The Proposal vs. the Letter of Intent

1. The Proposal vs. the Letter of Intent Feraco Myth to Science Fiction 10 February 2010

2. What Is It? • The Project Proposal is a bullet-pointed outline of your intentions • The Letter of Intent is essentially the Project Proposal in narrative form • Both documents establish your basic expectations for this project - what you intend to learn, what you fear you won't, what you think you'll need, how successful you think your efforts will be, etc. - and the schedule in particular will provide you with structure as we head into March.

3. Example: Anticipated Obstacles • I don't have a driver's license • I struggle to memorize interview questions • I write slowly • I have poor time-management skills • How would these bullet points from a Proposal look in prose form on a Letter of Intent? • Let’s look at a sample L.o.I.

4. I've scheduled an interview with Kobe Bryant, a veteran shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers. Mr. Bryant seems like an invaluable resource because he, like me, plays shooting guard, so his position-specific knowledge pertains well to my chosen profession. Moreover, Mr. Bryant has a wide range of both domestic and international basketball experience. I've always intended to speak with a professional whose experiences are both interesting and varied, and Mr. Bryant's career meets both criteria handily.

5. His flexible schedule makes him an ideal candidate for this interview because I'm usually busy until 6 o'clock in the evening, and I can't think of anyone else who can meet with me at night. He's even offered to put me in touch with Phil Jackson, the Los Angeles Lakers' head coach, in order to conduct my secondary interview. I'm looking forward to drawing on Mr. Bryant's knowledge and anecdotes, both while completing this project and while preparing to launch my own career.

6. However, I need to overcome a number of obstacles in order to complete this project, not the least of which is my inability to drive. I just never got around to earning my license; I can basically walk wherever I need while traveling in town, and I rarely leave city limits on my own. Now I need to travel to downtown Los Angeles during rush hour, and my parents work until the late evening hours. I also tend to freeze while speaking publicly, and I'm a little intimidated by the idea of interviewing a professional of Mr. Bryant's stature.

7. I don't want to be reading my questions off a sheet while I'm conducting the interview - I'd rather seem like I'm really conversing with him, since I'll probably get better responses that way - but I'm afraid I'll forget what I'm saying and botch the whole thing early on. Plus, I'm a slow writer, and I don't think I'll be able to copy his responses quickly enough. I'm terrified of asking him to repeat himself after each question, but that seems likely to happen. Finally, I'm a chronic procrastinator; not only do I work better under pressure, but I'm not really self-motivated, and I just can't foresee wanting to start this project before April (let alone finish it)!

8. As of late I have been interested in the ‘mystery’ that is dentistry, and how dental care has come to be perceived as a stable occupation where work hours are set and all care is focused on making a smile dazzling. In reality, dentists face decaying teeth with cavities, root canal treatments, and various fillings and cleanings, whereas other medical careers involve all sorts of situations and get paid much more than a dentist does. Despite all that, I would prefer the more calm and humble occupation of dentistry (minus the kids screaming when they get their teeth pulled).

9. As You Can See… • The Project Proposal is much more detailed • For anyone who’s written a cover letter along with a resume, the relationship is similar (although not identical) • The L.o.I. allows you to offer a more thorough explanation of what you expect to face – which will help me help you! • Let’s look at a student sample from the Class of 2009

10. I have scheduled an interview with Dr. Wilson Long, a fairly young dentist who works at Dr. Cheng’s Dental Office in San Gabriel. Dr. Long definitely has an impressive resume. He’s already a dentist at such a young age, and I feel he would be a valuable resource for my project because his expertise in the profession of dentistry and knowledge in dental care would provide me with sufficient information in this career.

11. Although Dr. Long’s hours are set, our schedules conflict greatly and it will be difficult to schedule an interview with him. On weekdays he finishes work at around 8pm, but I usually finish tennis practice at 6 and have tutor sessions at 8pm. However, it looks like we’ll be able to find time on Sunday evening, since I finish work at 6pm, while he gets off that day at 5pm. I’m interested to not only draw information from Dr. Long’s knowledge and expertise, but also learn how he was able to successfully obtain a job at such a young age, and hopefully I can learn from him and potentially launch my career as successfully as he did.

12. Unfortunately, I will have to face many obstacles to complete this project, many of which involve the interview process itself. For starters, I am a nervous individual when it comes to conversation, and an interview is no exception. I do tend to have trouble memorizing questions when conducting an interview, and during each response I have a hard time catching everything on paper, so I sometimes wind up with chopped information.

13. In addition to my poor social skills, I also lack proper time management, which causes me to fall behind on the assignment given to me and I spend even less time on the project itself, harming the final product. To make matters worse, I’m human and I procrastinate on major assignments, and this project unfortunately might not be an exception. I cannot say I work well under pressure, but when the due date is far away I do not feel much incentive to start on this project.

14. That said, there are just as many solutions as there are problems. To assist me in the interview without actually disrupting the interview process itself, I can use a recorder to capture the entire interview so I can conveniently use all of Dr. Long’s responses and track any information I missed on my written work. As I am writing down his responses, I may need to resort to using abbreviations for commonly used words and shorthand to keep up with the responses and maintain flow with the interview. Now as for the research paper itself, I definitely need to stay on top of things and avoid procrastinating on a huge assignment such as this. The proposal already outlined my schedule for me, so I will be able to efficiently plan out my work and not cram everything into the last week before the project is due.

15. Not Bad! • Not perfect, but fairly solid • It’s weakest when it looks exactly like my sample, and strongest when it’s got its own voice and purpose • Try to avoid repeating yourself within the same Letter – you only have one single-spaced page to work with, and you have a lot to tell me!