1. Proposal Writing Strategies, Part 2 February 26, 2015 EPD 397 Section 6

2. We’ve been focusing on just a few sections of the full Proposal – remember that your partial proposal is due next Tuesday. Title: “A Proposal to....” Summary: stand-alone overview Project Significance: who cares? Why? Objectives: what? goals, limitations, deliverable(s) Research plan: how? Schedule: when? Motivation and credentials: “why me?” References (no annotations) Partial Proposal

3. Today you’ve got a couple of paragraphs from your Project Significance section, and you’ve got the numbered points from your Objectives. Let’s look at those drafts first.

4. You’ve probably been trying to decide how best to interest educated readers in the project you are developing. How do you start? Pollution is a growing problem and it can lead to serious health consequences. Since coal-fired power plants continue to be built by the hundreds, and many of the existing plants use outdated technologies, we face a future of increasing health impacts from pollution, and we need to develop more “clean coal technologies” to minimize those impacts. 4 The Airpocalypse is upon us. Wake up in Beijing any morning, look out your window, and this is the scene you’re likely to see. Beijing is now facing life-threatening air pollution levels.

5. Compare these different openings in terms of the effectiveness of their framing of the problem to suit this audience. Example 1: Air pollution in the world’s largest industrial cities has become such a serious problem that it is estimated to kill over 750,000 people every year in China (Wong, 2012). A significant contributor to this pollution are the coal-fired power plants that continue to be built by the hundreds, particularly in densely populated urban areas. Approximately 50% of the existing plants in China use outdated technologies (Jin, 2011), and unfortunately, only about 60% of the new plants being built each month are using the “clean coal technologies” that could minimize these serious health impacts (Branshares, 2013). Example 2: Beijing’s pollution levels are currently six or seven times worse than those of the most polluted city in the US (Jazynski, 2014). These levels are said to reduce life expectancy in urban areas by at least 5 years. And yet, for years their bad pollution levels were not effectively reported because Chinese regulators did not test their air for particulate matter smaller than 10 microns (Forney, 2013). Some of the most dangerous forms of particular matter occur in the 2.5 micron range, and this matter, known as “PM2.5,” exists in the soot emitted from many conventional coal-fired power plants that are still operating in hundreds of locations in China. Researchers now see China as a promising testing ground for “clean coal technologies,” such as flue gas desulfurization systems or electrostatic precipitators to minimize PM2.5 (Hablinger, 2012; Doughat, 2013). 5

6. Work on the remaining sections of the Proposal over the weekend, and plan to meet with your proposal peer group on the day you do not attend class next week. What remains? --Research Plan (about one page long) --Schedule (simply introduces a figure) --Motivation and Credentials (one paragraph) --References (no annotations; have at least 8) I’ll go through each of these briefly.

7. The Research Plan identifies sources that will enable you to complete each Objective. Organize it by one paragraph per Objective. Begin that paragraph reminding us of the objective. Identify 3 sources you’ve found relevant to the work you plan to do on EACH Objective. Discuss credibility and relevance of those sources for completing that particular Objective. If your last Objective is merely to offer recommendations based on your own analysis, I do not require a set of sources for that Objective.

8. The Schedule can be a Gantt chart or simply a table listing tasks and corresponding deliverable dates. The purpose of this section is to be sure you know when the remaining work on this project is due, and for you to plan time to work on different chunks of the remaining project. Consider scheduling time to get more research and drafting done; make this schedule true to your own real schedule! Feel free to adapt the Gantt chart I’ve supplied in the course homepage. In your Proposal document, right after the “Schedule” heading, use one sentence to introduce your figure. Then, place a caption underneath it drawing attention to the key deliverable dates – formal presentation and final report.

9. Motivation and Credentials simply is one paragraph explaining why you’re interested in the project. Some of you may be working on a similar project in a different class, and that should be explained here. Some of you are interested in the project because they think it may lead to a career path. Others may have some sort of personal investment in the technology or the problem presented in this project; that too can be worth sharing.

10. References: show at least eight, and follow an identifiable format; I suggest either APA, IEEE, or Chicago style. APA style is explained thoroughly at the UW Writing Center website – see the link from our course homepage. http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/DocAPAReference s.html http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/DocAPAReference s.html IEEE style is harder to find in simple format – but the Writing Center has a “numbered references” style that is similar to IEEE.

11. Use the UW Writing Center’s website to be sure you are documenting parenthetical citations and reference material correctly.

12. Notice that reference entries are left reverse-indented in APA style. This function is easy to set up under Format > Paragraph > Indentation: Special: Hanging at 0.5.

13. Work on completing these sections, and consider exchanging with a few peers during the “Elevator Talks” week -- to review your final drafts together. The Final Proposal is due on March 17. Staple these items, in this order (you need all of these critiques attached for me to grade the Proposal): Final, full version of the proposal The 2 nd Draft (with my comments) 1 st drafts (with peer comments and sheets) You may also use your Grace Period, if necessary. If you use that, the proposal is due on Thursday, March 19.

14. Begin planning and practicing your Elevator Talk, based on your proposal’s Project Significance and Objectives sections. Those talks will happen March 10 and 12. (Be sure to sign up for those today.) You will present one day and skip the other day.