SOC 2805 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Disclose, Present Tense, Institutional Review Board
Designing the Sections of a Proposal
• Tips for students:
• Specify sections early in the design of the proposal. Develop an outline.
• Find proposal authored by other students. As your adviser for copies of proposals that
he/she liked.
• Look into courses on proposal development
• Ask adviser for his/her preferred format
Writing Ideas
Writing as Thinking
• Early in the process, write ideas down rather than talk about them. This helps the reader
to visualize the final product.
• Work through several drafts of a proposal rather than polishing the first draft
o Iterative approach – write, review and rewrite
• Do not edit proposal at the early draft stage. Franklin (1986) three stage model
o Develop an outline
o Write out a draft and then shift and sort ideas
o Edit and polish each sentence
The Habit of Writing
• Write something each day or at least engage in thinking, gathering information and
reviewing what goes in the manuscript
• Select a time of day to work and discipline yourself to write at this time each day
• Choose a place free of distractions
• Write while fresh
• Write in small regular amounts
• Work on two to three writing projects concurrently
Readability of the Manuscript
• Use consistent terms throughout the proposal
• Consider how narrative thoughts of different types guide the reader.
o Umbrella thoughts: general or core ideas
o Big thoughts in writing – specific ideas or images that serve to reinforce, clarify
or elaborate upon umbrella thoughts
o Little thoughts – ideas or images whose chief function is to reinforce big thoughts
o Attention or interest thoughts – ideas whose purposes are to keep the reader on
track, organize ideas and keep attention
• Use coherence to add to the readability
o Ideas tie together and logically flow
o Builds through connecting sentences and paragraphs
• Voice, Tense, and “Fat”
o Use the active voice as much as possible
o Use strong active verbs
o Pay attention to tense of verbs. APA recommends the following guidelines:
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Designing the sections of a proposal: tips for students, specify sections early in the design of the proposal. Develop an outline: find proposal authored by other students. As your adviser for copies of proposals that he/she liked: look into courses on proposal development, ask adviser for his/her preferred format. Writing as thinking: early in the process, write ideas down rather than talk about them. This helps the reader to visualize the final product: work through several drafts of a proposal rather than polishing the first draft, iterative approach write, review and rewrite, do not edit proposal at the early draft stage. Franklin (1986) three stage model: develop an outline, write out a draft and then shift and sort ideas, edit and polish each sentence. Studying the problem should be beneficial to the participants: disclose the purpose of the study. Develop the purpose statement and how it will be explained to the participants: do not pressure participants into signing consent forms.
