The Proposal

Business 100W
Assignment Three
One Hundred and Fifty Points
Due to SafeAssign before class on Tuesday, February 25th
Word Count: 1,000 to 1,250 words (required), not including executive summary
Grammar Requirement: Underline one sentence demonstrating semicolon use
Goal: Create a short report that identifies a problem or area for improvement and proposes a solution
to this situation.
Skills used: Writing skills, crafting coherent organization (including appropriate techniques, such as
transitions, headings, and subheadings), considering both the big picture and details of company
situations, using relevant and appropriate visuals, evaluating and using strong research support,
building reasonable timelines and budgets
In brief: In this essay, you will propose a solution to an existing problem at your company. Treat this
proposal as a preliminary report; while you do not need to account for every last day and dime in terms
of time and money, you should be thorough about steps to implementation and reasonable in providing
a budget and timeline. The essay will include a title page, table of contents, executive summary, and
Works Cited page.
Scenario: Due to a twist of fate (and some brilliant networking), you now work for the company you
wrote about in paper #2. You have been asked to evaluate the company’s strengths and weaknesses
and make a recommendation based on your findings.
Craft a proposal based on some aspect of the research and evaluation you conducted in paper #2,
offering the company and its leadership real and practical suggestions to further strengthen the
company. This proposal should either 1) take a company strength and offer a means to further improve
upon it, or 2) address and remedy a specific company weakness. Any number of proposals could be
made to satisfy this assignment, so you do have quite a bit of creative latitude here. You should focus
on addressing one area with one solution.
Consider all relevant research conducted for paper #2, knowing that you may need to perform
additional research to rise to the burden of proof. Stronger papers will likely include a number of
secondary sources to support the framework of the proposal.
Clearly identify the audience for your proposal, then use the strategies from lecture, discussion, and
your textbooks to accomplish your goals. You are welcome to use a targeted SWOT analysis as part of
your brainstorming, but keep in mind that this is considered pre-writing and should not be a part of your
final draft.
This paper should avoid “magical thinking”: this proposal must be specific and needs to be reasonable,
actionable, and practical for that company. Timelines and budgets must be part of this proposal, and
visual aids should be used to help explain or clarify your proposal. Counterarguments, in an effort to
avoid the logical fallacy of slanting, should also be part of the response.
You are welcome to use features from the second assignment, but you must cite these materials
according to MLA standards—you will cite yourself as you would any other author, both in-text and in
the Works Cited page.
Submit your final paper to SafeAssign before class on Tuesday, February 25th. This assignment will
be formatted in the same way as essay #2, and it must be cited thoroughly throughout and meticulously
organized and proofread.