PRACTICING THE GENRE
Arguing That a Solution Is Feasible
Proposals often succeed or fail on the strength of the argument that the proposed solution is feasible. To practice making a feasibility argument, get together with two or three other students and follow these guidelines:
Part 1. Begin by identifying a problem you face as a student in one of your college courses (this course or a different one). Next, discuss the problem in your group, and choose one of the following solutions (or think of another solution). The instructor should:
- drop one of the assigned books;
- offer special study sessions;
- post study sheets on the readings.
Then discuss the following questions to determine how you could demonstrate to the instructor that your solution is feasible:
- Is it doable? List specific steps that the instructor would need to take.
- Is it worth doing? Identify what implementing the solution would cost the instructor (in terms of time, for example) compared to how much it would benefit the students (in terms of learning, for example).
- Would it work? To prove it would actually help solve the problem, you could show that it eliminates a cause of the problem or that it has worked elsewhere, for example.
Part 2. As a group, discuss what you learned from this activity.
- Which part of the argument—identifying a problem, finding a solution, or arguing that the solution is doable, is worth doing, and would work—was easiest? hardest?
- If the instructor objected that your proposed solution would be unfair to those students who are doing well in the course, how could you respond in a way that assures the instructor that it would be fair?
- Imagine that you were writing this proposal to a different audience—for example, a group of professors at a conference about undergraduate teaching or an administrator who controls the budget or schedule. How might you change your argument or the way you present it for a different audience?