English 4510/6510
Grant & Proposal Writing

Syllabus    Schedule    Projects    Handouts

The following are the major projects in this course. You must complete ALL projects satisfactorily in order to receive a passing grade for the course. Here is a brief description of each major project and its components. For more detailed instructions on each project, click on the links.

The Policy Proposal (200 points)
For this assignment, you are asked to review the current policies of Georgia State University or the local government and choose a policy that you think need change. You will carefully analyze the inadequacies or the inappropriateness of the policy, do good research, and propose reasonable changes to the policy to an appropriate audience. (Here’s the Peer Critique Guide for the Policy Proposal Assignment.)

“Junk Mail” (200 points)
For this assignment, you’ll first select a book on proposal and grant writing published in the recent years. I strongly recommend that you buy a book. You will then assume the role of a professional writer working for the publisher and write a sales letter, commonly known as “junk mail,” targeted at a mass audience who’s interested in grant or proposal writing.

The Final Project–Grant Application (600 points)
The final project will be a more substantive project that involves real-life proposal writing. For this project, you will identify a local client, on or off campus (an office, an agency, an organization, or even a business), that needs to propose a project to an appropriate agency for financial support. You will conduct some in-depth research and design a formal proposal that will, in the best of all possible worlds, be actually submitted. This project consists of three parts: a short proposal that identifies the project, the final proposal, and an oral presentation. This project can be either individual or collaborative (in groups of 2-4). The final project has the following components:

• Project proposal (100 points)–Each of you will be responsible for identifying at least one possible project. Once you have located a client, write an individual project proposal of around two pages, describing the client, its current situation and need, their objectives, possible funding sources, research needed, the scope and feasibility of the project, and a project plan
• The RFP (Request for Proposals) Analysis (100 points)–This assignment will require you to research into two RFPs related to your final project topic and compare and contrast the two. You will find two RFPs in a similar area, e.g., government research grants, business investment proposals, foundation grants, academic fellowships, etc. You will summarize and analyze your findings.
• Section drafts (0 points)–During the course of the project, you will write up drafts for various sections of your proposal, including, but are not limited to, situation, objectives, methods, budget, qualifications, assessment plan, benefits, and conclusion. Although you don’t earn points for writing the drafts, not writing them will cost you 20 points for each section.
• Grant proposal (400 points)–After reviewing what the funding agency requires, you put together a grant proposal that most effectively addresses the funding agency’s requirements.
• Rhetorical Analysis (not graded)–Accompanying the final proposal, each group will also be required to turn in a rhetorical analysis in which you carefully analyze the rhetorical aspects of the proposal design: what process you went through, how effective your proposal is, why you have designed the proposal the way you did, how successful your collaboration was, what you would do differently next time, etc. The purpose of the rhetorical analysis is for you to step back from your project and examine it with a critical eye. The focus of the analysis will be on WHY rather than WHAT.