A Call for Proposals

I’ve been sharing examples of different types of writing over the past few months, including health and wellness writing, fitness writing, a listicle, a public service announcement, travel writing, medical writing, and more. In keeping with that trend, I thought in this blog post I’d share a call for proposals (CFP) I recently wrote with some colleagues. Maybe you’ve never written a CFP before, or maybe you’ve written many. In any case, I hope you find this blog post interesting!

Proposals (Pix4Free/Nick Youngson)

What is a Call for Proposals and Who Uses One?

A call for proposals is a piece of writing that requests submissions of intended work. In academia, editors might use a CFP to solicit proposals for journal articles or book chapters on a particular topic. In business, convention organizers might issue a CFP to request proposals for presentations. In industry, companies might use a CFP, also known as an RFP (request for proposals) to recruit contractors to submit a bid to complete a project, such as a construction project.

What Information is Included in a CFP?

A CFP contains several different types of information. In this section, I’ll elaborate on each of these types: the background or context, the topic of focus, the submission requirements, the list of references, and any additional information. I’ll also illustrate details about each type of information by referring to the CFP I recently wrote with some colleagues.

• The background or context: In a CFP, an explanation is given for why the CFP is being issued at this time. In my sample CFP, the exigence has to do with the retirement of Mike Palmquist, the founding editor and publisher of the WAC Clearinghouse, an organization I have volunteered with for the past few years. In the first paragraph of the CFP, my colleagues and I explained what readers might need to know about Mike to understand why we issued this call when we did.
• The topic of focus: A CFP also provides details about what content the proposers should focus on in their submissions. In the CFP I wrote with my colleagues, the focus is on honoring Mike’s contributions to the field of writing studies, and we devoted about five paragraphs of the CFP to explaining this focus. Throughout his career, Mike has centered his scholarship around open-access publishing, writing across the curriculum, computers and composition, and contingent labor, so these are the areas we explained we’d like respondents to focus on in their proposals. To help facilitate this focus, we provided a sizeable list of themes explored in Mike’s scholarship that respondents might consider in their proposals. We also explained that we’d like submissions to not only look backward at all that Mike has accomplished but to also look forward at the future developments that Mike’s previous work in these areas has enabled.
• The submission requirements: A CFP should also lay out the details of what must be included in order for a submission to be complete. In my sample CFP, my colleagues and I included the length limitation (no more than 500 words per proposal, not including references) as well as the need to include a title, the name(s) of the author(s), the institutional or other affiliation(s) of the proposer(s), and the email address(es) of the proposer(s). We also specified where proposers could find the submission form and how they could contact us with questions. 
• The list of references: Any time a CFP refers to sources, reference list should be provided. In the CFP I wrote with my colleagues, our list of references was fairly brief—only seven sources were cited. However, we also included a much longer list containing references to many of Mike’s publications. We included this list so that respondents might refer to these works in their proposals.
• Additional information: Other information might be included in a CFP. For example, in my sample CFP, my colleagues and I detailed our expected timeline, with final publication likely occurring in 2026. We also explained how long final chapters might end up being, because this could help authors anticipate how much work they will need to put into writing their chapters if their proposals are accepted.

So there you have it, the down and dirty about CFPs. Have you ever written a CFP? If so, how did it go? If not, now that you know more about them, what inspires you about writing a CFP? For those of you involved writing studies, will you submit a proposal in response to the CFP I’ve shared here?