Using High-Affect Goals in Teaching Proposal Writing  

Obviously, the purpose of any proposal writer is to persuade a reader. But our students are poorly served when they are told only that their documents aren’t persuasive enough.  General injunctions (or “top-level goals”) such as “persuade your reader” or “sell your reader” don’t help writers become more persuasive any more than the injunction “play with feeling” helps a musician become more evocative. Without a suitable repertoire of practical subgoals, Smith and our students know only in general what to do without knowing how to do it. In this article, we identify and examine six such subgoals. Once students understand these subgoals, they will be in the position to revise their proposals with their readers in mind.

Freed, Richard C. and Glenn J.Broadhead. JAC (1987). Articles>Grants>Proposals>Writing