Needless to say, you want to pay very close attention to the instructions on the application and be sure that you have included all necessary materials. Most applications include specifications about how the actual proposal needs to be formatted. If these are not followed, your proposal will probably not even be considered.
This will typically include the following elements:
At the beginning stages of your research career when you don't have a large research record to establish your competence to carry out the research, letters are especially important. Choose your letter writers carefully (in consultation with your advisors). Give your recommenders a copy of your proposal (a draft will do) as early as possible so that they will have an idea of what you are proposing to do.
Ask early!
There are different styles for CV in different areas and for different purposes. It's a good idea to show your CV to the advisors and ask them for advice about how to organize the CV to emphasize the points you want to emphasize in your record. (See also the section on establishing your credentials.)
Note: If only a copy of the transcript of your undergraduate school is needed, remember that there is a copy in your file here in the department office. You can just make a copy of that rather than going through the trouble and expense of contacting your old school.
If your research involves humans (fieldwork, experiments, the use of archived recorded data), you will most likely be required to get your research plan approved by the IRB. The National Science Foundation requires this as does the AAGRS (see description below).
Download the instructions and other materials for the grants you're thinking of applying for, and check to see what the requirements are. (Remember that some grants have restrictions on who is eligible to apply.) Be prepared to follow the instructions exactly, regarding such things as page length and formatting.
Start early. Budget enough time for:
Be mindful of your audience. Your proposal will be reviewed by intelligent people but who may know nothing about linguistics (or, at least, your area of linguistics). Avoid jargon. Instead, paraphrase technical linguistic terms that a non-linguist will not be familiar with. If possible, ask a linguist outside of your area as well as, if possible, someone outside of linguistics who can give you intelligent feedback to read your proposal for you.
Be clear and concise. (Remember that your proposal will be reviewed by people who are taking time from crowded schedules of teaching and research.)
Grab the reader's attention in the first paragraph and then keep it. Identify the problem and state its importance clearly and convincingly. Your proposal may be competing with hundreds of others so you need to convince the reviewers that it is important enough to fund.
NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Proposed plan of study or research form says:
"In a clear, concise, and original statement, describe your research interests. Your statement should demonstrate your understanding of research principles necessary to pursue these interests. Present your plan with a clear hypothesis or questions to be asked by the research."
The Peters & Menn Guidelines for writing grant proposals says:
"Give your idea the benefit of a clear presentation with an overview in the introduction, details in the body, and a summary in the conclusion....Coherence counts!"
If the application instructions tell you to describe previous research experience directly in the research statement, do so in a format that emphasizes the elements most relevant to establishing your competence to carry out your research plan. Don't pad the discussion. But also don't be afraid to state your accomplishments explicitly and straightforwardly. Make it easy for the reader to pick out the most important information.
If the application instructions give no obvious place to give this information, organize your CV in such a way as to accomplish the same purpose. Also, if there is a good way to cite yourself in your research statement, then the citations can refer to publications on your CV or to fieldwork mentioned there.
Here we give you a very partial list of funding sources that we've found. Use the internet to search for additional possibilities. If you're not sure whether a particular funding source is appropriate for you, you can always get your advisers or older students to help you assess your eligibility.
For additional help with putting together grant proposals, check with the OSU Graduate School. In the past they have offered grant writing workshops. The College of Humanities also has held grant writing tutorials for humanities graduate students.
Examples of successful grant applications and other material associated with these tutorials is available on a local page of our web server.