposal Essay Writing

During your college studies, you will most likely be asked to compose a proposal essay. Indeed, work on such a kind of essay is fundamental and even an essential attribute of you as a researcher. Сomposing a proposal essay might challenge you and require you to invest a particular amount of effort and time into polishing your essay. Even though sometimes writing a sound proposal seems to be frightening at first, you can still nail it if you follow particular pieces of advice and techniques. If you are willing to forward your energy to creating an outstanding paper, take a look at the tips that we have prepared for you.

Proposal Essay

During your college studies, you will most likely be asked to compose a proposal essay. Indeed, work on such a kind of essay is fundamental and even an essential attribute of you as a researcher. Сomposing a proposal essay might challenge you and require you to invest a particular amount of effort and time into polishing your essay. Even though sometimes writing a sound proposal seems to be frightening at first, you can still nail it if you follow particular pieces of advice and techniques. If you are willing to forward your energy to creating an outstanding paper, take a look at the tips that we have prepared for you.

What is a proposal essay?

A proposal essay is an essay in which the writer has to identify a problem in a specific area and provide a proposition. In other words, a proposal essay is the one in which you are expected to come up with an idea and resonate with it by backing up on some valid facts and evidence. 

A good thing about writing a proposal essay is the wide selection of the topic for it. Even though most proposals cover areas such as business and politics, there are way more professional fields to consider. In particular, you may choose any topic you find engaging: personal development, nutrition, social issues, ecological problems, sustainable fashion, and so on. Overall, writing a proposal essay does not limit you as a researcher, since it introduces you to a wide spectrum of topics.

A proposal essay is very similar by its structure to any other kind of essay: you have to state the problem, your vision of it, and propose reasonable ways of solving the indicated problem. 

Before You Start: Pre-Writing Strategies 

Before you start off with writing your essay proposal, you can consider a couple of helpful strategies. If you have so far been struggling with your proposal and are yet not sure how to begin it, you may consider the following pieces of advice: 

  1. Make sure to select a topic that is not too narrow. Choosing a narrow topic might limit you as a researcher. Besides, avoid selecting extensively broad issues, as doing so can distract you from your proposition.
  2. Conduct research on your topic. Prior to writing a proposal, find out what is already well-known about your problem. Besides, read the limitations of existing research. Managing this task will let you come up with reasonable claims that will make your proposition and arguments sound persuasive. 
  3. Write down all the ideas you have. Writing a proposal essay is quite challenging due to the many ideas that may arise while working on it. Therefore, remember to write down all of the ideas you have in mind. Then, select the most relevant ones and support them with persuasive arguments.
  4. Don’t neglect double-checking. After you submit your paper, make sure to check it twice or even more. You can use a wide range of grammar checkers as well as to give your essay to your friends or colleagues. The latter is life-saving since you can able to work on your weak points and modify arguments that do not seem reasonable enough to a reader. 

Proposal Essay Outline 

Composing a proposal essay that meets all of your professor’s expectations is an achievable target. The primary thing one needs to keep in mind before writing such a paper is drawing an outline. Since an outline manages the role of a guiding tool, it will assist you significantly. Below are the points you might need to consider for an effective outline:

Introduction

In this part, the writer’s task is to convince the readers of the topic’s importance. More specifically, the goal is to give a background of the subject of your proposal and identify its current relevance. Remember that the aim of a proposal is to provide an idea and solve a particular problem, so indicate why a specific problem needs a solution. 

Proposal

As the name suggests, the goal of this section is to outline your propositions and describe why they are critical. Keep in mind that it is always a plus if you keep this section short, as the reader can successfully comprehend all of the ideas in a couple of sentences this way. But avoid revealing how specifically you will solve a problem that you have outlined in this section.

Plan of action

In the following section, the general task implies indicating exactly how you are planning to achieve the stated proposal. What you may potentially do is convince your reader of your own capability to carry out the task. Besides, you may provide some information on how your proposal will work. Additionally, to make this section of a proposal essay sound convincing and reasonable, you may indicate potential bottlenecks of the proposal and barriers on the way to achieving it. Doing so will allow you to demonstrate your own professionalism and let your readers know that you are genuinely interested in discovering the topic in depth.

