O N T H E A R T O F WRITING PROPOSALS
Some Candid Suggestions
for Applicants to
Social Science Rearch Council
Competitions
Adam Przeworski
Department of Political Science
University of Chicago and
Frank Salomon
Social Science Rearch Council One Pierrepont Plaza, 15th Floor
The Art of Writing Proposals
By Adam Przeworski and Frank Salomon
Writing proposals for rearch funding is a peculiar facet of North American
academic culture, and as with all things cultural, its attributes ri only partly into
public consciousness. A proposal's overt function is to persuade a committee of
scholars that the project shines with the three kinds of merit all disciplines value,
namely, conceptual innovation, methodological rigor, and rich, substantive content.
But to make the points stick, a proposal writer needs a feel for the unspoken
customs, norms, and needs that govern the lection process itlf. The are not
really as arcane or ritualistic as one might suspect. For the most part, the customs
ari from the committee's efforts to deal in good faith with its own problems: incomprehension among disciplines, work overload, and the problem of equitably
judging proposals that reflect unlike social and academic circumstances.
Writing for committee competition is an art quite different from rearch work itlf.
After long deliberation, a committee usually has to choo among proposals that all
posss the three virtues mentioned above. Other things being equal, the proposal
that is awarded funding is the one that gets its merits across more forcefully becau
it address the unspoken needs and norms as well as the overt rules. The purpo
of the pages is to give competitors for Council fellowships and funding a more even
start by making explicit some of tho normally unspoken customs and needs.
Capture the Reviewer's Attention?
While the form and the organization of a proposal are matters of taste, you should
choo your form bearing in mind that every proposal reader constantly scans for
clear answers to three questions:
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•What are we going to learn as the result of the propod project that we do
not know now?
•Why is it worth knowing?
•How will we know that the conclusions are valid?
Working through a tall stack of proposals on voluntarily-donated time, a committee
member rarely has time to comb proposals for hidden answers. So, say what you have
to say immediately, crisply, and forcefully. The opening paragraph, or the first page
at most, is your chance to grab the reviewer's attention. U it. This is the moment
to overstate, rather than understate, your point or question. You can add the
cond河马卡通图片
itions and caveats later.
Questions that are clearly pod are an excellent way to begin a proposal: Are strong
party systems conducive to democratic stability? Was the decline of population
growth in Brazil the result of government policies? The should not be rhetorical
questions; they have effect precily becau the answer is far from obvious. Stating
your central point, hypothesis, or interpretation is also a good way to begin:头伏饺子二伏面
Workers do not organize unions麦芽糖怎么做
; unions organize workers. The success, and failure,
of Corazon Aquino's revolution stems from its middle-class origins. Population
growth coupled with loss of arable land pos a threat to North African food curity
in the next decade.
Obviously some projects are too complex and some conceptualizations too subtle for
such telegraphic messages to capture. Sometimes only step-by-step argumentation
can define the central problem. But even if you adopt this strategy, do not fail to
leave the reviewer with something to remember: some message that will remain after
reading many other proposals and discussing them for hours and hours. She's the one
who claims that Argentina never had a liberal democratic tradition is how you want
to be referred to during the committee's discussion, not Oh yes, she's the one from
Chicago.
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Aim for Clarity
Remember that most proposals are 诡计多端的近义词
reviewed by multidisciplinary committees. A
reviewer studying a proposal from another field expects the propor to meet her
halfway. After all, the reader probably accepted the committee appointment becau
of the excitement of surveying other people's ideas. Her only reward is the chance
that proposals will provide a lucidly-guided tour of various disciplines' rearch
frontiers. Don't cheat the reviewer of this by inflicting a tiresome trek through the
duller idiosyncrasies of your discipline. Many disciplines have parochial traditions of
writing in pretentious jargon. You should avoid jargon as much as you can, and whe形容秋天的成语
n
technical language is really needed, restrict yourlf to tho new words and technical
terms that truly lack equivalents in common language. Also, keep the spotlight on
ideas. An archeologist should argue the concepts latent in the ceramic typology more
than the typology itlf, a historian the tendency latent in the mass of events, and so
forth. When additional technical material is needed, or when the argument refers to
complex ancillary material, putting it into appendices decongests the main text.
Establish the Context
Your proposal should tell the committee not only what will be learned as a result of
your project, but what will be learned that somebody el does not already know. It
is esntial that the proposal summarize the current state of knowledge and provide
an up-to-date, comprehensive bibliography. Both should be preci and succinct.
They need not constitute a review of the literature but a sharply focud view of the
specific body or bodies of knowledge to which you will add. Committees often treat bibliographies as a sign of riousness on the part of the applicant, and some
members will put considerable effort into evaluating them. A good bibliography
testifies that the author did enough preparatory work to make sure the project will complement and not duplicate other people's efforts. Many proposals fail becau
the references are incomplete or outdated. Missing even a single reference can be
very costly if it shows failure to connect with rearch directly relevant to one's own.
Proposal writers with limited library resources are urged to correspond with
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colleagues and libraries elwhere in the early stages of rearch planning. Resource
guides such as Disrtation Abstracts International and Social Science Periodical
Index are highly recommended. For many disciplines, annual reviews (e.g., Annual
Review of Anthropology) offer state-of-the-art discussions and rich bibliographies.
Some disciplines have bibliographically-oriented journals, for example Review of
Economic Literature and Contemporary Sociology. There are also valuable area
studies-oriented guides: Handbook of Latin American Studies, International African Bibliography, etc. Familiarizing yourlf with them can save days of rearch.
Powerful bibliographic arches can be run on CD-ROM databas such 咨询合同
as the
Social Science Citations Index, Social Sciences Index, and Modern Language
Association International Index. Also, on-line databas such as CARL and ERIC,
available by library or network access, greatly increa your bibliographic reach.
What's the Payoff?
Disciplinary norms and personal tastes in justifying rearch activities differ greatly.
Some scholars are swayed by the statement that it has not been studied (e.g., an
historian may argue that no book has been written about a particular event, and
therefore one is needed), while other scholars sometimes reflect that there may be a
good reason why not. Nevertheless, the fact that less is known about one's own
chon ca, period, or country than about similar ones may work in the propor's
favor. Between two identical projects, save that one concerns Egypt and the other
the Sudan, reviewers are likely to prefer the latter. Citing the importance of the
events that provide the subject matter is another and perhaps less dubious appeal.
Turning points, crucial breakthroughs, central personages, fundamental institutions,
and similar appeals to the significance of the object of rearch are sometimes
effective if argued rather than merely asrted. Appealing to current importance may
also work: e.g., democratic consolidation in South America, the aging population in industrialized countries, the relative decline of the hegemony of the United States.
It's crucial to convince readers that such topics are not merely timely, but that their
current urgency provides a window into some more abiding problem. Among many
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