The shape of a good proposal

after M. Silverstein

Other Popular Proposal Models

"There is a great lacuna in the Literature"
"This is a Most Understudied Area"
"This area has received comparatively little attention..."

The Opening (somewhat better)

"Technique X has never been applied in area Y"

The easiest problem to fall into:

A: Propoal starts with a powerful current issue -- identity, ethnicity, gender, nationalism, race, hegemony, resistance, relations of states and indigenous people-- and discusses the theoretical formulations of this issue made by various people.

B: There is a somewhat vague section dealing with field methods, suggesting that "appropriate" field recording methods will be applied

C: The proposal ends by making a rather loose and generalized connection between B and A

The other most common problem

Too much discussion, especially in the Abstract and Introduction, of the general theoretical problem. Too little direct discussion of what the funding institution will be paying for.