Writing a Competitive Proposal Narrative

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Writing a Competitive Proposal Narrative
Project Summary

• By Mike Cronan Lucy Deckard
• Office of Proposal Development
• Office of Research Graduate Studies
• Texas AM University
• 305 J. K. Williams Administration Building
  (845-1811)
• http//opd.tamu.edu/

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Office of Proposal Development

• Supports faculty in the development and writing
  of research and educational proposals to federal
  agencies and foundations--
• Center-level initiatives,
• Interdisciplinary research teams,
• New junior faculty,
• Institutional diversity initiatives,
• Health Science Center collaborations,
• Multi-institutional research partnerships.
• Offers a full suite of grant writing training
  programs to help faculty develop and write more
  competitive proposals.

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OPD Member List

• Jean Ann Bowman, PhD (Physical Geography/Hydrology
  ), earth, ecological, environmental,
  jbowman_at_tamu.edu
• Libby Childress, Scheduling, workshop management,
  project coordination, libbyc_at_tamu.edu
• Mike Cronan, PE (inactive), BS (Civil/Structures),
  BA, MFA, Center-level proposals, research and
  educational partnerships, new proposal and
  training initiatives, mikecronan_at_tamu.edu
• Lucy Deckard, BS/MS (Materials Science
  Engineering), New faculty initiative,
  fellowships, engineering/ physical science
  proposals, equipment and instrumentation,
  centers, l-deckard_at_tamu.edu
• John Ivy, PhD (Molecular Biology), NIH biomedical
  and biological science initiatives,
  johnivy_at_tamu.edu
• Phyllis McBride, PhD (English), proposal writing
  training, biomedical, editing,
  p-mcbride_at_tamu.edu
• Robyn Pearson, BA, MA (Anthropology), social
  sciences and humanities proposals, editing and
  rewriting, centers, rlpearson_at_tamu.edu

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Types of University Proposals

• Research (basic, applied, mission, applications,
  contract)
• Educational
• Hybrid research and education
• Small , few PIs
• Large , multiple PIs, centers
• Supplements to grants

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The proposal is the reality

• A proposal is not unlike a novel or a movie. It
  creates its own, self-contained reality. The
  proposal contains all the funding agency and
  review panel will know about your capabilities
  and your capacity to perform. With few
  exceptions, an agency bases its decision to fund
  or not fund entirely on the proposal and the
  persuasive reality it creates.

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Charles Mingus on Grant Writing

• Making the simple complicated is commonplace
  making the complicated simple, awesomely simple,
  that's creativity.

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• There is no amount of grantsmanship that will
  turn a bad idea into a good one, but there are
  many ways to disguise a good one.
• William Raub,
• former Deputy Director, NIH

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Writing the proposal narrative

• Contrary to what some people seem to believe,
  simple writing is not the product of simple
  minds. A simple, unpretentious style has both
  grace and power. By not calling attention to
  itself, it allows the reader to focus on the
  message.--Richard Lederer and Richards Dowis,
  Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay, 1999.

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Albert Einstein on Grant Writing

• If you can't explain something simply, you don't
  understand it well.
• Most of the fundamental ideas of science are
  essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be
  expressed in language comprehensible to everyone.

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Introductory writing tips

• Sell your proposal to a good scientist but not an
  expert
• Some review panels may not have an expert in your
  field, or panels may be blended for
  multidisciplinary initiatives
• Agencies reviewers fund compelling, exciting
  research, not just correct research
• Proposals are not journal articlesproposals must
  be user friendly and offer a narrative that tells
  a story that is memorable to reviewers

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Narrative iterations

• If I had more time, I would have written you a
  shorter letter. Mark Twain

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Goal of the narrative

• The goal for the proposal narrative at the time
  of submittal is that it be a well written
  document that responds fully, clearly, and
  persuasively to the research goals and objectives
  and review criteria defined by the sponsor in the
  funding solicitation.

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The competitive narrative

• Synthesizes ideas and detail
• Connects ideas to performance details
• Develops order, logic, transitions, and
  connectedness
• Integrates research ideas
• Provides a common structure to meld disciplinary
  strands
• Makes ideas accessible to others
• Converges on a common language
• Requires persistence, continuous revisions, and
  many draft iterations to converge on perfection

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Key Narrative Elements

• Project summary
• Format, topics, and scope most often defined in
  RFP
• Proposal introduction
• Format, topics, and scope most often
  discretionary
• Project description
• Format, topics, and scope clearly defined and
  ordered in RFP

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Role of the Project Summary

• Captures the interest of reviewers
• Defines the core idea clearly
• Describes concisely the connectedness of the core
  idea to specific research activities and outcomes
• Serves as a conceptual and relational roadmap to
  the proposal narrative

