Minor Assignment 42/6/2018 Given the main purpose of the first major assignment being “To uncover how the functions and features of particular genres shape scientific discourse within a particular activity system or discourse community,” I think I may have settled on what I want to investigate. With my first major assignment, I think I want to investigate the grant proposal genre. The process by which professors and researchers propose for grants has always been somewhat of a mystery to me. To whom are they applying from grants from, and how do they write an effective proposal. Taking it one step further though, if possible, I want to look into the grant proposal process for someone who is a pioneer in their field. Given that a lot of current research is based off of previous research papers and ideas, how would someone apply for a grant for a project that has no previous literature to base their ideas off of? Do they still follow the typification, also defined as “the process of moving to standardized forms of utterance that are recognized as carrying out certain actions,” of the genre, as Bazerman put it (316).
To achieve what I am looking to do in this project, I think I will need to do a few things. First, I believe it will be important to study how “typical” grant proposals are written, to get a base line. Once this is done I will be able to move on and begin looking at grant proposals written for more obscure/un-based (due to lack of better terms) research projects. The difference I am expecting to find is a relation between the amount of explanation needed in the proposal and the “newness” of the research ideas. For example, an established idea will need less explanation than a new one. Finally, I hope to interview a faculty member one campus whose research interests live in the more unresearched area of marine biology. I hope with this insight I will be able to draw more conclusions from my investigations by having an insider’s perspective on the topic. One question/concern I do have however is, are grant proposals an accessible form of literature to the public? And if not, is there a way I will still be able to accomplish my goals?
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Leave a Reply.AuthorSophomore Marine Biology Major, Roger Williams University Archives
April 2018
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The purpose of these blogs were to serve as a mode to turn in minor assignments for my Professional Writing Class. Many are responses to reading we did, and a couple are first drafts of various major assignments. |