Writing Proposals - Chatper 5

Again, because I am working on a thesis proposal, I try to apply the suggestions in our book to the special case of research proposals. Reading the material on the project plan or the methodology section reminded me of several important components of the proposal. Perhaps the most important feature is answering the why question, as discussed on page 83. However, in most of my coursework, instructors have referred to this aspect as the “so what” question. By asking “so what” as I write, I’m constantly delving deeper into my topic. It’s also about anticipating and answering your readers’ why questions before they have a chance to ask them, and doing so in a way that doesn’t interrupt the flow of the proposal. If you include the information upfront they have more reason to continue reading. At the same time, I think this issue brings up similar concerns from our previous discussion of the audience, specifically to what level do we write the proposal? If we try to anticipate every question, we may include too much want to tell information.

I think one way to learn more about the ideal amount of information is to study the form of proposals and of theses as well. For instance, for another research project an instructor suggested that I skim journals in my field to discover what methodologies article authors found useful. In doing so, I could quickly review methodology sections to determine how much detail they include and to see if I could replicate the study in my own case. I’m a firm believer that we need to read other work in order to improve our own writing, so this method fit well into my thinking about my own research.

I also found it helpful to review other MAPC thesis as I formulated my ideas. While the library stores mostly print copies, you can find several online, including those from other subjects for the purpose of this class. If you are interested in learning more about the structure of the final thesis, so that you can better map out a project plan or chapter outline, the website is http://etd.lib.clemson.edu/. (Note: the database begins with December 2006 submissions.)

Mindmap of Opportunity

Instead of mapping the causes or effects of the identified research opportunity, I decided to consider the research leading to the proposal and what I hope my research will lead to or accomplish. I've flagged the ideas that I hope to concentrate on in my thesis proposal.

Writing Proposals - Chapter 4

I appreciated that this chapter included a special case of research grants and literature review which applies to those of us working on thesis or project proposals. Moreover, I think we can gain insight from other sections of the chapter, and I want to speculate on some concerns for academic and professional proposal writers.

First, how does Guideline 3: Blame Change, Not People translate to research proposals? With this special case of literature review and research gaps, how do we balance a critique of prior research without stating that it is no longer valid? In other words, I think there is a precarious, perhaps even stylistic balance, between reviewing current literature, building upon it, refuting it, and finding your own space to insert a new idea or voice. While Johnson-Sheehan’s advice still applies, in that we certainly don’t want to attack fellow scholars, I think more should be said about developing a research gap by focusing on change rather than people. Such a discussion would easily tie into the sections on structuring the proposal according to different trends in the field or in its evolution over time.

Second, I cannot stress enough the importance of triangulation in academic research. As a student of research methods I learned about triangulation of data, methods, and theories, and I think any of these strategies would be useful to provide a more complete, albeit still subjective, perspective on a subject. In addition, I stress triangulation to my students in English 103, though I’ve not referred to it in such technical terms. For their first research project, I require them to use at least three different types of sources: a book, a periodical, and a website, so they not only explore the reliability and relevance of these different sources of information, but they also learn different citation details. I’m particularly interested in the book’s list because I would have never chosen electronic sources, print sources, and empirical sources as parallel items in a list. Instead, I tend to think of sources as books, periodicals, electronic sources, and miscellaneous, which in past works cited has included films, advertisements, interviews, and presentations.

I guess the terminology would depend on the subject. Likewise, I also want to discuss headings in proposals and in the MAPC thesis as well. The examples in the book use descriptive headings for each section, but for the theses I’ve read through the headings seem more utilitarian or conventional such as introduction, methods, results, analysis, discussion, and I wonder to what extent we need to stick to these conventions or if more descriptive headings might be a better approach in certain situations. For instance, I’m reminded of Flower, Hayes, and Swarts’ scenario principle and their suggestion to use readers’ questions as headings. Should we think about our readers as we create our headings, and if so how do we structure the document into sections and label them to meet readers’ expectations, ease the document’s usability, and attract their attention?

