Project proposal format (Final draft)

[snlandge]

Hello,

Do we have to follow any format for writing the project proposal (Final draft)?

Regards Swapnil

[jhconning]

Here are a few broad guidelines/suggestions for the short presentations. I'll follow this with a separate post to this thread regarding formats for the final submission.

Short (slide) presentations on the 16th.

Prepare for a short slide presentation to last no more than 8-10 minutes. Please send slides as PDF or PPT by 10AM the morning of the 16th to allow me to have everything ready for projection on the classroom computer and for all to have a chance to peruse.

One suggested organization (but feel free to innovate around this):

For empirical projects:

1. Main questions addressed
2. Prior literature and where this fits in (brief)
3. Main hypotheses and identification Challenges
4. Data availability/challenges
5. Results (or execution details) and policy relevance.

For theory/survey projects:

1. Main questions addressed
2. Prior literature and where this fits in (brief)
3. Main insights/mechanisms of framework model(s)
4. Your extension or focus
5. Key lessons learned (or hoped to be learned) and future direction

That's a lot to do in just 10 minutes so be sure to cover at least points 1 and 3. A few more pointers:

• Try not to do an exact repeat of what you did last class. Put some effort into preparing a focused, well-timed, and organized presentation.
• Make the slides visually effective. Don't pack too much information on the slides, avoid tiny fonts and busy tables.
• Practice your presentation to not exceed 8-10 minutes. I'll flash time cards a the 5, 8, and 9 min marks and cut you off at 10.
• Have fun.

[jhconning]

To elaborate somewhat more on the format. I am quite flexible on the final organization. Since some of you are doing replications, others deep literature reviews, and yet others are preparing grant-like research proposals, I expect some variation.

You might take as a good model to follow the SBE NSF Doctoral Research Improvement Grants or broader NSF grant proposals. You can see abstracts of funded projects here. A sample dissertproposal. The NSF suggests having the following sections:

• Problem Statement
• Methods and Analysis
• Intellectual Merit
• Broader Impacts

However, if you look at the sample proposal (an empirical project) named the sections somewhat differently, to suit its needs. As mentioned in my earlier post, you might adapt this differently depending on whether your focus is empirical or theoretical.

To the above, I would ask that you add a final Bibliography section. As for total length, I'm expecting maybe 10-15 pages. A few more tips:

• Write with reviewers in mind: anticipate questions and concerns. It's always better to be honest about the more difficult aspects of your research (e.g. challenge of finding a good identification strategy) rather than try to conceal.
• Highlight intellectual merit and Broader Impact: This includes explaining how your research fits into existing literature, how you are pushing to expand the research frontier. Even if you feel you're still trying to understand the literature you can write this section (e.g. purpose/intellectual merit in advancing your own research agenda). You don't have to relegate these points to just the final sections as suggested above. You might want to highlight the intellectual merit and potential impacts earlier. Here is one NSF grant writing guide that makes similar points.

The organizational suggestions above are just that, suggestions. The most important thing is that you write on a topic of interest that usefully advances your research and knowledge, and provides a clear and understandable presentation. The closer you can make it to an actual research proposal that you could use for say grant funding, the better, but I realize some projects are closer to being to that stage than others.