A C1 Advanced proposal is written to a named reader — a principal, a manager, a committee — and it looks forward. You are recommending action and persuading someone to fund or approve it, which makes justification, not description, the heart of the task.
Write the reader’s job title at the top of your plan. Everything else follows from it: what they already know, what they can authorise, and what will worry them about the cost.
The bullets are the mark scheme in disguise. Two or three headings drawn straight from them guarantee full coverage and save you from writing an undirected essay.
One sentence stating what the proposal sets out and why. The reader should know by the end of line one what they are being asked to consider.
Three moves in each section: what should be done, why it is the right answer, and who gains. A recommendation without a benefit reads as a complaint.
‘Were the room made available, the club could meet weekly.’ The proposal is about a possible future, and the grammar should show it.
Cost, disruption or staffing. Naming the objection and dealing with it in one sentence is what separates a persuasive proposal from a wish list.
End by asking for the specific decision: approval, funding, a meeting. Offer to supply further detail, and keep the closing formal.
Proposals slide into informality in the final paragraph, where candidates relax. Reread the closing for contractions and for anything that sounds like a friendly note.
Not thisHi there! I’ve got a few ideas for the common room.
ThisI am writing to propose three improvements to the common room.
The reader is a named official. An informal greeting sets a register the rest of the text cannot recover from.
Not thisDescribing at length how bad the current situation is.
ThisStating the problem in two sentences and spending the space on solutions.
A proposal looks forward. Extended complaint is the shape of a report on a past event, not of a proposal.
Not thisI suggest to extend the opening hours.
ThisI suggest extending the opening hours.
‘Suggest’ takes an -ing form or a that-clause, never an infinitive. It is the commonest grammar slip in this genre.
Not thisThe library should be open longer. The café should be bigger. The gym should be free.
ThisOne recommendation per section, each with a reason and a benefit.
A list of demands gives the reader nothing to approve. Justification is what is being assessed.
Not thisIf the funds would be available, we could start in March.
ThisIf the funds were available, we could start in March.
The conditional clause takes the past form; ‘would’ belongs in the result clause only.
Not thisEnding with ‘Thanks a lot, hope you like it!’
ThisEnding with ‘I would be grateful if the committee would consider these suggestions.’
The closing carries the register of the whole text. An informal sign-off undoes four careful paragraphs.
40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.
2Complete the sentence.
3Complete the sentence.
5Complete the sentence.
7Complete the sentence.
9Write the four headings you would use for a proposal on improving a college sports centre.
One good answer
Purpose; Current provision; Proposed improvements; Benefits and next steps. Each heading answers a bullet in the prompt, the middle two carry the argument, and the last turns the proposal into a decision the reader can approve.
10Complete the sentence.
11Complete the sentence.
14Complete the sentence.
15Complete the sentence.
17Complete the sentence.
18How do you deal with an objection you know the reader will raise?
One good answer
Name it and answer it in the same paragraph. ‘The main objection is likely to be cost. However, since the room already exists and no additional staff would be required, the expense would be limited to signage and furniture.’ Anticipating the objection shows the reader you have thought as they will.
19Complete the sentence.
21Complete the sentence.
24Complete the sentence.
25Complete the sentence.
27Complete the sentence.
29Complete the sentence.
31Write a two-sentence opening paragraph for a proposal on improving a workplace canteen.
One good answer
This proposal sets out three ways of improving the staff canteen, following the concerns raised at last month’s meeting. It describes the current difficulties briefly, recommends changes to the menu, the seating and the opening times, and explains what each change would achieve.
32Complete the sentence.
34Complete the sentence.
36Complete the sentence.
38Complete the sentence.
39You have written four strong recommendations and no benefits, and you are near the word limit. What do you cut?
One good answer
Cut a recommendation. Three recommendations with benefits answer the task; four without do not. Choose the weakest one, delete it, and use the space to say who gains from each of the others and what it would cost — that is the material the mark scheme is looking for.
Note
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Yes, and they help. Two to four short headings drawn from the prompt bullets make the structure visible and stop you drifting into essay paragraphs. Keep them as noun phrases, not questions.
As formal as a letter to someone senior you have not met. No contractions, no exclamation marks, and no chatty asides — but also no legal-sounding padding. Plain formal English reads best.
You can invent plausible context, and you often have to. Keep it modest and consistent: a consultation with class representatives, not a national study with precise percentages you then have to sustain.
Direction in time. A proposal argues for something that has not happened yet and asks for a decision; a report describes and evaluates something that has, and may end with a recommendation. The same prompt can produce both, so read the task wording carefully.
Roughly even, with the recommendations section slightly longer than the rest. If one section is three lines and another is fifteen, the reader — and the examiner — will notice the imbalance before they notice your English.