Proposing a Solution

image

Responding to an Image

This image from the public service campaign of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, proposes a solution to a problem that affects hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. What is the problem that the image identifies? Why is the problem presented as it is? How might the presentation help viewers understand the problem? What solution does the image suggest or imply? For FEMA’s proposals, visit fema.gov. Look for advice that might apply to you — preparing for many stages (before, during, after) of many disasters (floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires) with citizen action plans (for community responders, families, individuals, pet owners, and students who want to sign up for emergency training).

Sometimes when you learn of a problem such as the destruction caused by a natural disaster, homelessness, or famine, you say to yourself, “Something should be done about that.” You can do something constructive yourself — through the powerful and persuasive activity of writing.

Your purpose in such writing, as political leaders and advertisers well know, is to rouse your audience to action. Even in your daily life at college, you can write a letter to your college newspaper or to someone in authority and try to stir your readers to so something. Does some college policy irk you? Would you urge students to attend a rally for a cause or a charity?

The uses of such writing go far beyond these immediate applications. In Chapter 9, you took a stand and backed it up with evidence. Now go a step further, writing a proposal — a recommendation for taking action. If, for instance, you have made the claim “Our national parks are in sorry condition,” you might urge readers to act — to write to their representatives in Congress or to visit a national park and pick up trash. This paper would be a call to immediate action on the part of your readers. On the other hand, you might suggest that the Department of the Interior be given a budget increase to hire more park rangers, purchase additional park land to accommodate more visitors, and buy more cleanup equipment. You might also suggest that the department raise funds through sales of park DVDs, which might, in turn, attract more visitors. This second paper would attempt to forge a consensus about what needs to be done.

Why Proposing a Solution Matters

In a College Course

  • You identify a problem and propose a solution, tackling issues such as sealed adoption records, rising costs of prescriptions, overcrowded prisons, and hungry children whose families cannot afford both food and housing.
  • You propose a field research study, explaining and justifying your purposes and methods, in order to gain faculty and institutional approval for your capstone project.

In the Workplace

  • You propose developing services for a new market to avoid layoffs during an economic downturn.

In Your Community

  • You propose starting a tutoring program at the library for the many adults in your region with limited literacy skills.

image What solutions have you proposed? What others might you propose? What situations have encouraged you to write proposals?