Progress Report #1

To: Dr. Holmevik
From: Amy Jessee

Introduction
This MAPC thesis proposal explores the connections between organizational narrative and strategic communication through the genre of profiles. I will conduct a textual and visual analysis of profiles used by universities on their websites or print publications.

Work Completed
At this point in the writing process, I’ve completed an analysis of the rhetorical situation with an emphasis on the audience. Through in-class worksheets, I’ve evaluated my proposal idea to see if it will be accepted as fulfillment of the MAPC program requirements, and I’ve focused on my thesis committee as the primary audience to which the proposal will be addressed. Within this primary audience, I’ve identified Dr. Williams as my committee chair and a member of the gatekeeper audience, and due to his current teaching assignment in Spain, I’ve asked Dr. Hilligoss, my assistantship director, to serve as my point of contact for the summer months. By analyzing the situation or context, I now have a good understanding of what I am going to do and who I will be writing for, even if the details of my proposal are still in the research stage. For the literature review, I’ve completed extensive research on strategic communication for a previous course, particularly concerning brand identity, issue management, and auto-communication, and I believe I have the necessary background in rhetoric and identification and in the methodology of critical discourse analysis should I chose to use these theoretical approaches.

Next Steps
For next week, I hope to complete research on the narrow subject of my proposals: the profile genre. While I have first-hand experience composing profiles, I have done little investigative research in the history of the genre and its prevalence in university websites. Since I’m also interested in the visual components, I should add more research about this aspect as well, and I hope to narrow down my research methodology as I review the literature about the subject. At this point I have some concerns about tackling a new research area, but I am excited to learn more about a genre that I enjoy writing. I know that my challenges will include be finding the seminal articles in the field to establish my credibility since I’m a relatively new scholar; culling down the information into my own words and ideas so that my literature review is not quote-heavy nor too long for a 10-page thesis proposal; and working on the overall structure of the proposal even as I draft the first section. I want to make sure my proposal is a cohesive strong argument that lays the groundwork for my next year of study.

Conclusion
At this point, I am pleased with my progress on the project. I’ve selected a topic that I am truly interested in on both academic and professional levels, and I think I’ve identified a research gap that will hopefully result in a publishable piece of work. I’m grateful for the comments of the class, and their helpful advice about the rhetorical situation and my own ideas. This supportive structure and the time constraints of the class not only mirror an actual proposal writing situation, but also force me to get my thoughts on paper and move forward with my grand schemes for research.

Executive Summary (draft 2)

As members of organizations, we continuously construct stories about our experiences, and in turn these stories construct the organization and its culture. Specifically, organizations choose to feature individual stories or profiles of community members, vignettes of personal experience that epitomize the culture. Whether internal or external communication, these profiles offer the opportunity for others to view and identify with the organization, and as such the texts are part of the organization’s strategic communication about what it is and what it wants to be. Though both narrative and strategic communication are subcategories of organizational communication, their connection has not been fully explored. This thesis will investigate the use of narrative as a form of strategic communication though the profile genre.

By combining theories of rhetoric and linguistics, genre ecology and activity systems, and visual communication and information design, I hope to conduct a comprehensive analysis of profiles within one industry or longitudinally for a short period of time. The print or web-based profiles will be analyzed using textual or discourse analysis, with a focus on rhetoric and identification. The textual features will be described, analyzed, and finally explained in relation to the social context, and with consideration to overarching issues of identity, ideology, and power, though the theoretical and methodological lens of critical discourse analysis. In addition, I hope it will increase my knowledge of profiles from a writer’s perspective and also lead to suggestions for other communicators and the future of the profile genre.

