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.)