General Notes on Research Proposals

1. General Notes on Research Proposals

2. Suggested Organization • Title, Abstract, Keywords (problem statement) • Introduction and Overview • Background information; problem description in context • Hypotheses and objectives • Assumptions and delimitations • Importance and benefits • Related Work/Literature Review • Research Design and Methodology • Plan of Work and Outcomes (deliverables, schedule) • Conclusions and Future Work • References • Budget (appendix)

3. Notes on Writing and Style

4. Styles • Verbose or cryptic, flowery or plain, poetic or literal • Conventions important – reduce the effort required from readers • Disregarding conventions – may distract from the message (unless that is the message)

5. Science Writing • Prosaic • Clear, accurate, but not dull • Economy – every sentence necessary but not to the point of over condensing • Ego less – you are writing for the readers not yourself

6. Scientific Tone • Objective and accurate • To inform not entertain • Do not over qualify – modify every claim with caveats and cautions • Limit the use of idioms like “crop up”, “loose track”, “it turned out that”, etc. • Use examples if they aid in clarification

7. Scientific Motivation • Brief summaries at the beginning and end of each section • The connection between one paragraph and the next should be obvious • Make sure your reader has sufficient knowledge to understand what follows

8. Beware: Unsubstantiated Claims • Most user prefer the graphical style of interface. • to • We believe that …. • Another possibility would be a disk-based method, but this approach is unlikely to be successful. • Another …, but our experience suggests that …

9. Titles • Titles should be concise and informative • A New Signature File Scheme based on Multiple-Block Descriptor Files for Indexing Very Large Data Bases • (better) Signature File Indexes Based on Multiple-Block Descriptor Files • An Investigation of the Effectiveness of Extensions to Standard Ranking Techniques for Large Text Collections • (better) Extensions to Ranking Techniques for Large Text Collections

10. Opening Paragraphs • Begin well • Most care with the opening • Bad openings • This paper concerns • In this paper • Distinguish description of existing knowledge from the description of the paper’s contribution

11. Paragraphing • Discussion of a single topic or issue • Long paragraphs can be an indication that the author has not disentangled his/her thoughts • Readers pay attention to the first lines and last • Link paragraphs by reuse of key words or phrases

12. Lists • Good, but don’t overuse, only for important information • A list of trivia can be more attention grabbing than a paragraph of important information • But, don’t replace narrative with bulleted lists

13. Sentences • Simple structure, a line or two long • Avoid nested structures • In the first stage, the backtracking tokenizer with a two-element retry buffer, errors, including illegal adjacencies as well as unrecognized tokens, are stored on an error stack for collation in to a complete report. • (better) The first stage is the backtracking tokenizer with a two-element retry buffer. In this stage possible errors include illegal adjacencies as well as unrecognized tokens; when detected, errors are stored on a stack for collation into a complete report

14. Qualifiers • One per sentence ( might, may, perhaps, possible, likely) • It is perhaps possible that the algorithm might fail on unusual input. • (better) The algorithm might fail on unusual input.

15. Padding • The fact that • In general • In any case Remove these

16. Misused Words • Watch for • Which, that, the • May, might, can • may is for personal choice • can to indicate capability • Less, few • less, continuous quantities (space) • Fewer, discrete quantities (errors)

17. Misused Words • Affect, effect • Effect – consequence of an action • Affect – (verb) influence, as in outcomes • Alternate, alternative, choice • Alternate – switch between • Alternative – something that can be chosen • Choice – more than one alternative • Note, if there is but one alternative, there is no choice

18. Overuse of Words • Same word in the same sentence is annoying. • Redundancy • Adding together -> adding • After the end of -> after • In the region of -> approximately

19. Tense • Most text past or present • Present used for eternal truths • The algorithm has complexity … not the algorithm had complexity • In references past tense used in describing work and outcomes • … the ideas were tested ….

20. Others • Abbreviations - best none • Acronyms – use CPU not C.P.U • Limit – may confuse reader • Sexist language – get rid of pronouns and recast the sentence

21. Research Proposal Presentations

22. Preparation • Condensing a complex body of information • 15 minute presentation (and 5 minutes for comments or questions) • speaking rates should not exceed 100 to 150 words per minute • about 1500 to 2000 words • 12-14 slides

23. Types of Presentations • memorized speech • read from manuscript • EXTEMPORANEOUS

24. Extemporaneous Presentation • Audience centered and dynamic • made from minimal notes or outline • Slides should contain the primary concepts or ideas being introduced • But, level of detail not the same as speaker notes (have a copy of your slides and write the notes on margins) • Don’t skip important elements without some visual representation in the slide

25. Extemporaneous Presentation • include key phrases, illustrations, statistics, dates (and pronunciation guides for difficult words) • along the margin, place instructions, cues, such as SLOW, EMPHASIZE, TURN CHART, GO BACK TO CHART 3 • Dictum: better to have fewer slides that don’t cover all the things you want than to have too many slides and have to go fast.

26. Speaker Problems • Too soft, too fast • do not let your words trail off as you complete a sentence • do not “uhs”, “you know” • no rocking • no fiddling with clothes (or change in your pocket) • In general, avoid things that distract attention for your presentation

27. Title Page • Title of Research • Your name • The date • For whom and by whom it was prepared • Collaborators, etc.

28. Selecting a Title • Brief • include the variables included in the study • the type of relationship among the variables • the population to which the results may be applied • Avoid … “Report of,” “Discussion of,” single-word titles (and probably double word titles)

29. Outline & Organization • Provide one • tell the audience where you are taking them • Major Parts • Opening • Background • Design • Schedule / Plan • Deliverables

30. Opening • About 10-15% of the time • Motivation, setting the stage • explain the problem, its context, and why it is important to solve it • Explaining the nature of the project • what it attempts to do (goals) • your proposed solutions and your hypothesis • why/how is it novel  2-3 slides

31. Background • Remember the audience may be unfamiliar with the area, so basic concepts are necessary – provide the necessary definitions • Use an illustrative example to explain complex concepts • Discuss the prior work in the problem and how your proposed research will result in a different or a better solution (explain the gap)  A couple of slides

32. Research Design • Research Methodologies (and why) • Data collection and characteristics (if any) • Experimental designs • Analysis including metrics used to determine if proposed solutions are successful • Tie all of this to how you will verify your hypothesis and your claims • 3-4 slides

33. Schedule and Deliverables • Schedule • Only the important steps • Leave the details in the proposal • Deliverables • What do we get out this study?  1 slide

34. Conclusions and Ending • Have one slide for Conclusions • Include some ideas for extensions or future work • End the talk cleanly, do just not fade away • a bad ending is : that’s it, that’s all I have say. • Wrap up the talk with a positive spin

35. Question Time • Try to anticipate questions • Respond positively and honestly to all questions • don’t try to bluff • no one knows all the answers – don’t try to make things up • never be rude

36. PRACTICE