From: Hanna Hoyle, Kristen Welch, Victoria McKittrick, Zach Krimm, English 2311-017
To: Dr. Art
Re: “Proposal Plan Memo,” Due: 10/31/07
Proposal Title: “Consideration of School Uniforms”
Date Handed In: 10/31/07
This memo defines the problem, goal, solution, and conclusion for convincing the school board
and superintendent to consider implementing a mandatory school uniform dress code on a trial
basis at a Dallas high school in an effort to improve student grades.
This memo describes our method of working together as a group and how we will successfully
accomplish the assignment goals. We will work together as a team on every section of the paper,
so there will not be a breakdown of individual tasks. Through the collective efforts of the group,
we will be able to complete the proposal memo quickly and efficiently.
SUMMARY
Problem
There is too much emphasis placed on the social aspects of school—shifting attention away from
the academic achievement of students. As a result, other important issues such as standardized
testing, overcrowding, budgetary concerns, and improved curriculum materials don’t receive the
attention they deserve.
Solution
Our group will suggest that the school board consider implementing a six-week trial dress code
requiring school uniforms at Rockwall High School. We will track any changes in students’
grades by comparing report cards before and six weeks after the dress code is implemented. We
will also suggest that the school board distribute questionnaires to students and parents in order
to receive feedback and opinions about the trial program.
Example Questionnaire before implementation of school uniforms for parents:
1. How much are you willing to spend on the uniforms?
2. What is your opinion regarding mandatory school uniforms for your child’s
school?
3. Do you think that a six-week trial period is long enough to see a difference?
Example questionnaire after implementation of school uniforms for parents:
1. How do you feel about the cost of the uniforms?
2. Has your child’s grades improved, worsened, or stayed the same?
3. Do you think the school uniforms are a good idea? How have you or your
child benefited from the trial program?
Intended Audience
The intended audience for our proposal is the school board and the superintendent since they
have oversight for the school district’s policies and procedures. We will address our proposal to
the Rockwall ISD Superintendent and the school board. We will appeal to our audience in three
ways:
1) Emphasize the low cost of running the program and the simple approach of implementing the trial
program be implemented at only one school initially rather than the entire school district
2) Describe positive student outcomes that can be achieved as a result of implementing the program
3) Package all of the information in a concise proposal document
OBJECTIVE – Assignment Deadlines
This is our plan for writing the proposal project.
First, we listed the assignment deadlines given in the course syllabus. The team has decided to
share equal responsibility for each of the four assignments. We hope that by doing this our
assignments will have a better flow rather than being fragmented. Furthermore, this will allow
us to combine our four writing styles into one unified document.
We plan to submit the Formal Group Proposal Report for early grading. We also plan to submit
the Proposal Rough Draft and Progress Memos for early grading. We hope that early submission
of our Proposal Rough Draft and Progress Memos will enable us to receive some useful
information that we can use in writing our major assignment. We hope that turning in the
Formal group writing assignments for early grading will also allow us to have more time to focus
on our Proposal Presentation. Furthermore, we will able to use the critical feedback to make the
necessary changes in hopes of receiving a higher grade. Below is our group work schedule:
Assignment
Proposal Plan Memo
Proposal Outline Memo
Proposal Rough Draft
Proposal Report
Deadline
10/31
11/7
11/14
11/28
Our Deadline
10/31
11/7
11/12
11/19
Meetings
10/25, 10/29
11/1, 11/5
11/8, 11/11
11/15, 11/18
COMMUNICATION – Three Methods
We have a well-developed communication plan that will enable us to communicate effectively as
a group in several ways. First, we will use in-class time to work on upcoming assignments and
discuss any questions that might arise. This time will be beneficial because we all attend class
on a regular basis.
Second, we will communicate with each other by email and by phone in between meetings to
discuss and provide updates on our progress toward current assignments. This will allow our
group to work well together and produce quality documents.
Third, we have scheduled group meetings twice a week before each assignment is due. We plan
to meet for two hours to work on the assignments. We have scheduled dates that will work for
everyone. If a circumstance arises where someone has to miss a meeting, we will summarize
what we accomplished and assign them a part that was not finished.
CONCLUSION
What we have done
Our group is off to a very good start. We have met twice in order to complete the proposal plan
memo. We also organized our plan to complete the next set of assignments. We plan to submit
the proposal rough draft, progress memos, and the formal group proposal report early. We
agreed that getting instructor feedback on our ideas is a critical step in helping us develop the
best possible proposal.
What We Need
We will need your feedback on the Formal Group Proposal Memo in order to have a more
successful paper. We also need to do more research on the cost of school uniforms, and we need
to develop more questions for the questionnaires. We plan on gathering opinions from three
groups of people through questionnaires. We will write two questionnaires for the parents. One
will be given to the parents before implementing the trial dress code, and another one will be
given to parents after the six-week trial period. We also plan to solicit opinions from students
and teachers.