Empoword

Part Three: Research and Argumentation 286 purpose. Are you trying to process ideas? Compile and review initial research? Demonstrate that you’re pursuing a viable path of inquiry? Explain the stakes of your subject? Although every rhetorical audience will value different parts of the proposal, there are a handful of issues you should try to tackle in any proposal. • Your subject. Introduce your topic with a general introduction to your topic—not too general, but enough to give the reader a sense of grounding. Too general: Education is something that happens in every facet of our lives. Better: Access to education is a major concern for people living in a democratic society. • Your occasion. When you developed your research question, you chose an issue that matters to someone, meaning that it is timely and important. To establish the significance of your topic, explain what’s prompting your writing and why it matters. Since Betsy Devos’ nomination for U.S. Secretary of Education, the discussion surrounding school choice has gained significant momentum. Socioeconomic inequality in this country has produced great discrepancies in the quality of education that young people experience, and it is clear that something must be done. • Your stakes and stakeholders. Although you may have alluded to why your question matters when introducing your occasion, you might take a sentence or two to elaborate on its significance. What effect will the answer(s) you find have, and on whom? Because educational inequality relates to other forms of injustice, efforts to create fairness in the quality of schools will influence U.S. racial politics, gender equality, and socioeconomic stratification. For better or for worse, school reform of any kind will impact greater social structures and institutions that color our daily lives as students, parents, and community members. • Your research question or path of inquiry. After introducing your subject, occasion, and stakes, allow the question guiding your research to step in. Some people believe that school choice programs are the answer. But is it likely that people of all socioeconomic backgrounds can experience parity in education through current school voucher proposals? • Your position as a working thesis. Articulate your position as a (hypo)thesis—a potential answer to your question or an idea of where your research might take you. This is an answer which you should continue to adjust along the way; writing it in the proposal does not set your answer(s) in stone.