Objectives and Purpose

My objectives for this thesis proposal include:

• Completing degree requirements for the MAPC program.
• Conducting original empirical research.
• Applying theories learned in my coursework.
• Investigating a topic of interest
• Exploring a facet of strategic communication (TRO)
• Contributing to knowledge in the field

Consequently, the purpose of this proposal is to explore the structure, placement, and design of profiles as a genre of strategic communication.

I hope this concise purpose statement sums up my top ranked objective (TRO) and can guide my revisions for the executive summary, which I now realize contains excessive “want to tell” information, instead of only “need to know” information. I will still need to work on the terminology used in the summary, but I will clarify the meanings of essential terms after conducting the literature review.

Reader and Context Analyses

As identified in a previous evaluation, my thesis committee will be the primary audience for this proposal. They will push me to explore a topic in-depth based on the program’s values of high quality research, concise writing, good organization, correct citations, etc. In addition, I believe the primary audience will have both positive attitudes and emotions toward the proposal. Secondary readers for the proposal include professors from other departments with whom I might consult for more insight into my subject of study, as well as colleagues for whom I’ve written profiles for in the past. As experts in the field or in the workplace, these readers also will want to advance knowledge about the subject. In addition, they will hold me to different standards and may have invested interest and emotions in what I hope to study.

The tertiary readers include my peers in the graduate school, the MAPC program, and most specifically this proposal writing class. They will be able to evaluate my proposal in comparison to other proposals, so I think they hold me to the standards we share for graduate-level work, while challenging me to persuade them about my research. Their attitudes may range from ambivalent to interested, though I think the readers from class will have more emotional attachment since we are all working though the same process.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the gatekeepers even at this initial stage of the process with the hope of reducing my stress level later. In particular, I believe my thesis adviser or committee chair will be the gatekeeper for the content of my proposal and of my thesis. He will be the first reader of the material and approve it before I submit it to other members. Later in the process, the graduate school will serve as a formatting gatekeeper, since I must be aware of and comply to certain formatting instruction for all graduate theses. With these gatekeepers in mind, I know to meet program and graduate school requirements, most specifically concerning citation style and formatting, so that I can make my thesis adviser and school proud.

The physical constraints, such as formatting, also factor into the contexts surrounding the proposal. As a writer, I face a limited time frame to complete the proposal and the project. For my primary readers I believe digital copy would be the easiest in terms of delivery and review, though print and bound copies will be the final deliverable. I also want to think of the industry/community context as I explore a research gap, analyze data which is publically accessible but still linked to universities and a larger social context, and possibly deal more specifically with my work in publications. Finally, I might encounter the economic context through a lack of funding though I do not anticipate this issue; the ethical context through the Institutional Review Board, should I decide to conduct interviews; and the political context as I narrow down my topic and choose a compatible committee.

Writing Proposals - Chapter 3

The overarching theme of this chapter centered on identifying readers and understanding what they need to know. Unfortunately, in an actual situation, I think determining readers and their motives and attitudes are much more difficult than these abstract concepts. Specifically, I wonder how we distinguish between what readers need to know and what we want them to know, which is probably the part of the writing process that I have the most trouble with. After brainstorming, researching, and collecting ideas, how do we narrow those ideas down to the essential “need-to-know” information? In other words, how do we let go of those incredible ideas that just don’t fit the proposal? One suggestion, in addition the worksheets in our book, is to have friends, readers, or editors review a draft of the proposal before the submission deadline.

In addition to thinking about the boundaries as discussed above, I also think the one sentence proposal statement is a good idea. As a somewhat unrelated but entertaining link, I remembered this article about six-word memoirs http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18768430, and I am curious if six word proposal statements could be as effective, at least help us focus our thoughts.

In addition to figuring out what (and how much) to say, we also must determine how to say it. With this important aspect in mind, I would like to discuss the issue of power when writing proposals, specifically through the idea of authority or credibility. In terms of our thesis proposals, we might want to recall Myers study of biology articles, where researchers new to a field of study had to change their level of knowledge claims and their style of writing in respect to existing knowledge. I think this realization would fit into Johnson-Sheehan’s category of industry/community on page 44.

