A Proposal as a Conversation

Proposal construction is not a purely academic activity. We are often constructing proposals in our heads as we drive or go for a walk, or sometimes with another person in the form of a conversation.

We are going to imagine that a girl (we’ll call her Ginger) is contemplating writing an e-mail to her boyfriend, Rocky, telling him that she wants to break up with him. Why? Because Ginger thinks Rocky is intolerant of people who are different from him. Since she wants this e-mail to achieve her purpose of breaking up, and also provide the reasons why, she’s not going to sit down and dash it off. She’s going to talk through it with a friend who happens to be an expert in writing proposals.

The friend’s side of the conversation will be supplied for you, but you will fill in Ginger’s comments. Read her friend’s question or statement and then choose the best response by dragging it to into the empty dialogue balloon that follows her friend’s statement.