Application: Analysis of Masters Project Proposal

As I worked on writing my proposal for my Masters Project, this class helped me in several ways:

• Formulating my question. At first I started with the wrong question, and I had to change it in order to allow me to narrow down to the answer I wanted.
• Writing my introduction. My introduction would've been very technical if it weren't for the instruction we received on narrowing down and creating a funnel.
• Working with my committee. I was able to go around and meet with each member of my committee individually, so that when we met together, it only took us a half-hour to complete the meeting.

Some other things that helped me:

• Attending another proposal defense to see how that worked.
• Having a "mock" defense before it happened.
• Writing notes beforehand of things I wanted to mention.
• Using things I'd learned from the summer about writing proposals--including the deliverables and the objectives associated with them.

Defending my prospectus was one of my favorite experiences in the program thus far, to have three respected professors in the room worrying about me and my project and giving me suggestions for improvement, discussing things I'd already considered... it was great!