Proposal Opportunity Evaluation

I developed the following responses during the class workshop on evaluating proposal opportunities, based extensively on the MAPC Handbook thesis guidelines.

Client: MAPC Thesis Committee
Point of Contact (POC): Dr. Susan Hilligoss (Committee Chair, Dr. Sean Williams)
Deadline for Proposal Submission: Summer 2008

Summary of Proposal Opportunity: To research an area of interest within in the fields of professional communication, rhetoric, or composition; To identity a research gap, undertake critical research, and contribute to the field through a study of a topic that is accessible to the public.

Comments and Recommendations: Proposal should be about 10 pages and include a thesis statement, a literature review and working bibliography, and a timeline and probable thesis structure. Specifically, my research will be primarily descriptive, but may conclude with suggestions for further research and suggestions for current practices.

Accept or Reject: Accept on the grounds that this research will fulfill degree requirements for graduation in May 2009.

Executive Summary (draft)

As members of organizations, we continuously construct stories about our experiences, and in turn these stories construct the organization and its culture. Specifically, organizations choose to feature individual stories or profiles of community members, vignettes of personal experience that epitomize the culture. Whether internal or external communication, these profiles offer the opportunity for others to view and identify with the organization, and as such the texts are part of the organization’s strategic communication about what it is and what it wants to be. Though both narrative and strategic communication are subcategories of organizational communication, their connection has not been fully explored. This thesis will investigate the use of narrative as a form of strategic communication though the profile genre.

Project Plan
By combining theories of rhetoric and linguistics, genre ecology and activity systems, and visual communication and information design, I hope to conduct a comprehensive analysis of profiles within one industry or longitudinally for a short period of time. The print or web-based profiles will be analyzed as the following:
• Rhetoric – including Aristotle’s distinction and emphasis on examples or narratives and enthymemes
• Auto-communication – specifically Cheney and Christensen’s concept where external communication turns inward and vice versa
• Image – both the external image of the organization and the images connected to the profiles
In addition, I might consider overarching issues of identity, ideology, and power through the theories of Bourdieu, Burke, Fairclough, and Foucault.

Conclusion and Contributions
This research will describe the features of profiles, while examining their persuasive power in terms of identification. In addition, I hope it will increase my knowledge of profiles from a writer’s perspective and also lead to suggestions for other communicators and the future of the profile genre.

Writing Proposals - Chapter 2

First I want to compare the distinction between solicited and unsolicited proposals to that of Bitzer’s and Vatz’ notions of the rhetorical situation. In Bitzer’s version the rhetorical situation exists on its own and precedes the corresponding rhetoric, much like the RFP exists before the proposal. On the other hand, Vatz believes that the utterance or rhetoric invites the exigence, similar to the unsolicited proposal creating a need for the proposal itself. I think this is an interesting difference, especially because Vatz gives more responsibility to the rhetor and the choices he/she makes. For proposal writing, we might also want to consider Cosigny’s view of the rhetorical situation, which mediates the control vs. creation dichotomy. In this version, a rhetor cannot create situations arbitrarily; consequently, even unsolicited proposals must arise from some context, such as a meeting or conversation.

For my other two topics, I want to compare proposals to other genres: newspapers and resumes. Our book suggests using the journalist’s method of the five-W and how to determine the statis, and I wonder if we can also learn additional methods from journalists, specifically concerning the style of proposals. As I recall from my undergraduate journalism classes, journalists consider the ABC’s of writing, namely accuracy, brevity, and clarity. To what extent should proposals share these concerns? I think proposals need to be accurate, at least to our best knowledge of the “facts” at the time. They certainly should be clear; otherwise, reviewers will stop reading and approval or funding would be out of the question. Thus, I think brevity is the one aspect with remaining questions. How brief should proposals be considering the page requirements, reader’s selective reading habits, and the amount of detail necessary to convey our ideas?

