The Importance of Proposals

Proposals give writers a better focus on the topic they intend to write about. They help to organize one's thoughts, points, and sources. Not only are proposals helpful to writers, they are also very helpful to those who will later read the finished product. They can serve as a preview of the topic at hand and are a great way for the reader to get a general idea of the direction a paper will take. For these reasons, proposals are not only important for students of composition classes, but can be used in other classes that require research papers as well (I have already used the techniques I have learned by writing my recent proposal for English 112 to write a brief proposal for another class in which the instructor asked the students to choose a topic to write about. I turned in the proposal to that instructor, and based on it, he said that my topic idea was a great one!).

College is not the only place proposals could be effective for me. As a domestic violence counselor in the future, I may be asked to do extensive research involving domestic violence. Or, perhaps I may want to write articles for women's magazines concerning this topic. Who knows, at some point I may write a book discussing this subject (a big dream perhaps, but entirely possible). In any of these cases, I feel that a proposal would be an important first step not only for myself, but for those who are considering backing me up in my writing endeavors (magazine publishers, my employer, or book publishers).