BENUE STATE UNIVERSITY (BSU) CAPACITY
BUILDING WORKSHOP ON PROPOSAL WRITING
AND RESEARCH MANAGEMENT FOR PROJECTS
AND OTHER SCHOLARLY PRODUCTIONS
SUB-THEME 1:
SOME HINTS ON PROPOSAL WRITING
BY
DR. SAAWUA G. NYITYO
DEPUTY DIRECTOR, DEVELOPMENT AND
LINKAGES BSU, MAKURDI
SUB-THEME 1:
WRITING
PROPOSAL
Proposal writing is an important facet of our
academic engagement. It constitutes an important
part of our academic culture. The purpose of this
session is to give competitors for fellowships and
other forms of funding and even playing ground by
making explicit some of the unspoken demands,
needs and customs of funding agencies.
FUNCTIONS OF A PROPOSAL
- It Must Persuade
- It establishes a good case to investigate
- It must have three kinds of merit which
all disciplines value
3
KINDS OF MERIT
- Conceptual Innovation
- Methodological Rigour
- Rich Substantive Content
4
-
-
TYPES OF PROPOSALS
For original essays, dissertations and
thesis
Research fellowships and committee
competitions
Attention grabbing is needed in this type
of writing than in any other one
We must all bear in mind that writing for
committee competition is an art quite
different from research work itself
5
- We must attempt to be concise, prignant and
to the point
- We must therefore pay attention to a set of
unspoken customs, norms and needs that
govern the selection process
6
PROPOSALS THAT ATTRACT FUNDING
- One that gets its merits across more
forcefully
- One that addresses these unspoken needs
and norms
- One that adheres to norms as well as overt
rules
7
-
-
NEEDS OF FUNDING AGENCIES
Capture the reviewer’s attention
What are we going to learn about the
proposed project?
Why is it worth knowing?
How will we know that the conclusions
are valid?
Say what you have to say immediately,
crisply and forcefully
8
- The opening paragraph or the first page is your chance to
grab the reviewer’s attention
- Use that particular moment to overstate, rather than
understate
- Questions that are clearly posed are an excellent way to
begin a proposal: e.g. Is single term presidency conducive
to democratic stability? Is the decline in militant activities
the result of Government Policies?
- You can also begin by stating your central point,
hypothesis or interpretation e.g. “The success and failure
of Obasanjo Administration’s Anti-corruption crusade
stemmed from the selective nature of the campaign”,
“Population growth coupled with rural-urban migration
poses a threat to Nigerian food security in the next
decade.
9
- Not all conceptualizations are captured in
telegraphic messages
- Sometimes only step-by-step argumentation can
define the central problem
- Aim for clarity
- Remember that most proposals are reviewed by
multidisciplinary committees
- Avoid the duller idiosyncracies of your discipline
- Avoid jargon and when technical language is really
needed, restrict yourself, to those new words and
technical terms that truly lack equivalents in
common language
10
-
-
Establish the Context
Tell the committee not only what will be learned
as a result of your project
What will be learned that somebody else does not
already know
It is essential to summarize the current state of
knowledge
Provide an up-to-date, and comprehensive
bibliography
Proposal writers with limited library resources are
urged to correspond with colleagues and libraries
elsewhere in the early stages of research planning
11
- Resource guides such as Dissertation Abstracts,
international and social science periodical index
are highly recommended
12
-
-
JUSTIFICATION
This depends on disciplinary norms and
personal tastes
The less known about one’s chosen case, the
better
Citing the importance of the events that provide
the subject matter is good justification
It is crucial to convince readers that such topics
are not merely timely, but that their current
urgency provides a window into some abiding
problem
13
- Help your reader understand where the problem
intersects the main theoretical debates in your
field
- Good proposals demonstrate awareness of
alternative viewpoints and argue the author’s
position in such a way as to address the field
broadly
14
-
-
-
USE A FRESH APPROACH
It pays to remember topics of current salience,
both theoretical and empirical
Competitors will be numerous and the
competition less interesting than in truly
unfamiliar terrain
Avoid topics typically styled of central interest
to the discipline
Nothing is more valuable than a really fresh
beginning
15
DESCRIBE YOUR METHODOLOGY
- The proposal must specify
the research
operations you will undertake and the way you
will interpret the results of these operations in
terms of your central problem
- Do not just tell what you mean to achieve, tell
how you will spend your time doing it
- A methodology is not just a list of research
tasks but an argument as to why these tasks
add up to the best attack on the problem
16
- The process of gathering data and moving
from data to interpretation tends to follow
disciplinary customs.
- Help readers to recognize what parts of your
methodology are standard, which are
innovative
- Be as specific as you possibly can be about the
activities you plan to undertake to collect
information
- About the techniques you will use to analyze it
- About the tests of validity to which you
commit yourself
17
- Most proposals fail because they leave
reviewers wondering what the applicant will
actually do.
- Tell them! Specify the archives, the sources,
the respondents and the proposed techniques of
analysis
- A research design proposing comparison
between two cases often has special appeal
- The proposal should prove that the researcher
either possesses, or cooperates with people
who possess mastery of all the technical
matters the project entails
18
-
-
-
SPECIFY YOUR OBJECTIVES
Convince the reader that something is
genuinely at stake in the inquiry
Create a leaven of the unknown will yield
interesting, orderly propositions
Proposals should normally describe the final
product of the project: an article, book,
chapter, dissertation etc
Spell out specific plans
Keep in line the programme guidelines
Your final proposal should include all
requested enclosures and appendices
19
FINAL NOTE
To write a good proposal takes a long time. Start early.
Begin thinking about your topic well in advance and
make it a habit to collect references while you work on
other tasks. Write a first draft and revisit it again and
again. Collect colleagues comments and revisit it
again. If you have a chance to share it with a seminar
or similar group the debate should help you anticipate
what reviewers will eventually think. Resharpen your
opening paragraph or first page so that it drives home
exactly what you mean as effectively as possible.
Thank you.
20
Dr. Saawua G. Nyityo,
nyityoatsea72@yahoo.com
Department of History,
Benue State University,
Makurdi
21