UCLA Graduate Student Resource Center

August 1 - August 29, 2007

The Prospectus/Proposal Boot Camp is outcome-focused program designed to help graduate students finish a full draft of their prospectus or proposal by the end of the month (August). It will cover components of the prospectus/proposal, teach writing strategies and provide structure for the process. For guidance concerning field-specific issues, such as methodology, participants will need to consult faculty advisors/mentors during the program or have already made decisions concerning these substantive issues.

The Coordinator of the Prospectus/Proposal Boot Camp is Marilyn Gray, the Graduate Writing Center Coordinator, who will be assisted by the GWC Writing Consultants.

Participants must attend all mandatory workshops and complete all mandatory homework by the assigned dates. Participation is limited to UCLA graduate students who are at the early stage of writing their prospectus or proposal and have been accepted into the program.

Mandatory Workshop Schedule

Session 1
Wednesday, August 1, 2006
9:00am – 11:00am, Humanities & Arts
11:00am – 1:00pm, Social Sciences
4:00pm – 6:00pm, Sciences & Engineering

Session 2
Wednesday, August 8, 2006
9:00am – 11:00am, Humanities & Arts
11:00am – 1:00pm, Social Sciences
4:00pm – 6:00pm, Sciences & Engineering

Session 3
Wednesday, August 15, 2006
9:00am – 11:00am, Humanities & Arts
11:00am – 1:00pm, Social Sciences
4:00pm – 6:00pm, Sciences & Engineering

**No meeting week of August 22nd**
We are skipping this week to give people more time to complete a full draft of their prospectus or proposal.

Session 4
Wednesday, August 29, 2006
9:00am – 11:00am, Humanities & Arts
11:00am – 1:00pm, Social Sciences
4:00pm – 6:00pm, Sciences & Engineering

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Mandatory Homework for Session 1, August 1st (by Academic Area)

1) Humanities and Arts:

Annotated bibliography of your top 50 or so secondary and theoretical sources. For the top 4-5 most important theory and secondary sources, write a long paragraph per annotation. For all other sources that will be discussed in the literature review (more than a passing reference of footnote), write a short paragraph per annotation. For the remaining sources, write 1-2 sentences per annotation.
Abstract: describe your dissertation in approx 350 words (1-2 pages).
Reading Assignment: Joan Bolker. Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes A Day. Chapters 1, 3 and 4.

2) Social Sciences:

Annotated bibliography of your top 50 secondary and theoretical sources. For the top 4-5 most important theory and secondary sources, write a long paragraph per annotation. For all other sources that will be discussed in the literature review (more than a passing reference of footnote), write a short paragraph per annotation. For the remaining sources, write 1-2 sentences per annotation.
Abstract: describe your dissertation in approx 350 words (1-2 pages).
Reading Assignment: Joan Bolker. Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes A Day. Chapters 1, 3 and 4.

3) Sciences and Engineering:

Annotated bibliography for your literature review. For the most relevant sources, annotations should be 50-100 words.
Research plan: Relatively well-articulated plan for your experimental work, and/or the 2-3 well-defined specific aims of your dissertation research.
Abstract: describe your dissertation in 300-500 words.
Reading Assignment: Joan Bolker. Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes A Day. Chapters 1, 3 and 4.
Research Proposal: use the web to investigate graduate research fellowship opportunities at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF), or at the funding agency most relevant in your field.

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The course is free of charge, but students will need to purchase:
Joan Bolker’s Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes A Day. 1998. (Available from amazon.com or the UCLA Bookstore)

Enrollment: We will admit up to 10 people in each of the three sections (Humanities/Arts, Social Sciences, Sciences/Engineering).

Click here for Prospectus/Proposal Boot Camp Application.

Application deadline: June 29, 2007

For questions and application submissions, contact: gwc@gsa.asucla.ucla.edu