Overview
For this project, you will either propose a new policy or identify an existing policy and propose some changes.One important thing to keep in mind is that these two scenarios require very different arguments. Therefore, my instructions here will address them separately.

Scenario 1–Proposing Changes to an Existing Policy

Find a Policy
First, identify a policy that needs change or an area that needs a policy. The term “policy” here is rather loosely defined. It could mean any regulation that guides action and behavior in a particular area. Any area or policy will do, e.g., the Nazi-like attendance policy of English 4510/6510 course, the academic honesty policy at GSU, the recently passed 2:00 am bar ordinance in Atlanta, the employee manual at your workplace, etc. If you’re looking for a policy, the GSU website, the city, county, or state government websites, and local newspapers are good sources for policies.

Analyze the Policy
Make sure the policy you identified does need improvement. Typically, a good policy does the following:

• Provides good justification for the need for the policy
• Clearly defines the terms and concepts used in the policy, e.g., what constitutes sexual harassment
• Specifically states whom the policy applies to
• Spells out what code of compliance is expected of the parties concerned
• Defines the actions, behaviors, and scenarios that constitute a violation of the policy
• Describes the exact consequences of policy violation
• Explains clearly what procedures (including the appeal procedure) to follow once the policy is violated

Carefully examine the policy to identify areas that need improvement. Think through the justifications for such improvement. You probably will have to do some research in order to determine why and how the policy should be improved.

Analyze Your Audience
Once you’ve identified the specifics about areas of improvement, identify who your audience is and how you’re going to communicate your proposed changes to them. Your proposal may have only one audience, or two audiences, or multiple audiences; it depends on your specific case. Who your audience is will largely determine the way you make your argument.

Determine Your Medium of Communication
Once you are clear about the audience, determine what medium you will use to communicate your proposal to the audience. You may choose the most traditional medium: letter mail; you may decide to email the proposal to your audience; or you may elect to publish your proposal in the local newspaper, such as AJC. Your selection of the proper medium should be tied with your audience and purpose.

Making Your Argument and Organizing Your Proposal
Since you’re arguing for revising the current policy, your justification will come mainly from the following sources: the current situation/need/problem, the inadequacies of the existing policy, and the potential benefits of a revised, improved policy. Among these three things, analyzing the inadequacies of the existing policy should be the focus of your justification. There’re many ways to organize a proposal. For example, your organization could look like the following:

• Overview/Introduction–State the purpose of your proposal: why you’re writing to the audience, what subject/topic/issue/problem you’re addressing, what policy will you discuss, what brief reasons you have for bringing up the policy issue. You may or may not want to make clear what your central argument is. It depends on whether it would be appropriate and effective to declare your argument right away before you show your reasoning for such an argument. Sometimes, it’s helpful to make clear your argument at the very beginning. Sometimes, it’s better to hold off your argument but instead slowly lead your audience through your reasoning before logically making your argument. One thing to start with in your proposal, in order to build some good will with your audience, is to acknowledge the positive aspects of the current policy or, if relevant, whatever positive things your audience is doing to address the issue.
• Current Problem/Issue/Situation–What was the issue or problem that the existing policy was created to address? What is the current situation? Has the situation changed? What aspects of the new situation is prompting a revision of the current policy? What are the potential consequences if the current situation or problem is not addressed?
• Problems with the Current Policy–Here, you need to analyze the current policy carefully and in detail. Point out all the problems with the current policy. Cite specific sentences or sections to make your case. You can refer to the earlier list of what a good policy does as your reference criteria. Show in a convincing fashion why it’s problematic. If appropriate, you should describe what would be the more adquate and appropriate wording for the part of the policy in question.
• The Feasibility of Implementing the Changes to the Policy–Whether you need this section depends. If you’re proposing some changes that would be rather hard to implement, you should explain why it’s a realistic suggestion.
• Potential Benefits of the Proposed Changes–As a big part of your persuasion force, you should discuss the potential benefits the proposed changes would bring, e.g., happier people, fewer problems, minimized negative effects, more positive changes, better profits, etc.
• Conclusion–Make good use of your last opportunity to persuade.

Again, this is only one possible way to organize your proposal. There’re certainly many effective ways of organization for any proposal. Also, your headings should be more informative and specific than the generic ones I’ve used here.

Scenario 2–Proposing a New Policy
Decide on the Issue/Problem You Want to Address
If you look around yourself, you can probably find some issue that no existing policy addresses: harassment issues in the classroom, preferential/unfair grading by instructors, smoking on campus, street vendors on university property, etc. I’m sure you can find even more issues of campus that are not addressed by any policy. In many cases, you probably already know what new policy you want to propose.

