Policy Speech: Proposal
In anticipation of your Policy Speech, you need to think carefully about a topic. Unlike a straightforward
persuasive speech, the challenge with this genre is to identify a specific social problem and devise a policy
solution that could meaningfully fix it. Addressing the considerations below can help you think through the
complexities of developing a solution to a vexing issue that could be both feasible and efficacious. The
Keywords on Public Policy and Making Policy will be helpful as you think through this process.
While the questions below get fairly specific, remember that this is just a proposal. The goal is to help you
think through important considerations early so that they don’t become problems later in the writing process.
If an aspect of the proposal doesn’t hold up here, that’s okay – that’s the point of a proposal.
Before you write up this proposal, you should take a moment to skim the guidelines for the Policy Speech
itself—especially the section on invention.
For full credit on this proposal, provide details on each of the aspects of your topic addressed below (two
points each). The full proposal should be between 1 and 2 double-spaced pages.
1. Describe the problem you aim to address and what policy agent(s) would be best positioned to address it.
Explain why this problem is local or specific enough that it can be described in a single 6 to 8-minute speech.
2. Identify some key stakeholders who would are impacted by the issue and/or would see their lives change
due to a new policy. Address how your policy will attempt to account for their diverse concerns and
perspectives.
3. Describe your policy proposal, specifying between one and three policy instruments it would use to enact
change. Follow guidance in the Making Policy Keyword to explain why these instruments would provide an
effective response to this policy issue.
4. Discuss a few causes that you suspect (based on prior knowledge or preliminary research) might be
responsible for the problem. Explain how your proposed policies would respond to those causes.
5. Identify some challenges that could prevent the policy from being enacted or working as designed. Briefly
describe how you might adapt your plan for implementation to lessen some of those challenges.
