For your final project, you will write an essay for a popular or lay journal. You cannot write a lab report and you cannot write an article for a hard core technical journal.

Treat your proposal like any other 21w-780 writing assignment. In other words, use active voice, keep sentences short, and don't get wordy on me. I will grade your proposals as I would grade any other weekly assignment.

Audience

Me. I'm the proposal review committee.

Contents

1. Summary

2. Description of Target Periodical

3. Explanation of Your Article

4. Verification

5. Schedule

Write two or three sentences summarizing:

• The article.

• The target periodical.

Write two or three paragraphs explaining your target periodical. Your explanation should contain:

• The name of the periodical (for example, Scientific American, Smithsonian, MIT Alumni Bulletin).

• The kinds of articles this periodical is seeking.

• The periodical's audience. If not obvious, look in "Writer's Market."

• The length of articles in this periodical.

• The tone (friendly, formal) of articles in this periodical.

Explain your topic in two paragraphs or so. In addition, summarize the quantity of artwork (for example, one photograph, two tables, and one drawing) that will accompany your article.

Verification

You may do the Verification section as a table.

Schedule

Specify your article's intermediate and final dates. Get the dates from the syllabus.

Additional Reading

The following links provide helpful additional information on proposals:

• Why Proposals Get Rejected.
• Section 2.6 of The Mayfield Handbook of Technical Scientific Writing.