Some Candid Suggestions for Applicants for Research Funding

• Capture the Reviewer's Attention
• Aim for Clarity
• Establish the Context
• What's the Payoff
  Disciplinary norms and personal tastes in justifying research activities differ greatly. Some scholars are swayed by the statement that "it has not been studied" (e.g., an historian may argue that no book has been written about a particular event, and therefore one is needed), while other scholars sometimes reflect that there may be a good reason why not. Nevertheless, the fact that less is known about one's own chosen case, period, or country than about similar ones may work in proposer's favor. Between two identical projects, save that one concerns Egypt and the other the Sudan, reviewers are likely to prefer the latter. Citing the importance of the events that provide the subject matter is another and perhaps less dubious appeal. "Turning points," "crucial breakthroughs," "central personages," "fundamental institutions," and similar appeals to the significance of the object of research are sometimes effective if argued rather than merely asserted. Appealing to current importance may also work: e.g., democratic consolidation in South Africa, the aging population in industrialized countries, the relative decline of the hegemony of the United States. It's crucial to convince readers that such topics are not merely timely, but that their current urgency provides a window into some more abiding problem.

  Among many social scientists, explicit theoretical interest counts heavily as a point of merit. Theoretical exposition need not go back to the axiomatic bases of the discipline - proposal readers will have a reasonable interdisciplinary breadth - but it should situate the local problem in terms of its relevance to live sometimes controversial, theoretical currents. Help your reader understand where the problem intersects the main theoretical debates in your field and show how this inquiry puts established ideas to the test or offers new ones. Good proposals demonstrate awareness of alternative viewpoints and argue the author's position in such a wav as to address the field broadly, rather than developing a simple sectarian tendency indifferent to alternatives.

• Use a Fresh Approach
• Describe Your Methodology
• Specify Your Objectives
• Final Note