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The proposal introduction

• Serves as a mini-proposal
• Connects the vision, ideas, goals, research
  objectives, and outcomes
• Makes a compelling case for research significance
  and uniqueness
• Organizes the conceptual framework of the
  narrative,
• Tells who you are what you are going to do how
  you are going to do it who is going to do it
  why you are going to do it and demonstrates your
  capacity to perform
• Inspires reviewers to read closely and with
  interest the more detailed narrative

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Role of the Proposal Narrative-1

• Responds fully to sponsors requirements
• Incubator of ideas by draft iterations
• Enforces rigor, clarity, and simplicity
• Tames excesses, defines boundaries, forces
  connections
• Transforms ideas and anchors them in a common
  reality and research context
• A reality context shared by colleagues, program
  officers, and review panelists
• Tests ideas in a language lab
• What seems like a good idea can be illusory
• Verbal epiphanies at meetings are illusive

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Role of the Proposal Narrative-2

• Synthesizes ideas and detail
• Connects ideas to performance details
• Develops order, logic, transitions, and
  connectedness
• Helps the timing, logistics, and collaborations
  of proposal development
• Integrates collaborators ideas
• Provides a common structure to meld disciplinary
  strands
• Makes ideas accessible to others
• Program officers, reviewers
• A competitive narrative requires persistence,
  continuous revisions, and many draft iterations
  to converge on perfection

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Poor planningEverybody has a plan--until they
are shot at, Colin Powell

• Match the RFP
• Schedule a timeline
• Start proposal early
• Partnerships take more time
• Collaborator compatibility
• Let ideas develop slowly
• No midnight warriors
• Periodic calibration to RFP
• Define and schedule development tasks
• Anticipate the unexpected

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Poor Process Planning

• What do you control?
• Proposal narrative
• Collaborators
• Budget
• What do others control?
• Routing signatures
• Budget approvals
• Submission
• Data requests
• Institutional support

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Keep focused on development tasks

• Define and develop goals objectives
• Plan narrative iterations
• Who does what and when
• Review and assess progress of goals objectives
• Budget process by task

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Anticipate the unexpected

• Some ideas dont work out
• Some partnerships dont work out
• Some budgets dont work out
• Some proposals dont work out

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Craft of narrative writing

• Good writing lies at the core of the competitive
  proposal. It is the framework for crafting and
  structuring the arguments, ideas, concepts,
  goals, performance commitments, and the logical,
  internal connectedness and balance of the
  proposal.

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Good writing is more than mechanics

• Strong, comprehensive, integrated knowledge base
• Organizational clarity (stepwise
  logic/connections sequencing)
• Structural clarity (integrative logic logical
  transitions)
• Argumentative clarity (reasoning ordering
  synthesis)
• Capacity for synthesis
• Connect, connect, connect

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Good writing is more than mechanics

• Descriptive clarity (who, what, how, when, why,
  results)
• Clear, consistent vision sustained throughout
  text
• Establishes confidence in your performance and
  excitement for your ideas by reviewers

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Grammar and spelling count

• Proposals are not graded on grammar. But if the
  grammar is not perfect, the result is ambiguities
  left to the reviewer to resolve.
• Ambiguities make the proposal difficult to read
  and often impossible to understand, and often
  result in low ratings. Be sure your grammar is
  perfect.
• George A. Hazelrigg, National Science Foundation

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Internal consistency synthesis

• A competitive proposal must be internally
  consistent by language, structure, and argument
• All internal ambiguities must be resolved.
• The competitiveness of a proposal increases
  exponentially with the capacity of the author to
  synthesize information.

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Internal consistency synthesis

• Synthesis represents the relational framework and
  conceptual balance of the proposal.
• It is the synaptic connections among concepts,
  ideas, arguments, goals, objectives, and
  performance.

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Ideas matter (Slogans are not Ideas)

• Shaping ideas by language is hard work.
• Do not confuse slogans, effusive exuberance, and
  clichés with substantive ideas.
• Show the reviewers something new by developing
  ideas that are clear, concise, coherent,
  contextually logical, and insightful.
• Capitalize on every opportunity you have to
  define, link, relate, expand, synthesize,
  connect, or illuminate ideas as you write the
  narrative.
• Connect, connect, connect! (E.M. Forrester).

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Beware of boiler plate

• Boiler plate refers only to the application forms
  required by the agency, not the narrative
• Thinking of the proposal narrative as boiler
  plate will result in a mediocre proposal
• Begin each proposal as a new effort, not a copy
  paste be cautious integrating text inserts
• Strong proposals clearly reflect a coherent,
  sustained, and integrated argument grounded on
  good ideas

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FinallyBe confident