The plan of action in the proposal essay is similar to the main body section of any other essay type. So, to make sure you communicate your ideas transparently, divide your plan of action paragraph into subparagraphs. 

Conclusion

When writing a conclusion, you may briefly restate what you have been discussing in your proposal essay. Avoid providing any new information so that your reader does not get confused. It is always a plus if you come up with a call to action. Above all, you should better avoid extending your conclusions and keep it in brief. 

Proposal Essay Examples

If you are still not sure of how to write an essay proposal, you can always refer to good examples. In fact, when it comes to writing a proposal essay, building on some well-written similar essays is always a good idea. Here, you can find some excellent examples:

http://www.utstat.toronto.edu/reid/sci199y/9596/prop.html

https://www.e-education.psu.edu/styleforstudents/c6_p5.html

100 Interesting Proposal Essay Topics

proposal essay topics

Coming up with catchy and interesting proposal essay ideas is not a complicated task since you are free to choose any topic from a wide range of disciplines. We have prepared 100 exciting topics for a proposal essay, all of which belong to a particular discipline: 

Social Life and Social Issues

  1. How to identify bullying activities in school and what to do to make a difference?
  2. What can be the primary solutions to reducing drug and alcohol abuse among the youth?
  3. What are the measures to teach kids environmental responsibility and sustainability?
  4. How to ease the consequences of parents’ divorce on a kid’s social life?
  5. Which potential effects do the current stage of social media development have on our social lives?
  6. What can be the means of promoting healthy eating habits among students?
  7. Prevailing social attitudes that have nothing to do with healthy living and wellbeing
  8. Obsessive-compulsive disorder: what to do to make our ill close peoples’ lives better?
  9. Making environmental protection a fun activity: what can cities do to engage citizens to preserve the environment?
  10. What can one do to support a person suffering from depression?

Environment

  1. Why manufacturing clothes and selling them in mass-market imposes huge environmental risks?
  2. Teaching the young generation the rules of sustainability: which practices might be useful?
  3. Pacific Garbage patch: what are the tendencies, and how can we fight towards reducing it?
  4. Engaging citizens in making the city they live in cleaner: challenges and marathons as possible solutions.
  5. Ways to encourage people to use trains instead of buses and airplanes for journeys
  6. Ways in which government can combat social issues of today
  7. Resolving the problem of plastic containers and bags: what to do to avoid it?
  8. Using alternative fuels and solar power as the key to saving the planet
  9. Are humans indeed the only reason for causing global warming?
  10. What are the measures to effectively deal with the problem of deforestation?

Education

  1. Why is it essential to let children select particular subjects they put the most effort in?
  2. Why should parents not punish their children for dissatisfactory grades?
  3. Reasons why vocational education might be critical for students’ future job orientation
  4. The interconnection between the university’s rating and a students’ career success chances
  5. To which extent should parents get involved in their children’s education?
  6. Why constant peer pressure leads to significant productivity drop in learners’ performance?
  7. Learning more than one foreign language at school: is this a good idea?
  8. How to find motivation for studying through finding role models?
  9. What kind of education is the one that students cannot get from school?
  10. Does formal education hinder students’ soft skills and creativity?

Healthcare 

  1. What are the potential means to stimulate people to buy life insurance contracts?
  2. Pharmaceutical companies and innovation: why is pharma one of the top product innovators in the healthcare sector?
  3. Do commercials banning alcohol and tobacco bring a reverse effect? 
  4. Effective ways to explain to teenagers the health consequences of alcohol and drug abuse. 
  5. What to do to guarantee yourself a healthy living in the future?
  6. Euthanasia is one of the most humane ways to relieve pain and suffering
  7. What should a healthy kid’s diet comprise of?
  8. The positive effect of vegetarianism on health
  9. What are the possible causes of insomnia, and what is the way to eliminate this problem?
  10. Free medical treatment in developing countries: what to do to improve its quality?

Technology 

  1. Is rapid technological change a potential hazard for employment?
  2. Cyber-bullying: is it possible to prevent it?
  3. Technological changes in schools and universities as a means of boosting students’ productivity.
  4. What can companies do to improve data protection and prevent data leakages?
  5. Does too much technology in learning hinder students’ intellectual abilities?
  6. Technological solutions for overcoming problems of air pollution and global warming
  7. Why does total digitalization of studying impose risks on students’ mental health?
  8. Do technological advancements deprive young generations of a real ability to socialize with peers?
  9. Is it possible to decrease the reliance on current technologies?
  10. Technology in diagnosing cancer and preventing it from developing at a rapid pace.

