Academic vocabulary · Proposing

Proposing in academic English

This is the language that does one job: it names what should be done, precisely enough that a reader could picture it happening. Every problem–solution essay ends here, and it is where most of them collapse into “the government should do something about it”. A proposal is only worth marks if the reader can see the action: who does what, to what, with what. These verbs carry that specificity in a single word.

6 itemseach with the pattern it requires

2 worked exampleswith the word doing the work marked

2 common mistakeswith the repair

4 exercisesrecognition first, then production

Start here · the long version

What proposing really asks you to decide

Proposal language names what should be done, precisely enough that a reader could picture it happening.

Where problem–solution essays go to die

Almost every problem–solution response ends the same way: “the government should do something about it”. The phrase proposes nothing, and it appears at exactly the moment the essay was supposed to deliver its most valuable content. What makes it so common is that it feels like a proposal while you are writing it — it has a subject, a modal and an object, and it is grammatically indistinguishable from a real one.

A proposal is only worth marks if the reader can see the action: who does what, to what, with what. “Allocate” forces you to name where the money comes from; “phase out” forces you to name the timescale; “prioritise” forces you to admit something else gets less, which is what makes it an argument rather than a wish. The verb does the work that “do something about” avoids.

The grammar is small and specific. “Implement” takes a policy or a scheme — something with a plan behind it — and cannot take an abstract noun: you cannot implement awareness. “Subsidise” takes its object directly, with no preposition. “Allocate” takes a resource and then “to” plus a purpose.

Name the actor

“Everybody should” is nobody. A proposal needs somebody who can carry it out.

Name the mechanism

“Allocate a share of fuel duty” is a proposal. “Invest more” is a wish.

What each verb takes

Implement a scheme, not awareness. Subsidise families, not “to families”.

Gradual is a proposal too

“Phase out” is often more defensible than “ban”, and it is one verb instead of a clause.

What it costs you to skip this

A problem–solution essay whose solutions are unspecified has answered half the question, and it is the half weighted most heavily in that essay type. The phrase itself costs again on Lexical Resource: “do something about” is five words of spoken English standing where the most precise vocabulary in the response should have been.

Where it stops applying

A proposal is not an argument for itself. Naming a measure precisely does not show it would work, and the paragraph still has to explain why. And proposals only belong where the prompt asked — appended to an opinion essay they answer a question nobody put, and they arrive without the paragraph that would have justified them.

Examples · why precise words score better

The same idea, twice

Lexical Resource is one of the four criteria, and it is not a count of long words. What it rewards is whether your word choice adds information — and the fastest way to see that is to watch one sentence become precise. Nothing was added below except accuracy.

Vague

The government should do something about public transport.

Proposing

Precise

Central government should allocate a fixed share of fuel duty to expanding suburban rail capacity.

“Do something about” is the phrase that marks an essay as having run out of ideas. The precise version names the actor, the mechanism, the money and the target — and none of that needed extra knowledge, only the verb “allocate” and the discipline to finish the sentence.

What the precise version earns
precision · range · collocation. No page here promises anyone a score: these are the things the criterion actually looks at, and they are the things you can control.

The language

Each item, and the pattern it demands

Knowing a word and not its pattern is exactly what produces a sentence that reads like a translation. The preposition, the verb form and the article are the part that carries the marks.

implement

Safe to use

Takes a noun: a policy, a scheme, a measure, a ban. Never a person and never an abstract noun like “improvement”.

allocate

Safe to use

allocate + resource + “to” + purpose: “allocate funding to rural clinics”. The verb that turns a wish into a proposal, because it names where the money comes from.

phase out

Safe to use

Separable phrasal verb: “phase out subsidies” or “phase them out”. Means withdraw in stages, which is a specific and often more defensible proposal than a ban.

prioritise

Safe to use

Takes a noun directly, no preposition: “prioritise preventive care”. It implies something else gets less, which is what makes it an argument.

subsidise

Watch the pattern

Takes a noun directly: “subsidise public transport”, never “subsidise to”. Note the spelling shifts to a “z” in American English.

should do something about

Costs you marks

It proposes nothing. Every occurrence is a place where naming the actual measure would have cost five words and earned the paragraph its marks.

Watch two · then do three

See the word doing its job in a real sentence

Worked example · allocate … to

Central government should allocate a fixed share of fuel duty to expanding suburban rail capacity.

Why it works: The actor, the source of the money and the target are all named, so a reader can picture the measure. That is the whole difference between a proposal and a wish.

Worked example · phase out

Rather than banning the fuel outright, governments could phase out subsidies over a decade while funding alternatives.

Why it works: The verb carries the gradualness, which frees the rest of the sentence to say what happens instead. Note the contrast with “banning”, set up in the opening clause.

What goes wrong

The mistakes this function produces

Most are collocation errors, not grammar errors — which is why no spell-checker will ever flag them.

The government should implement more attention to rural areas.

“Implement” takes a policy, a scheme or a measure — something with a plan behind it. Attention cannot be implemented.

Repaired: The government should direct more resources to rural areas.

Authorities should subsidise to families with young children.

“Subsidise” takes its object directly, with no preposition. The “to” is carried over from “subsidiar a”.

Repaired: Authorities should subsidise families with young children.

Now you try · with the scaffolding on

Build it one step at a time

Turn “something must be done” into a measure a reader can picture.

The material

Your problem–solution essay is about food waste. You are writing the solution paragraph.

Step 1Name who can actually do it

Not “society” and not “everybody”. Who has the power to carry this out?

Your version0 words · minimum 5

5 more words before you can compare. Writing it yourself first is the whole exercise.

Step 2Choose the verb, and check what it takes

Step 3Write the measure

Exercises · step 1, recognition

Before you learn the words, learn the job

A word list memorised before you can see what it is for is a word list that gets used in the wrong place.

Step 1 · the job

Which verb says that?

The situation: You want to propose that a harmful practice be ended gradually rather than at once.

All three are grammatical English. Only one of them does the job this function exists for.

Exercises · step 2, production

Choose the item that does the job and takes the right pattern

Every wrong option is wrong for its own reason, and it says so. Nothing here is scored automatically.

Central government should ______ a fixed share of fuel duty to suburban rail.

Choose an option first

You want to end a subsidy gradually rather than at once. Which verb carries that?

Choose an option first

Authorities should ______ families on the lowest incomes.

Choose an option first

The other functions

Seven more jobs for words to do

Hedging

It lowers the temperature of a claim, so you only have to defend what you actually said.

6 items · 3 exercises Asserting

It raises the temperature of a claim, so the reader knows which points you are prepared to stand behind.

6 items · 3 exercises Attributing

It makes clear whose claim each sentence is — yours, the prompt’s, or somebody else’s.

6 items · 3 exercises Quantifying

It says how many or how much, at a level of precision you can actually defend.

6 items · 3 exercises Causing

It names which way the arrow points between two things.

6 items · 3 exercises Evaluating

It says whether something is good or bad, and in what specific respect.

6 items · 3 exercises Register

It keeps every sentence at the formality the task expects.

6 items · 3 exercises