Analyze the Issue/Problem/Situation
Make sure the issue you’re discussing is significant enough to warrant such significant attention as making a new policy. Make sure there’s indeed no existing policy that covers this issue. Also, make sure you’re proposing a policy, not a guideline. While a policy is legally binding and requires that every applicable person follow it, a guideline does not have legal binding power on the people involved but merely serves to provide guidance.

Analyze Your Audience
Once you’ve identified the specifics about the issues and the new policy, identify who your audience is and how you’re going to communicate your proposed new policy to them. Your proposal may have only one audience, or two audiences, or multiple audiences; it depends on your specific case. Who your audience is will largely determine the way you make your argument.

Determine Your Medium of Communication
Once you are clear about the audience, determine what medium you will use to communicate your proposal to the audience. You may choose the most traditional medium: letter mail; you may decide to email the proposal to your audience; or you may elect to publish your proposal in the local newspaper, such as AJC. Your selection of the proper medium should be tied with your audience and purpose.

Making Your Argument and Organizing Your Proposal
Since you’re proposing a new policy, your justfication will come mainly from the following sources: the current situation/need/problem and the potential benefits of a new policy. Therefore, the bulk of your argument will come from your discussion of the current problem: what it is, what has caused the problem, what negative effects it’s having, why addressing the problem with a new policy as soon as possible is necessary. Again, there’re many ways to organize a proposal, and the following is only a possibility:

• Overview/Introduction–State the purpose of your proposal: why you’re writing to the audience, what subject/topic/issue/problem you’re addressing, what brief reasons you have for bringing up the policy issue. You may or may not want to make clear what your central argument is. It depends on whether it would be appropriate and effective to declare your argument right away before you show your reasoning for such an argument. Sometimes, it’s helpful to make clear your argument at the very beginning. Sometimes, it’s better to hold off your argument but instead slowly lead your audience through your reasoning before logically making your argument. One thing to start with in your proposal, in order to build some good will with your audience, is to acknowledge the positive aspects of the current situation or, if relevant, whatever positive things your audience is doing to address the issue.
• Current Problem/Issue/Situation–What is the current situation? What are the causes and effects of the current situation/problem? What are the potential consequences if the current situation or problem is not addressed? What are all the imminent reasons for creating and implementing a new policy to resolve the issue? This will be a key section in your proposal as your justification for the new proposal. Make sure your argument and support/evidence are adequate.
• Major Aspects of the Policy–Here you should specify what major aspects the new policy should cover. Spell out clearly what is expected of such a policy, one that can effectively address the issue you discussed. You can even recommend a sample portion of the policy? Now, should you write the entire new policy and attach it to this proposal? That’s up to you. If you think it’s necessary and will help your case, you probably should. On the other hand, writing out the entire new policy is never a requirement for this project, but an option.
• The Feasibility of Implementing the New Policy–Whether you need this section depends. If you’re proposing a policy that would be rather hard to implement, you should explain why it’s a realistic suggestion.
• Potential Benefits of the Proposed Policy–As a big part of your persuasion force, you should discuss the potential benefits of the proposed new policy, e.g., happier people, fewer problems, minimized negative effects, more positive changes, better profits, etc.
• Conclusion–Make good use of your last opportunity to persuade.

Again, this is only one possible way to organize your proposal. There’re certainly many effective ways of organization for any proposal. Also, your headings should be more informative and specific than the generic ones I’ve used here.

Some Technicalities
What format should you use for the proposal? Letter? Memo? Formal report? That’s your call. However, you should keep it single spaced and use a regular font size (somewhere between 10 and 12 points).How long should your proposal be? Well, I don’t have an answer for that except this: it should be just long enough to make your case. If you think you can make your case in one page, that’s fine. On the other hand, if you feel you have to go to five pages to convince your audience, that’s fine as well.

To Turn in

You need to turn in two things:

1. Your Proposal–save it as “policy(YourLastNameYourFirstName)1,” e.g., policy(GuBaotong)
2. Original policy (if applicable)–save it as “policy(YourLastName)-original,” e.g., policy(GuBaotong)-original

Email both documents (either Word or RTF format) as attachments to bgu@gsu.edu. If you don’t have Word on your machine but use, for example, Word Perfect instead, make sure you save your files in Rich Text Format (rtf) first before you email them to me.