ANT1000 - Fall 2007       Heather M.-L. Miller, Instructor


GRANT PROPOSAL ASSIGNMENTS
For this set of 3 assignments, you will be asked to prepare a 1 page statement of your proposed project, along with some supporting documentation.  
This proposal can be oriented to the grant process most useful to you for your future plans (OGS, SSHRC, NSERC, CIHR, or a mock submission to UNESCO, an NGO, or a government office).  Your project may be your actual planned MA or MSc work, a project for future PhD work, or work at an equivalent level.  The project may not be on a scale beyond that expected of someone holding an MA, so that everyone in the class has projects of roughly comparable scale.

All assignments should be submitted to the course CCNet website, BEFORE class on the day due.

All documents must be in Word or a similar word processing application.  (If you use WordPerfect, please save as a Word document or Mac users will not be able to access it.)
Do not submit PDFs.
All documents should be in Arial 12 point font with 3/4 inch or 3 mm margins, single-spaced.

(1) You will first submit a rough draft of the proposal and some documents, as detailed below.  Drafts due Sept. 17 before class starts.
(2) Each person in the class will review three of your colleagues' proposals and suggest possible improvements in content and style.   Reviews due Sept. 24 before class starts.
(3) After receiving your reviews (which I will email to you by Wed. Sept. 26), revise your proposal and supporting documents, and submit the final version.  Final proposals due Oct. 1 before class starts.

For both your own draft AND for your review comments, you may either use your own name, or you may do an anonymous submission and/or review using a random number assigned to you.  This choice is given to most journal reviewers, and there are reasons for making one or the other choice that we will discuss in class.


ASSIGNMENT 1:  ROUGH DRAFT of GRANT PROPOSAL
Using the Drop-Box on CCNet, submit in a single Word document (see above for specifications):

I. Title section (don't use a full page) in the following format:
YOUR FULL NAME  or  NUMBER ASSIGNED BY PROFESSOR
PROPOSAL TITLE
Submitted to PROGRAM (include agency & level of submission -- ie, for Masters or PhD work)

Example:      
Heather M.-L. Miller  OR   1234
Historic Trade and Communication Networks between South and Central Asia seen through Glazed Pottery Analysis
Submitted to SSHRC, PhD program

II. Proposed Project Statement.  You may use up to two single-spaced pages (specifications above), but be aware that the final version will have to be cut to one page.

III. Statement of Accomplishments. Basically, this is your CV condensed into a page, and organized into Publications; Presentations; Awards; Scholarships & Fellowships; etc.  Use the categories that you must use for your real grant application for the department, if possible.

IV. References,  Transcripts, Ethics Review:  A list of 3 references who would write letters for you (including full titles and all contact information), then a list of all institutions from which you would request transcripts.  Finally, indicate whether you need to do some kind of ethics review.
For real departmental applications, you will have to provide this material, so start requesting it from your references and institutions at once, and check on ethics forms!!

If you have trouble submitting through CCNet, you may bring a hard copy to class and email it to me AFTER class.  (Do not send this by email before getting my approval, or my mailbox will fill up!)


ASSIGNMENT 2:  REVIEWS of GRANT PROPOSAL
Using the Drop-Boxes on CCNet, submit a single Word document for each review (see above for specifications).   This will allow me to quickly return the reviews for revision.

Your job is to help your colleagues to improve their proposals.  The goal is for everyone in the class to end up with an excellent proposal.  This does not mean only saying "nice" things -- you must be critical to be truly helpful.  But you should be critical in a helpful rather than a destructive way.  Real reviewers would also have to decide whether or not to fund each grant -- that is not your job, since these are only drafts.  
EACH review should be in the following format:

I. Title section:  
REVIEWER'S FULL NAME or ASSIGNED NUMBER
AUTHOR'S FULL NAME or ASSIGNED NUMBER
PROPOSAL TITLE
Submitted to PROGRAM (agency and level of submission)

II. Content Suggestions: Proposal and Other Sections.  What do you think is the author's main topic/idea/thesis?  What larger anthropological issues are addressed?  What is missing in the content?  What is done well?  What would you like to see clarified?  Any suggestions for additions (within page limit)?  What might be cut if necessary?   And so forth.
Focus on the proposal itself, but also include any suggestions for other portions submitted.

III. Style Suggestions: Proposal and Other Sections. Could the presentation be rearranged for better effect?  Are any sentences awkward or confusing? Do they use paragraph organization to good effect? Point out any errors of spelling or grammar (hopefully very few!).  Also point out excellent uses of style by the author, so that they don't cut that section out or change it!
Focus on the proposal itself, but also include any suggestions for other portions submitted.
       

ASSIGNMENT 3:  FINAL VERSION of GRANT PROPOSAL
Using the Drop-Box on CCNet, submit in a single Word document (see above for specifications).  Use the same format as for Assignment 1, but remember that this time you are limited to a single page each for the Project Statement and for the Statement of Accomplishments.