Functional illiteracy among students and graduates today is a grave concern of parents, educators, employers, and others. Literacy is a function of society, and among the most powerful of its social determinants are family and home, peer groups, the school, and the mass media. The social ferment in America during the past few decades, the recent predilection for oral communication, and the propagation of mass language have all had an impact on verbal proficiency. So have the reduced exposure to good books, the fewer opportunities of the young to hear and participate in conversations with adults, and the general laxity in social behavior, in moral values, and in linguistic and academic standards. So long as literacy is de-emphasized, devalued, and uncompensated, young people will have little incentive to learn to master the arts of speaking, reasoning, reading, and writing. Any improvement in the state of literacy will therefore await its restoration to a position of respect and reward. The fate of our nation, bound up as it is with the state of literacy, will depend on whether we effect that restoration.

Although you write the proposal before, and the report after, you do the research, both require the application of principles that will demonstrate to the reader two skills needed by every investigator: clear thinking to produce worthwhile research, and clear writing to communicate the results of that research. Sharp delineation of the problem to be addressed, thoughtful preliminary preparation, careful outlining, and concentration on orderly sequence of ideas in the first draft will help produce a unified, coherent proposal. Critical revision, with emphasis on simple, direct, forceful language will enhance the persuasiveness of the proposal.