{"id":1036,"date":"2011-04-01T09:43:15","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T13:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mossiso.com\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2011-04-01T09:43:15","modified_gmt":"2011-04-01T13:43:15","slug":"writing-proposals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/2011\/04\/01\/writing-proposals\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing Proposals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post is cross-posted at my <a title=\"Writing Proposals\" href=\"http:\/\/nazitunnels.org\/2011\/04\/writing-proposals.html\">dissertation site<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I spent the day researching grants and reading about how to properly  put together a proposal. I also spent a bit of time plotting out my todo  list for this semester, creating a checklist of tasks and when they are  due. I made the list in my Google Calendar, so it&#8217;s not available to be  embedded on this site. I&#8217;ll have to work on finding a replacement or  something.<\/p>\n<p>One of the places I&#8217;ll be applying to for a research grant is the Social Science Research Council (<a title=\"SSRC\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ssrc.org\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.ssrc.org<\/a>).  They happen to have a short paper on how to best write a proposal for  their competitions, and being no dummy, I know I can apply these tips to  all the proposals I write. So here are some tips from their paper, &#8220;<a title=\"SSRC - Art of Writing Proposals\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ssrc.org\/publications\/view\/7A9CB4F4-815F-DE11-BD80-001CC477EC70\/\" target=\"_blank\">On the Art of Writing Proposals<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h4>Purpose of Proposals is to Persuade<\/h4>\n<p>The main thing to realize when writing a proposal, is that you are  trying to persuade the approval committee that your project is better  than all the others. The trick is to do it in as short a space as  possible&amp;mdash;in the first paragraph, or at least the first  page&amp;mdash;while including all of the points the readers are looking  for. In the end you want the readers to associate you with your project  (Billy&#8217;s the guy researching blind Algerian water cave fish with  telepathic properties), rather than other mundane tidbits (Jane is the  gal from New York City, right?). It truly is an art.<\/p>\n<h4>What do they want?!<\/h4>\n<p>All scholarly projects require three basic merits: &#8220;conceptual  innovation, methodological rigor, and rich, substantive content.&#8221;  Additionally, the readers are going to be asking three questions that  the proposal needs to answer:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are we going to learn?<\/li>\n<li>Why do we need to know?<\/li>\n<li>How do you prove it?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And this all needs to be done initially very clearly, succinctly, and as forcefully as possible in the shortest amount of text.<\/p>\n<h4>Let me be clear about this&#8230;<\/h4>\n<p>It&#8217;s important to keep in mind that the individuals in the approval  committee come from varying disciplines. Therefore, the proposal needs  to be clear, free of the jargon typical of your discipline, all the  while explaining the boundary pushing or unique way your project  approaches your field. Keep the focus of the proposal on the ideas and  leave the technical aspects to an appendix. Make the first page explain  as clearly as possible what the topic is about, and what the  readers&amp;mdash;essentially, what the granting committee&amp;mdash;is  going to learn from this.<\/p>\n<h4>So What!<\/h4>\n<p>This is the crux of  the whole matter. Why in the world does anybody need to know about this?  What&#8217;s the point? Who cares? Why?! This is sometimes the hardest part  to figure out. I know it is for me. I continually mull this point over.  Do I really have a convincing and compelling reason. It seems for the  time being, for me, that my biggest compelling reason, my &#8220;so what?&#8221; is  because it hasn&#8217;t been researched before. While that may be a valid  reason, be careful. Others may conclude that there is adequate  justification for there to be no scholarship in the first place. There  are other aspects that make a research topic important and valid.  &#8220;Turning points, crucial breakthroughs, central personages, fundamental  institutions, and similar appeals to significance of of the object of  research are sometimes effective, if argued rather than merely asserted.<\/p>\n<p>Apply  the topic to current political, economic or social debates. How is your  research not only timely but currently urgent, such that it provides a  new way to view current issues, or turn the direction of current  understanding?<\/p>\n<p>Also try to be fresh and appealing in your  approach. Promote the apparent contradictions, extrapolate on puzzles,  and catch the readers off guard with surprises. Take the less traveled  path. If current trends lean towards one area of research, but your  topic can gyrate towards a new and fresh approach, take it!<\/p>\n<p>Oh Yeah? Prove it!<\/p>\n<p>It  is important for the proposal committee to know the methodology of your  approach. Do not just tell them what you will discover, but how you  intend to discover it. What types of sources, what means of debate, what  technology will be employed? But don&#8217;t just list out your tasks and how  you&#8217;ll do them, argue why this is the best course of action to achieve  the results you intend to acquire. Because some readers may be from  interdisciplinary fields, take the time to explain &#8220;what parts of your  methodology are standard, and which are innovative.&#8221; Some ideas to  cover:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Activities you plan to undertake to collect information<\/li>\n<li>Techniques you will use to analyze the data<\/li>\n<li>Tests of validity you will apply<\/li>\n<li>Specify the archives, sources, and respondents<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Finally, proposals should describe the end product. Will the grant  help to complete a dissertation chapter, a book, a digital project? Be  specific as to what the proposed outcome of this supported project will  be.<\/p>\n<h4>End with the Beginning in mind&#8230;<\/h4>\n<p>And begin with the  ending in mind, of course. It takes a long time to write a decent  proposal. Start early. Give yourself several weeks, or months if  possible. Write a first draft and set it aside for a day. Then revise  and set aside again. Ask others to take a look at it. Revise it again.  Make sure your opening paragraph is succinct, to the point, and  effective.<\/p>\n<p>The closing of your proposal should reference the  beginning. If you mentioned a story or a specific and compelling reason  for the research, reference it again. The effect is to try and tie it  all up in a neat little package.<\/p>\n<h4>Now, get back to work!<\/h4>\n<p>Well, that all sounds really good. Now if I can just apply it to my proposals!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post is cross-posted at my dissertation site. I spent the day researching grants and reading about how to properly put together a proposal. I also spent a bit of time plotting out my todo list for this semester, creating a checklist of tasks and when they are due. I made the list in my &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/2011\/04\/01\/writing-proposals\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Writing Proposals<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1037,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[166,15,88,8],"tags":[214,215],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic","category-dissertation","category-methodology-history","category-school-work","tag-grant-writing","tag-proposal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/1815-regency-proposal-woodcut-577x250.gif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9wosP-gI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1038,"href":"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions\/1038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mossiso.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}