Position and Proposal Papers

1. Position and Proposal Papers Part 1: The Art of Argument

2. Identifying the Elements of Arguments • What claims do you want to make? That is, what are the main points you want your readers to accept? • What reasons will your audience accept in order to make a valid connection between your evidence and your claims? What principles or values will you use to justify your claims? • What kinds of appeals are most appropriate, given your audience and topic? For example, do you want to appeal to their emotions. To logic?

3. Consider Your Purposes • To make readers aware of a situation. • To challenge readers’ assumptions about an issue • To respond to a point of view you disagree with. • To gain respect for your opinions. • To encourage support for your point of view. • To change readers’ opinions. • To influence readers’ emotions (for example, alarming or reassuring them). • To convince readers to change their behavior. • To ask readers for a specific action or decision.

4. Components of Position Arguments • Narrative: As is the case with any good piece of writing, a position paper should contain some narrative. Narratives may, for example, be used to introduce a position and/or or to reinforce it by way of example • A clearly defined issue: In many ways, pleading the case for your definition is what a position paper is all about (example), but you can select an issue which has already been sufficiently defined and redefine it or argue for or against it. • Some possible issues with arguments may be found at http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Issues_and_Causes. • Read what has been written about the issue, both pro and con, enough to form an opinion. • Frame your paper with a question which can be answered either “yes” or “no.” For example: “Should legal definitions of physical abuse be gender neutral?” • Take a stand! • Find one or more reasons for your stand. • Provide evidence that supports your reasons. • Acknowledge opposing view and deal with them honestly!

5. Position and Proposal Papers Part 2: Transforming your position into a proposal.

6. Positions Leading to Proposals Some proposal papers assume a problem to be solved rather than in issue to be settled, although the two are not mutually exclusive. In many cases, positions lead to proposals, but proposals can be tricky business. • If you are proposing change, the burden of proof lies with you, and your reasons for change must be compelling. Most of us tend to resist change, and there are, in fact, times when doing nothing is the most appropriate and effective course of action. A proposal is both an argument for change and an argument, more specifically, for a certain kind of change. • Presumably, your proposed change will “make things better,” but that is never a foregone conclusion. Often, proposed changes will actually make things in general worse or will make some aspects of a given problem worse. • The opposing side may also want change, a different change or a different way of achieving change or both. In the first case, you may have some grounds for achieving a win/win. In the second and third cases, the method often becomes the change; again, a win/win is possible, but not always likely. • As you move toward proposal, avoid hidden agendas and look for unintended consequences. • When all is said and done, you must convince your reader that your solution will work and will work “better” than other proposed solutions. • You may also want to convince your reader either to get out of your way or, better still, to join you in implementing the solution. • In this kind of paper, your audience becomes all important.

7. An Example or Two • Read the Declaration of Independence in your text, paying attention to the marginal notes. • Is it a proposal or a position paper or both? • Does it conform to all of the keys to proposed arguments noted in your text? • Read some of the other proposal in your text and try to glean from each some additional keys to effective proposals.

8. Common Argument Fallacies • Guilt or virtue by association • Ad hominimargument • Appeals to pity • Popularity and testimonials • False Dichotomy • Appeals to pride or snobbery • Card stacking • Circular reasoning • Irrelevant reasons • Slippery slope • Straw man • Part to whole • Appeals to ignorance • Weak and inappropriate analogies • Appeals to authority • Incomplete comparisons • Knowing the unknowable • False cause • Put downs • Appeals to tradition