Your group proposal will analyze a problem or issue and argue for a certain specific course of action or viewpoint based on this analysis.  You will not actually implement a solution to the issue or problem you describe.  Instead, you will simply describe how a group could go about attempting to solve the problem you present.  Alternatively, you might not even offer a specific solution.  You could, for example, simply describe how a group would go about studying the problem in more depth to develop a solution.  For a more complete discussion of these types of documents (Markel calls them “recommendation reports”), look in the textbook (particularly pp.484-486).

Defining a clear, focused, easily researchable issue or problem is a critical first step to success in this assignment.  Think about choosing an issue from your school experience, your workplace, your community involvement, or something else that you are personally familiar with.  Try to deal with something local that you already know about.  If you choose a more general subject, try to find a way to apply the subject to local circumstances (a neighborhood or community) or to someone you know (a group of friends, colleagues, or co-workers).

Again, keep in mind that the more focused and specific your subject and problem statement, the more straightforward your report will be.  For example, you might consider defining a narrow problem statement that applies directly to a group of people that you can actually meet with.  You would then be able to very easily and quickly create small surveys or conduct some interviews to provide very specific data for supporting your conclusions or recommendations.  This kind of primary research can produce very convincing proposals.  Therefore, think about who you might contact or interview for information when you consider what to research.  Also think about relatively simple and straightforward (but very convincing) primary research like diagrams and photographs.  If you plan carefully, you’ll discover that it is actually relatively easy to fill a ten to fifteen page formal report no matter how small your issue at first appears.

Finally, your report will be written for a specific audience that you will define.  You will need to directly address your proposal report to an person who represents this audience.  You won’t have to actually send your report to this person, but writing to someone specific will make it much easier to edit the report for tone and content.  It will also make your final proposal report potentially quite useful for real people looking for possible solutions to difficult local problems.