Chapter 6 Writing a Proposal

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Chapter 6 Writing a Proposal
Before anything else, preparation is the key to
success. Alexander Graham Bell
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Chapter Overview

• Characteristics of a proposal.
• Organizing your proposal.
• Writing your proposal.
• Common weaknesses.
• Sample proposals.
• Evaluation.

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A Proposal

• IS straightforward.
• IS NOT a literary work of art.
• IS clearly organized.
• And this means

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A proposal is straightforward

• Proposal Looking forward, a plan for the
  future.
• Start A The history of race relations in sports
  began before the turn of the last century when
  people of color began to appear in baseballs
  National League
• Start B This proposal will analyze the source
  of changes in American racial attitudes at the
  end of WWII, the impact on integration in MLB,
  and the difference in integration choices in the
  NL and AL.

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A proposal is straightforward

• Open with the statement of the problem.
• No introduction.
• No prologue.
• No statement of how you became interested.
• Reviewers are not interested in these.
• Guiding Rule Include only information that
  directly contributes to
• Delineation of the problem.
• Solution of the problem.

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A Proposal is not a literary work of art

• You must communicate clearly.
• Economy of words (but not false economy!).
• Precision of expression.
• This is no slam on creative writing.
• The creativity is not in the writing, here, but
  in the statement of the problem and its pursuit.

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A proposal is clearly organized

• Indeed, the detail of organization will seem
  infuriating at times.
• But organization clarity!
• Organization also signals to some that the person
  who put it together is very disciplined.
• After all, the proposal is trying to convince
  somebody that the research is worth doing.

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Time travel episode

• Back in high school (if not before) you were
  forced through organization exercises
• 3 x 5 cards.
• Outline exercises.
• Maybe the following looks familiar to you?
• SM 349 Final Report Form

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Why form matters

• Everybody reading a proposal expects the same
  elements, provided in the same way.
• You will not catch their eye or elicit
  special interest by deviating one iota.
• Remember Its clarity and precision at this
  point.
• A very extensive version, showing completely
  clear organization skill, is at p. 119 in your
  book.
• Includes further ideas about making your headings
  and subheadings even clearer.

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Step by step

• Adhere to all guidelines required if there is a
  known submission routine.
• I expect you to follow my form, for example.
• Others may expect other forms.
• Just follow them.
• First draft Get the organization and logic
  together first. May help you see some holes!
  Later for precise wording.

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Step by step

• The research problem comes first, clearly
  delineated, precisely stated.
• Convince the reader of the importance of the
  topic. Not why you are interested, but why they
  should be interested.

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Step by step

• Assume the reader knows nothing about your
  project topic. Think about the proposal as a
  contract describe what you will do and mean it!

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Step by step

• Methodology
• Detailed description
• Data sources.
• Procurement.
• Sample approaches.
• Measurements.
• Data procedures.
• PrecisionIf youre going to use a t-test, say so.

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Step by step

• How will the data be used to answer your problem
  requires very special attentionorganization,
  analysis, interpretation.
• E.G., Construct a table indicating each category
  of response, the actual frequency of the
  response, and the percentage of the total
  responses. Then, graph them comparatively and
  generate the mean, median, and variance for
  further comparison.
• Whats wrong here?

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Step by step

• E.G., Construct a table indicating each category
  of response, the actual frequency of the
  response, and the percentage of the total
  responses. Then, graph them comparatively and
  generate the mean, median, and variance for
  further comparison.
• This is what you did to the data, NOT how they
  will be interpreted!
• Unclear graph comparatively? descriptive
  statistics of what variables? Why those
  statistics and how do they help with
  interpretation?

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Proper care and feeding of Appendices

• Appendices are the right place for
• Definitions and Assumptions.
• Supporting documentation.
• Complete examples of measurement instruments like
  surveys.
• Longer descriptions of techniques that you may
  know well, but the reader would need to refer to.

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Revisions

• You will revise and revise and revise again.
• I do my first-draft and then let it stew.
• Look for disorganized presentation.
• Look for logical miscues.

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Revisions

• You will revise and revise and revise again
• Rethink feasibilityIs there anything youve
  missed to convince the reader this research can
  actually be done?
• Recheck that you followed your outline or
  convince yourself that the outline needs changing!

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Revisions

• Clarity, clarity, clarity
• Simple, straightforward sentences.
• Three shorter sentences v. one long sentence.
• Keep professional jargon to a minimum and define
  it (in your appendix) when you use it.
• Grammar, punctuation, spelling (you must care
  about this, sigh).

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Revisions

• Clarity, clarity, clarity
• Rewrite it.
• If at first you dont succeed

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Revisions

• Clarity, clarity, clarity
• Seek feedback.
• If at first you dont succeed, try, try again.
  Then quit. Theres no point in being a damn fool
  about it.
• --W.C. Fields.

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Revisions

• Figure 6.3
• Common Weaknesses in Proposals.
• Checklist, pp. 127-8.
• Do these as a final check.
• I do, even though Ill never apply to NIH.
• And, to help you practice

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Break Here
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In-class exercise for next week

• Ive put up two research proposals
• If the third number of your ID is even, read this
  one
• Coach Tracking.pdf
• There are some problems with the development of
  coaches, apparently, and a proposal for studying
  UK coaches based on survey techniques should
  inform the interested community on those problems.

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In-class exercise for next week

• Ive put up two research proposals
• If the third number of your ID is odd, read this
  one
• Egress Proposal.pdf
• Getting people out of buildings in the event of
  disaster is a pressing issue and a proposal to
  continue studying the integration of crowd
  behavior into simulation models of egress should
  inform the interested community on this problem.

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In-class exercise for next week

• Ive put up two research proposals.
• Come prepared with your critique on Tuesday.
• And for today.

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A Little Justice

• We need a break.
• I mean
• Ive decided its Tuesday-Thursday faculty
  equality daylets take MY MLK day off.
• I mean
• Happy Valentines DayEnjoy some time off on me.
• I mean
• See you Tuesday.