ASM 591: Proposal writing
Spring 2010
Social Sciences Building, Room 103D
Wednesday, 2:00-5:15
Anne Stone email: acstone@asu.edu
Office: LSE 417 phone: 727-6310
Office hours: Tuesday 10:00-11:30 and Thursday 2:00-3:30 or by appointment.
Course description: This course is a practicum in proposal writing and reviewing for graduate students. Each week, students will write a section of a grant proposal in the format of the National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant. Students will also critically and constructively review the other students’ proposals. The course will meet once a week and each class will consist of lectures, student presentations, and discussions designed to aid the students in preparing their dissertation proposals and training for a career in academia.
Course requirements: A graduate student who takes this class should have already selected a dissertation topic. In addition, he or she should have taken an independent reading course on the topic with his or her advisor, and/or written one field statement.
Coursework/grading: Grades will be based on weekly assignments and class participation (25%), the final proposal turned in at the end of the course (50%), and reviews of other students’ proposals (25%). Assignments and readings will be posted on the course web site (http://www.public.asu.edu/~acstone/Proposal/). Readings as well as completed assignments to be evaluated by the class will be posted on blackboard. To login go to http://my.asu.edu.
Final grades: Grades will be scaled in the following manner:
97-100% A+ 77-79% C+
94-96% A 70-76% C
90-93% A- 60-69% D
87-89% B+ below 60% E
84-86% B failure due to academic dishonesty XE
80-83% B-
Incompletes: A mark of "I" (incomplete) is given by the instructor when you are otherwise doing acceptable work but are unable to complete the course because of illness or other conditions beyond your control. You are required to arrange with the instructor for the completion of the course requirements. The arrangement must be recorded on the Request for Grade of Incomplete form (http://students.asu.edu/forms/incomplete-grade-request).
Late Assignments: Any policy on late assignments, e.g., “Unexcused late assignments will not be accepted. Excuses for an assignment must be made an approved in advance of the due date of the assignment. Requests for excuses must be written, either on paper or email, and approval must be obtained, either by an email reply or by having the paper excuse signed. In order to get credit, with the late assignment you must turn in a copy of the email approval or signed written excuse.”
Grade Appeals: ASU has formal and informal channels to appeal a grade. If you wish to appeal any grading decisions, please see http://catalog.asu.edu/appeal.
Student Standards: Students are required to read and act in accordance with university and Arizona Board of Regents policies, including:
The ABOR Code of Conduct: Arizona Board of Regents Policies 5-301 through 5-308: http://www.abor.asu.edu/1_the_regents/policymanual/chap5/5Section_C.pdf
Academic Integrity: All students are responsible for reviewing and following ASU’s policies on academic integrity: http://provost.asu.edu/academicintegrity. If you fail to meet the standards of academic integrity in any of the criteria listed on the university policy website, sanctions will be imposed by the instructor, school, and/or dean. Academic dishonesty includes borrowing ideas without proper citation, copying others’ work (including information posted on the internet), and failing to turn in your own work for group projects. Please be aware that if you follow an argument closely, even if it is not directly quoted, you must provide a citation to the publication, including the author, date and page number. If you directly quote a source, you must use quotation marks and provide the same sort of citation for each quoted sentence or phrase. You may work with other students on assignments, however, all writing that you turn in must be done independently. If you have any doubt about whether the form of cooperation you contemplate is acceptable, ask the TA or the instructor in advance of turning in an assignment. Please be aware that the work of all students submitted electronically can be scanned using SafeAssignment, which compares them against everything posted on the internet, online article/paper databases, newspapers and magazines, and papers submitted by other students.
Student Support and Disability Accommodations: ASU offers support services through Counseling (http://students.asu.edu/counseling), the Learning Resources Center (www.asu.edu/lrc), and the Disability Resource Center (http://www.asu.edu/studentaffairs/ed/drc/). If you are a student in need of special arrangements for we will do all we can to help, based on the recommendations of these services. For the sake of equity for all students, we cannot make any accommodations without formal guidance from these services.
Schedule:
Week 1: (January 20) Introduction and course overview. Discussion of the goals of constructive criticism.
Assignment: Prepare 2 page (max) reaction paper to three reviews of Isbell’s Mummies and Mortuary Monuments: A Postprocessual Prehistory of Central Andean Social Organization.
Write a professional CV and a NSF-formatted CV.
Week 2: (January 27) Overview of NSF proposals and reviews. Other on-line funding sources.
Assignment: read example proposals and write one primary and one secondary review.
Week 3: (February 3) The review process
Assignment: Write draft Introduction section (All weekly writing assignments are due in online folder by Saturday at 5 pm. Class members must read all sections and be prepared to comment constructively by following Wednesday).
Week 4: (February 10) Presentation of introduction. Jodi Guyot will speak about grant submission process at ASU.
Assignment: Revise introduction.
Week 5: (February 17) Presentation of revised introduction. Discussion about dissertation committees and mentors.
Assignment: Write draft Background to research section and draft Study area section (if applicable).
Week 6: (February 24) Presentation of background/ study area section. Discussion about networking.
Assignment: Write draft Model/Hypotheses section.
Week 7: (March 3) Presentation of Model/hypotheses section. Discussion of IRB and IACUC issues.
Assignment: Write draft field and laboratory methods section. (i.e. sample/data collection)
Week 8: (March 10) Presentation of field and laboratory methods section (include sampling discussion if appropriate). Discussion about publishing.
Assignment: Write draft analytical methods section.
Week 9: (March 17) Spring Break, no class.
Week 10: (March 24) Presentation of analytical methods section. Discussion about postdoctoral opportunities in Anthropology and other fields.
Assignment: Write significance of research section.
Week 11: (March 31) Presentation of significance of research section. Discussion about the academic job search.
Assignment: Write draft proposal summary (one page).
Week 12: (April 7) Presentation of proposal summary. Discussion about promotion and tenure.
Assignment: Write research schedule, data sharing plan, draft budget, and budget justification sections. Complete appendices, tables, and bibliography.
Week 13: (April 14) No class because of AAPA and SAA meetings.
Week 14: (April 21) Presentation of research schedule, data sharing plan, draft budget, and budget justification sections.
Assignment: Write complete proposal (due on the server by April 24) and write reviews of all other student proposals in your group (due to me on April 28).
Week 15: (April 28) Discussion of complete proposal.
Assignment: Complete final proposal (due just to me on May 7)