Your written proposal should be addressed to an audience that could act on your proposal. We will e-mail these letters. As a result, you will need to tailor your content (claims and evidence) and your organization to your audience. This will require you to get to know your audience. You are to write your letter to a specific person. Letters addressed to “To Whom It May Concern” or “Dear Sir or Madame” or “Dear [Business Name]”
– * Identify the problem that you are addressing and convince your audience that the problem is a significant one that deserves attention.
* Explore alternatives for solving the problem and acknowledge previous efforts to address the problem (integrating your research).
* Select the most feasible solution and offer evidence to support that choice.
Your proposal should have a carefully constructed argument and should employ rhetorical strategies, such as rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos). We will cover these concepts during Week 8.
– Your rhetorical strategies and length will depend on the purpose of your proposal, your audience or intended readers, and how you want to disseminate your proposal to members of your audience.
Length also will vary depending on what your proposal is. Keep in mind that your letter needs to be long enough to convince your audience of your proposal — which means it needs to provide sufficient evidence to support your claim, as well as links explaining the connections between your evidence and your claim. You should also acknowledge and respond to differing views (naysayers).
– A business letter does not need parenthetical documentation or a works cited page, but you should still provide evidence for claims and reasons, when necessary. Do not ignore research when proving your argument, and using signal phrases to introduce those credible sources. Your letter should include three credible outside sources, introduced with signal phrases.