Guidelines for Preparing a Proposal

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - The Lord gives unto us little by little. "There could not be an Einstein without a Newton before him."

• People holding on to the old way of science- from them is taken that which they have, because their generation rejects it. New generation follows new paths, old generation withers and dies.
• Critical to the process that we get to where we are going by steps
• If you pray about things in your life that you need to change, the Spirit will tell me one thing. And as you act on that one thing, the Spirit can lead you in a path that takes me closer to what we're really looking for.
• For our proposals- build on what has already been done, and build on it. NOT jumping five steps. Make room for the next steps.
• Example: Refrigerators- first ice came from trucks. People who delivered the ice knew enough about refrigerating units- people wanted to keep stuff cold, not necessarily have ice delivered to them. Idea: Refrigerating units in everyones' homes
• In IP&T, it's a full-time job just keeping up with technology. If you ever feel that you know enough, you are done, and you'll lose whatever you had before.
• Clay Christiansen - Disrupting Class
• Be relatively certain that what you're doing hasn't been done already

TED.com - Conference for technology innovation, motivation

PopTech - Eastern version of TED conference

Hewlett Foundation - Guidelines for Grant Proposals
If an organization likes your idea, they may ask you to write a proposal, and they will give you something like this document.

• Make sure everyone has read the guidelines!
• Do your homework regarding other organizations studying similar things
• Sample chart- create measurable outcomes--numbers! Include indicators, baselines, and targets.
• Program officers- Hewlett vs. NSF- equally competent, but different ideas of what their roles are; NSF = steward of public funds, monitoring role; Hewlett = partner in research, help you with strategy, write parts of the proposal, etc.

Guidelines for Preparing a Prospectus for a Project or Dissertation

• Have to manage your committee as a group of people
• Write preliminary proposal, then schedule fifteen minutes with each member of your committee to explain it to them.
• Then add detail and keep going with the research, so there are no surprises when you defend.
• Prospectus must be signed before you start the project. It's an agreement, a contract; a guarantee that if you do all the things that you agreed to do, you will graduate.
• Suggestion: Do not have two co-chairs on the same committee.
• When editing document, track changes and print out the document with changes tracked
• When you submit an article for review, make those revisions, but then respond in writing- use bullet points, "I addressed this this way..."
• You don't want any surprises! All along the way, keep communication with your defense. You won't surprise them, and they won't surprise you.

To Create a Proposal

1. For Pre-Prospectus, type up the main points (2-3 pages) of the idea for research and meet with each committee member individually to discuss your idea and get that approved.
2. Have someone to help you write proposal (meet with them often).
3. Meet with each committee member to present your prospectus. Be prepared to give a 30-second spiel, then get any of their questions. Any time you can answer a question within your proposal, do so. If you can't, say, "That's a really good point. Let me see how I can address that," OR "That's really not what I'm trying to answer. That will be in the section of future studies." They can request changes that you choose not to make.