210G W20 Fan

210G

ENGL 210G: Grant Writing

Instructor: Professor Lai-Tze Fan, Ph.D.

E-mail: l29fan@uwaterloo.ca

Class hours: Tuesday + Thursday 2:30 – 3:50pm, HH 139

Office hours: Tuesdays 4:30 – 5:30pm @ Critical Media Lab; Thursdays 1:30 – 2:30pm @ HH 367

Course Description

This course introduces undergraduate students to grant writing in academic, business, and non-profit areas. Grant writing is a completely unique genre to which the students will have to acclimatize, and this course will try to ease them into the various requirements by breaking it up into steps: what is the project? Who is it for? What are the goals? How can they be met? How much will all of this cost?

In order to keep the students focused on project goals (and instead of asking them to come up with new ideas every week), students will be expected to work on the same project for much of the term, though where appropriate, they can work by themselves or with their group on the project. By organizing the class in this way, students will get a deeper knowledge of how to see project funding and project management to fruition.

Those interested in careers in academia, communications, government work, charity work, crowdfunding, and other forms of project management and fundraising will benefit from this class, which is hands on and meant to prepare students with the proper language, skills, and knowledge to be successful grant writers and to get funded!

Method of Evaluation

25%    Participation

10%    Peer-review

10%    Assignment 1 (group): Introduce your project!

20%    Assignment 2 (solo): Fix a “bad” proposal!

30%    Assignment 3 (group): Final project: Get funded!

Participation

Students are expected to participate in every week, as the lessons are cumulative and result in the ability to complete the final project. As there are only 12 weeks, absences will be taken very seriously; if you know that you will be absent, please let me know ahead of time. More than two absences without speaking to me before or after will result in grade deduction.

Assignments

If you are completely averse to working in a group, please let me know. It is possible to do these projects on your own, though it would mean a lot more work for an individual. Also, it is necessary to understand that grants are very often written as a part of larger collections of people, so it is to be expected that you will work with others at all stages of grant development. That said, if there are specific aspects of group work that make you uncomfortable, please do e-mail me or ask to speak to me.

1.  Introduce your project! (10%) -- $15,000 pilot project

Based on training that you will receive in class, your group will submit an introduction to your grant proposal that is between 6 – 10 sentences long. The objective, as per our class discussions, is to not only quickly introduce your project to a potential adjudicator, but also to intrigue them without: being inappropriate, being irrelevant, trying to reinvent the wheel.

Formatting: Times New Roman, 12 point, double spaced, 1-inch margins.

2. Fix a “bad” proposal! (20%) -- $50,000 collaborative project

You (as an individual) will be given a “bad” research proposal and asked to “fix” it.

How? Make sure that it makes sense for the specific disciplinary audience towards which it is targeted. Make sure that a non-specialist can understand. Make sure that it stays on topic. Make sure that it is persuasive and that it does not make generalizations.

As part of your review, you must include a one-page discussion of suggestions for the imaginary author of this proposal. What else should they read? What other resources should they look at? Have they chosen the wrong funding agency? Only offer constructive criticism.

Formatting: Times New Roman, 12 point, double spaced, 1-inch margins.

3.  Final project: Get funded! (30%) -- $300,000 major project (or $100,000; total x 3) Get into groups of no more than 4. You are working for a [nation-specific] company or institute or NGO that will assign you a project for which you'll need to put together a complete

grant proposal and choose an appropriate funding agency. Submit the following items:

a. 300-word abstract of the project (290 – 300 words exactly; not even 301)

b. 2-page proposal, including: persuasive intro paragraph, literature review (academic or scientific or business as needed), proposed research argument or plans, methodology section, stated contributions or outcomes

c. 1-2-page budget with justification

d. 1-page statement of dissemination plan and knowledge mobilization e. 1-page statement of inclusivity, diversity, and accessibility f. 1-page timeline or Gantt chart

Your group may propose an alternative project idea to me and if I accept it, you may use that one instead.

Formatting: Times New Roman, 12 point, double spaced, 1-inch margins.

Schedule

WEEK 1a: Jan 7 -- Introduction: what is grant writing?

• practice group project
• different forms of funding
•  graduate school
• the Canadian Tri-Council and other funding sources (esp. for undergrads)

WEEK 1b: Jan 9 -- Why is grant writing different from other forms of writing you've done before?

• who needs grants?
• grants vs. essays: structures, arguments, objectives
• examples of some successful grants in academia, NGO, small business, crowdfunding

WEEK 2a: Jan 14 -- Finding a funding source

• read Ch 4. of Howlett (and 6 if of interest)
• always check your eligibility
• unsuccessful vs. successful grants (NGOs): https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Grant-Makers-Reveal-the-Most/183799

WEEK 2b: Jan 16 -- Composing the Practice Group Project

• read Ch. 3 of Howlett
• group: what is your research question? What is your objective? What is your contribution?
• group: what will you need to get it done?
• group: find three possible funding sources

WEEK 3a: Jan 21 -- No jargon!

• discipline-specific grant writing: humanities, social sciences, science, and business
• what do they all have in common?
• group: edit texts for lay-level clarity
• edit solo, discuss in new groups

WEEK 3b: Jan 23 -- Introducing introductory paragraphs

• hooks, research questions, need statements
• looking at different examples of the first paragraph of various grants

WEEK 4a: Jan 28 -- Introductory paragraphs (group)

- peer-review each other's paragraphs (swap out your group members)

WEEK 4b: Jan 30 -- Bibliography: introduction to resources, bibliographies, and annotated bibliographies

- ASSIGNMENT #1 DUE: group's introductory paragraphs

WEEK 5a: Feb 4 -- Writing a literature review + identifying what is missing (group)

- be prepared to change your ideas based on what lacuna you identify in existing research

WEEK 5b: Feb 6 -- Writing a literature review + identifying what is missing (group)

- be prepared to change your ideas based on what lacuna you identify in existing research