Personal Development and Psychology

  1. Dale Carnegie as the greatest self-development coach of the 20-th century
  2. Why management psychology is fundamental for hiring appropriate employees?
  3. How social media shapes the psychological portrait of a modern adolescent?
  4. Do people inherit mental qualities or attain them over time?
  5. Which psychological trait is essential for succeeding at any job interview?
  6. Balancing life and work is the primary step towards improving one’s psychological health.
  7. Food largely influences the way of thinking and the overall attitude to the world and people.

Sports

  1. Banning extreme sports as a reasonable solution to the problem of severe injuring
  2. The ultimate health benefit that engaging your kid in sports activities brings
  3. Is it fair to name a gaming activity ‘cybersports’ if the first does not include physical activity?
  4. Exercising ten minutes each morning as the key to improving all the body functions and boosting wellbeing.
  5. Which kind of sports is so far underestimated by the media?
  6. Does the athletes’ salary size compensate for the potential injuries they may get?
  7. Does boxing promote aggression and violence and, thus, should not be shown by the media?
  8. The human factor of referees: in what kind of sports can the latter be totally eliminated?

Business

  1. How to handle unemployment during a crisis?
  2. The role that the university plays in building future entrepreneurial abilities in students.
  3. Building robust corporate culture as a prerequisite for a long-lasting business success.
  4. Is outsourcing the right solution for small and medium-sized companies?
  5. Firing the least performing employee as an unwise business strategy
  6. Reasons for valuing intrinsic motivation factors over the salary and monetary value. 
  7. Why do small-sized companies have a bigger capacity to survive in times of global economic crises?

Culture

  1. Cultural shock can lead to depression
  2. Stereotypes about different cultures are often likely to hold in real life
  3. Japan vs. American culture: which one is more relevant to Europe?
  4. Measures to prevent and eliminate racist behavior among schoolers
  5. The government should intervene to prevent any discriminative behavior
  6. How the internet and globalization have smoothed the sharp difference between different cultures
  7. What are some valid reasons that cause intercultural conflicts nowadays?

History

  1. How has gender been changing its role over the last 100 years
  2. The most fundamental lessons that can be made from the the second World War 
  3. Significant historical events that made an input into developing a tolerant attitude to LGBTQ.
  4. The Fall of Roman empire: what were the key events that led the empire to becoming extinct?
  5. What are the reasons why some people from the former German Democratic Republic still detest the capitalistic world?
  6. How to prevent current crises by referring to the 90-s Dot Com bubble crisis? 
  7. Why have dictatorships proven that they almost never end peacefully?

Politics

  1. What are the flaws of the current electoral system of the US?
  2. Is it possible to decrease the amount of national debt?
  3. Log-rolling as the critical issue of trading votes
  4. Why is the government unlikely to eliminate the problem of illegal immigration?
  5. Fields and sectors that the government should better not intervene into. 
  6. Why is creating federal budgets useful in terms of achieving long-term economic goals? 
  7. Why do people vote if the chances of a single vote to be decisive equal zero?

Art and music

  1. Reasons why fashion is cyclical
  2. Outlining pop culture in movies as the reason for Tarantino’s ultimate success. 
  3. What stands behind the ever-growing popularity of American music?
  4. The role of music in improving the overall wellbeing of society
  5. Jazz music in 1920-s vs. contemporary jazz music: what has changed, and what still remains the same?
  6. The greatest actors of the previous century and their input into the development of cinematography.
  7. The revolution that the music industry experienced after the Beatles became famous worldwide.

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From time to time, students find it challenging to manage all the papers in terms of time available. Besides, one may merely lack inspiration for polishing an essay proposal. Whenever this is the case, expert writers from HandmadeWriting are there to help you straight away. You do not need to do anything – just go to HandmadeWriting and indicate your instructions. Our pro essay writers are experienced in multiple fields, so once you submit your instructions for writing a proposal essay, you may be sure that soon you will obtain an outstanding paper that deserves an A+.

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