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Tue Feb 3 12:08:06 2026
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<p>A few basic principles for writing a proposal, many of which I got from Scott Gaudi in Astronomy:</p> <p>1. Make sure that the first sentence of every paragraph summarizes the <em>entire</em> paragraph, and that </p> <p>2. All of the important points are covered in the first sentence of some paragraph. That way a busy "skimmer" gets all of the important points. Use italics to make the most important points jump off the page.</p> <p>3. Say up front, right away what you want. Don't take several pages to build up to it like you would in a paper.</p> <p>4. Make the case that you (or your group, or collaboration) are uniquely qualified to carry out the proposed plan.</p> <p>5. Make the case that the proposal is timely</p> <p>6. Make the case that if they do not fund <strong>you</strong> to do this <strong>now</strong>, then the world will fall apart.</p> <p>7. Identify the strongest weaknesses of your proposal and address them up front. You can even turn a weakness around and make a major objective of your proposal to fix it.</p> <p>8. Demonstrate that you are already doing what you are proposing to do.</p> <p>9. Include a table showing what you will do each year, including what you will publish and when.</p> <p>10. Leave no ambiguity in what you say you will do (even if in reality you might change it later).</p> <p> </p>
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