What Should this Proposal Look Like?

Basic points

• What are you proposing?
• Why (why does it matter, why does it interest you, why would it interest others)?
• How will you accomplish it? What will you have done for this semester? What would imagine would need to be done later (what resources, etc)?

Possible Organization

1. Introduction:
   1. What the project is and why it is happening.
   2. Trying to grab audience attention.
2. Body:
   1. Background on the project (cite relevant from the class).
   2. Why this is important?
   3. What you are contributing? What do you want people to learn, understand, to do? What does your imagined audience look like?
3. Work Plan/Outline:
   1. What will this look like?
   2. What do you think you will have done?
   3. What materials would you need to go forward?
4. Conclusion: 
   • This could include:
     1. potential problems
     2. gaps/omissions you foresee that will need to be addressed later
     3. future applications of this project

Another way to think of this

Narrative—Not to Exceed Three Single-Spaced Pages

Your narrative should include a project title not to exceed 125 characters (including spaces and punctuation). Successful grant proposals will typically have titles that are descriptive of the project, substantive, and free of specialized language. Your title should match the title provided in section 6.a. of the SF-424 Application for Federal Domestic Assistance – Short Organizational (part of the Grants.gov application package). Most importantly, your title should be easily understood by the general public. NEH reserves the right to retitle funded projects for clarity when announcing its funding decisions and in its own reports and communications, but recipients are permitted to use their preferred title for any award products. You can find guidance for writing a good title in the Frequently Asked Questions, which are available on the program resource page. Applicants should provide an intellectual justification for their projects, conveying the ideas, objectives, methods, and work plan. A simple statement of need or intent is insufficient. The narrative should not assume specialized knowledge and should be free of technical terms and jargon.
Applicants should format pages with one-inch margins and with a font size no smaller than eleven point. Single-spacing is permissible (and is the norm among successful applications).
In the course of writing a narrative, applicants should address the following areas:

• Research and contribution
  Describe the intellectual significance of the proposed project, including its value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Provide an overview of the project, explaining the basic ideas, problems, or questions examined by the study. Explain how the project will complement, challenge, or expand relevant studies in the field.
• Methodology and work plan
  Describe your method(s) and clarify the part or stage of the project that will be supported by the Summer Stipend. Provide a work plan, describing what you will accomplish during the period of performance. Your work plan must be based on a full-time commitment to the project; part-time work is not allowed. If you do not anticipate finishing the entire project during the period of performance, discuss your plan for doing so.
  For book projects, explain how the final project will be organized. If possible, provide a brief chapter outline. For digital projects, describe the technologies that will be used and developed, and explain how the scholarship will be presented to benefit audiences in the humanities. For edition or translation projects, describe the annotations or other scholarly apparatus that you plan to include. If you are proposing to translate into English a work for which other English translations already exist, provide a rationale for the new translation.
  Note that work plans should not be wholly dependent upon factors beyond an applicant’s control. For example, an applicant should not request an award solely to respond to readers’ reports on a book manuscript, if the applicant has not yet received those reports.
  If you are requesting funding for the development, acquisition, preservation, or enhancement of geospatial data, products, or services, you must conduct a due diligence search at the Data.gov list of datasets to discover whether the needed geospatial-related data, products, or services already exist. If not, you must produce the proposed geospatial data, products, or services in compliance with applicable proposed guidance posted at http://www.fgdc.gov.
• Competencies, skills, and access
  Explain your competence in the area of your project. If the area of inquiry is new to you, explain your reasons for working in it and your qualifications to do so. Specify your level of competence in any language or digital technology needed for the study. Describe where the study will be conducted and what research materials will be used. If relevant, specify the arrangements for access to archives, collections, or institutions that contain the necessary resources.
• Final product and dissemination
  Describe the intended audience and the intended results of the project. If relevant, explain how the results will be disseminated and why these means are appropriate to the subject matter and audience. If the project has a website, please provide the URL.
  If the final product will appear in a language other than English, explain how access and dissemination will be affected.
  NEH expects recipients to provide broad access to all award products, insofar as the conditions of the materials and intellectual property rights allow. For projects that lead to the development of websites, all other considerations being equal, NEH gives preference to those that provide free access to the public.
  NEH also expects that any materials produced in digital form as a result of its awards will be maintained so as to ensure their long-term availability. To that end, describe how the project’s digital results, if any, will be maintained and supported beyond the period of performance.

• American History Summer Stipends Sample Application (PDF)
• American Literature Summer Stipends Sample Application (PDF)
• Art History Summer Stipends Sample Application (PDF)
• Latin American Studies Summer Stipends Sample Application (PDF)
• Philosophy Summer Stipends Sample Application (PDF)

Examples of projects funded