Guidelines for Preparing Proposals. This item is unavailable.Guidelines for Preparing Proposals

TIPS FOR PROPOSAL WRITING, SOME PRACTICAL GUIDELINES 1. Start early. (But, don’t assume that if you will not be able to meet a submission deadline or target date that you must miss a review cycle. Call the agency before the due date, explain your problem, and ask if there is a procedure for submitting late.) 2. Read the instructions carefully (before you write, while you are writing, and when you have finished writing). Not including all required information or not following the designated format will be noted by reviewers and program officers. Use the agency’s maximum page limits as an indication of the detail expected in a proposal. Don’t exceed it or try to fit the limit by squeezing too many words onto a page or eliminating spacing. At the other extreme, a proposal that is substantially shorter than the limit is probably lacking in necessary details. Keep within stated guidelines. Avoid jargon and unnecessary abbreviations. Be liberal with headings to break up the text. (If you use number or letter designations be sure that they match in each section.) 3. Use the same care in preparing your proposal as you would for a manuscript being submitted to a journal. (Reviewers will comment on typos, not using standard formats, missing references, etc.) Send glossy photos of illustrations if critical detail is lost in printing copies of the proposal (ask how many are needed). 4. Make your goals specific and What questions are you asking? Constantly keep goals in focus. Devote at least a paragraph to putting your proposed experiments in a long-term context. Proposing much more work than can possibly be achieved during the requested grant period is one of the most common mistakes made by first-time applicants. 5. Ensure that you have an appropriate rationale for each Why is your work important? 6. Describe previous experiments carefully and Are you a careful and critical?