In addition to being concise in length of the proposal itself, I also have questions about sentence and word length, as well as word choice. Specifically, should proposals avoid jargon and instead use common terms? While this detail certainly depends on the audience, word choice might have additional aspects much like resumes or job applications, where only those documents with key words move to the next stage. If letters of inquiry are similar to application letters in that both need to be tailored to the audience, then we might examine how proposals also need to meet keyword requirements.

Initial Ideas

For my MAPC thesis, I want to combine my interests in professional communication, linguistics, and creative nonfiction through an in-depth textual or discourse analysis of a single genre. I hope to continue my research on strategic communication, or how organizations present what they are and what they want to be, along with overarching issues of identity, ideology, and power. With those notions in mind, I propose the following thesis topics, one of which will be fleshed out into a full-fledged thesis proposal this summer.

1. Narrative as strategic communication – In this study I would examine the use of narrative as a genre of strategic communication. Though both narrative and strategic communication may be considered subcategories of organizational communication, they have not been considered as one influential form of communication, yet narrative appears to be strategically useful and persuasive. For instance, I’ve noticed that several universities feature student and faculty profiles on their websites, and I would like to analyze how these profiles incorporate identification strategies as articulated by Burke and/or Foucault, or how the narratives function as rhetoric. In particular, I would consider Aristotle’s notions of the example and the enthymeme to explore narratives as examples and how as strategic communication it might constitute enthymematic arguments. Possible avenues of research include discourse analysis of featured profiles on websites, admissions materials, prospective faculty materials, or alumni magazines. In addition to written text, I also hope to focus on the visual design and viewers’ positioning or ability to identify with the subject. For example, if an image accompanies the profile, at what distance is the subject from the viewer and what is the stance between them. As a result, this project would use theories from rhetoric, genre theory/activity systems, and visual design to develop a more complete picture of the strategic use of narratives for a particular industry or type of organization.

2. Image and narrative in organizational change – as a related idea, I would like to analyze image and narrative over time, again through the frame of strategic communication, which in this case would include both internal and external communication. Following previous studies such as Cheney’s dissertation about employee newsletters and Cheney and Vibbert’s analysis of public relations and marketing, this project would result in a holistic analysis of organizational communication surrounding a single issue. In particular, I might expand prior research on the rebranding of the Greenville Transit Authority to Greenlink. At this point, I’ve only analyzed the news headlines associated with the decision and planning processes for the transportation system, but I think a more comprehensive analysis would include the internal communication of the organization, the meeting minutes of the city and county councils, and the public communication of the transit authority.

3. Corporate Social Responsibility Reports – CSR reports are a new trend in corporate communication, and I believe they offer a unique opportunity for research on strategic communication. Like a financial annual report, a CSR report details an organization’s activities for period of time; however, in these documents the focus is on the activities that affect the community or the environment in addition to the bottom-line of the organization. As more companies communicate about their social responsibility, we need to understand why this genre has evolved. Consequently, my analysis would include elements of genre theory and visual design, much like the first proposed study, in addition to considering prior research on annual reports and perhaps environmental impact statements as well. This line of research ties into strategic communication, because recent research identifies social responsibility as an area with few communication-based studies. Specifically, I want to consider CSR reports as a form of Cheney and Christensen’s auto-communication, where seemingly external communication turns inward so the organization is essentially communicating with itself. This view has interesting implications for our conception of CSR reports, particularly if they are meant to speak to the company as much as or more so than to the community or external stakeholders.

In addition to these three topics, I would also consider focusing on brand identity, specifically typography and identity in the university setting. Additional texts of interest include alumni magazines, city magazines, and trade publications, all of which stem from my work experience in university relations and my current position with the extension office. I hope to focus on a topic to which I can apply my experience and also advance my knowledge of the discipline.