Development Grant to Improve the English Major

Peer Review 3.5

Final 3.12

In the grant assignment you are to propose your group project to “make the English Major
better” to the undergraduate committee so that they can provide both the workforce and
possible funding to get your plan off the ground. To do so, you’ve been working on a team
to research your specific problem and pose a well-researched/competitive solution. The
best grants will include both secondary research (stats, quotes from other experts, news
reports) about OU’s English major but probably some primary quotes/ stories/
observations from professors and students as well. You’ll be expected to deploy what
you’ve read about in your grant workbook as well as the PowerPoints and discussions
we’ve had in class. Feel free to work with your teammates in gathering information and
brainstorming, but I would like you to write your own grant so that you can have a writing
sample for job applications in the future.

Below you’ll find the required sections and some hints at what should go in them; by no
means is this a complete list or section parts! We’ve talked in class and in our readings
about more than the bullets here, and you are expected to go beyond them. Review the
powerpoints, workbook, and your notes. Also, remember, some sections may require
repetition of key info. That’s ok.

You’ll need citation. Use MLA. But I’d prefer you use running numbered footnotes rather
than providing an end reference sheet. That is, do something like this1

 [Required Sections]: All Pages are single-spaced and must be full pages. In the
statement of need and plan of work if you have a lot of subheadings, bullets, charts,
figures, etc., I expect you to go over the page count listed. Don’t short-change me on
research/text.
1. Formal Cover Page and Table of Contents (1 Page Each)
2. Abstract/Executive Summary (1 Paragraph)
3. Statement of Need/Problem Description (1-2 Pages: Four sources required)
 Specific and local illustration of the problem
 Proof in statistics, quotations, cited facts
 Timely—this is a problem right now, not 10 years ago
 Tells a good story
 Aligns with/Adapts itself to the organization goals of the granting institution
 Make sure you actually show why this is a problem (what are the negative effects? What’s so
bad about the current situation)
 Show me research that proves that you are smart and well-read enough about your problem to
be trustworthy
 Makes gestures towards your solution

1Kurlinkus, Will. Nostalgic Design: Rhetoric, Memory, and Democratizing Technology. U of

Pittsburgh P, 2018, pp. 56.
4. Goals and Objectives: (1 Page of Bulleted Descriptions + 1-Page Logic
Model)
5. Plan of Work (2-3 Pages: Four other quoted sources required)
 What will you do? Describes your project activities in minute detail, indicating how your
objectives will be accomplished (think multiple stages). The description should include the
place you’re starting from (and assets and people), sequence, flow, and interrelationship of
activities.
 Demonstrates research and proof of success.
 Explain why you chose one approach and not another
 Indicate the key project personnel/partner organizations who will carry out each activity
 The most important part of this section is that I understand what you are doing, who is doing it,
but also why you’ve designed your project this way. What’s the reasoning behind it?
6. Plan for sustainability (at least a paragraph)
7. Project Evaluation/Deliverables (1 Page—brief paragraphs + bullets)
 Evaluations: pinpoint what is really happening in your project so you can improve your project
efficiency. Surveys, judges, metrics of success. KPI: Key Performance Indicators. How do you
know you succeeded?
 Deliverables What are you actually going to produce/do? When will this be produced? Are you
creating a new pedagogy, syllabi, a conference, a white paper, a video, what?
 Dissemination is the means by which you let others know about your project. Whether
websites, newspapers, newsletters, through class announcements, etc.
8. Budget and Justification: The prices matter much less than the descriptions (1
Page)
9. Timeline (1 Page)