open secrets to crafting a good proposal

Some of you are moving into a crucial and yes, painful and intellectually demanding stage of PW -toward crafting an innovative and strong proposal to showcase your engagement of the project theme. You must be wondering why some proposals are readily rejected while others are intuitively embraced. Your collective brains may sometimes hear a loud or subtle 'click' when that happens. Mine as well. This may contrast with long faces and over-heated brain cells when a proposal is shot down repeatedly by yours truly. Sorry but that's our job as pw tutors. Academic rigour is one hallmark of a good proposal. Another clear indicator is the ability to develop a strong template / diagram to show how various aspects of a proposal (plans / activities VS strategies and philosophy or principles) are inter-related and connected to the task requirements. In short, you are able to defend and rationalize your approach with sense and confidence in the face of repeated interrogations put forward by your supervisor.

While a learning journey or heritage trail may work for one group, the other may experience a quick rejection of the same idea. Blogs, talks and exhibitions are the usual stuff developed by groups for pw. Every group is bound to consider these activities at some stage. The group that will stand out is one that will showcase strong academic rigour and rationale adapted from real-world case studies or approaches. A reliable sign is the ability to cite relevant literature to support your plans during consultations especially in defending your proposal . The use of sound concepts to anchor your proposal is another. There is a subtle difference between a pointless activity and one supported by a sound strategy. The signs are as follows:

1. The philosophy behind a strategy or conservation proposal is adapted from established case studies, principles and concepts sourced from a broad range of secondary references. There is a distinctive character apparent in a good proposal; groups are able to distinguish between mere activities and plans and a set of multi-pronged activities / plans that are inspired or fueled by an over-riding principle.

2. It is aligned to a strong environmental scan (physical setting), social context (meets a social need or knowledge gap) and reality check (availability of stakeholders to validate proposal).

3. There is a coherent follow-up between TR 1 (lessons learnt) and TR2 (lessons applied).

Research and real-world learning is not a smooth process. Some of you will come back with contradictory findings and realise that your questions need to be better phrased. Another group may experience alot of frustration when respondents do not reply to you. Some may even react sarcastically to your surveys. One group has already experienced that nasty bite. You may need to resort to a back-up plan. Once again, welcome to real-world learning.

Keep me posted on the journey. You may like to know that my mind goes through 32 cranium- blasts in every consultation. Your tutors often need to move 5 or 10 steps ahead of you to guide you through different aspects of the research process. Not easy. It helps alot if the team remains united and cooperates fully with the tutor in engaging an idea or pushing through a thought-process or argument. We stress alot on intellectual 0wnership for your own project.

You know what I am getting at.

Keep steady. Keep the lines open. You are not alone.