Week Eleven - Introducing Proposal & Audience
So
"Research some different approaches to project proposals online. These may be proposals for creative projects, or for something completely different.
Try to look for and assess a range of different kinds of documents, and identify aspects you feel are effective. Also note down any things you think are weak.
Share what you find with your peers, posting a link to one proposal you find, commenting briefly on whether you think it’s an example of good practice or not."
I have to say this exercise of googling and trying to find a bad example was actually one of the hardest things I have done to date on the course. The reason being, I have no real idea on
What a good proposal is.
What a bad proposal is.
What is a proposal?
Here goes the start of looking stupid!
Relentless searching on the web was drawing a blank, mainly because I really had no idea what I was looking for. We had a couple of links to previous students proposals and what that did was give me an idea on what one was. What it didn't do was tell me if it was good or bad. I came across a website by Colin Donohue - How to right a bad research proposal, and by seeing the bad examples gave me an insight into a few suggestions on what I shouldn't do. So information at hand I set about thinking how I would do my proposal in the following week.
During the webinar we were asked
"To help you think about audiences in terms of your project, you will be asked to explain who your work is for: who is your audience, and why should they look at your work?"
I saw my main audience as custom based until I started this course but I have been inspired to look much further than the end of my drive. I want to do an exhibition which is very helpful that it is part of our next terms assignments and so I am looking at a future audience that is different to what I currently have. I expect that the audience will be people who are interested in nostalgia and also people interested in historical aspects of my work.
Gary suggested looking at a book by John Berger _ Ways of seeing so it is on my read list to help me move forward. During the webinar, I suggested that I would like to tie in my like of Shakespeare with my images and ultimate goal is maybe doing an exhibition around that story. Ella suggested that it was Shakespeares Birthday and that she may have a contact for me as where she lives often do a celebration. I want my work to be a self expression and so I need to somehow get that across in my Proposal.
Suggested reading
Denicolo, P. and Becker, L. M. (2012) Developing research proposals. Los Angeles, [Calif.]: SAGE.
Talked about knowing your reader, who are you selling to. It did make me question what the course leaders preferences where and if there is a way to see previous work to get an idea of what they actually like.
It also discusses knowing the subject that you are proposing, so for many of the students this is a totally new subject and part of the proposal is how we will achieve an end goal and with what stepping stones along the way.