Your topic selection is the general premise or area of interest on which your essay focuses. Your topic limits the scope and focus of your essay and helps direct you when you develop your proposal. If you have the option, select a topic you are interested in and for which you are able to formulate a proposal. A proposal argument essay should also center on an issue significant to your community, or reader. Your topic can be as general as your teacher allows, because you limit your topic after you create your proposal. For instance; a topic that reads "green conservation techniques" is general and allows you to generate a large number of specific proposals.
Your proposal is the specific plan you intend to suggest as a solution to your topic. Your proposal is the heart of your proposal argument essay. A proposal argument essay suggests a solution to a series of problems and offers a method for reaching that solution. Your proposal should be actionable, suggesting a plan or series of steps that can actually be carried out. Your essay proposal can either suggest a specific plan that individuals can choose to adopt or a specific plan that requires approval from someone, such as a school board or local government.
A proposal argument essay offers evidence that supports your claims regarding the severity of the problem that you are addressing. This evidence should suggest something about how big the problem is, information about the cost effectiveness of your proposal, the benefits your readers can expect from your proposal, and how immediate the danger is if your reader chooses not to act. You should also include evidence that supports your your proposal solves the problem in question.
Establishing cause and effect relationships is at the heart of a proposal argument essay. Your essay should suggest two primary cause and effect relationships. The first is the relationship between the potential danger and your topic. The second is the relationship between your proposal and the solution. For instance; a proposal to start an on-campus recycling program requires you to show a causal relationship between non-recycling waste programs and waste overflow, as well as a relationship between your recycling program and the waste overflow in your area.