The Research Grant Committee of the Council of Writing Program Administrators invites research proposals to investigate issues and practices in writing program administration. Maximum awards of $2000 may be given; average awards are $1000. All current WPA members are eligible to apply.

Please organize your proposal as follows:

1. A cover page that gives the names of all investigators (please don’t identify yourself or your institution in the rest of the proposal), mailing addresses, email addresses and phone numbers.

2. A narrative of no more than two pages single-spaced in which you

• explain the problem your research will attempt to solve and how the project will solve the problem you identify. The problems should be an issue of common concern to WPAs
• give a timetable detailing how the project will proceed
• connect the project to previous published research and scholarship
• describe your expertise in this area
• describe how the results will be shared professionally (See “Expectations of Reward Recipients” below.)

3. A realistic, detailed budget on a separate page.

Criteria for Selection

You may find the following criteria useful in preparing your proposal; WPA Grant Committee will use these to conduct blind reviews of all proposals.

1. Relevance: The project is relevant to the work of writing program administrators, it applies to contexts outside of the immediate institutional context of origin, and writing program administrators will benefit from the outcomes of this project.
2. Contribution: The project not only is related to prior scholarship and research but also makes an original contribution.
3. Proposer’s Past Scholarship/Expertise: Through prior research and expertise, the proposer is well-prepared to undertake this project.
4. Methods: The methodology is clear, workable, and appropriate to this project.
5. Feasibility: The proposer can reasonably complete the project in the proposed time frame.
6. Cost Effectiveness: The budget expenditures are reasonable and the project’s outcomes justify the project’s expenses.

Restrictions: Ordinarily, you will not receive funding for released time for the grantee or others; for purely local initiatives or projects with little relevance to other settings; for outside consultants or evaluators; for the production of non-researched materials; for dissertation research; or for supplements to existing grants, unless it is clear that the WPA grant provides an opportunity to extend the project in new directions. You may not submit more than one proposal per year. The Committee will give first consideration for awards to those who have not received an award for three years.

Expectations of Reward Recipients

1. Grantees are expected to submit articles resulting from the research to WPA:Writing Program Administration for first consideration.
2. Grantees are expected to offer a poster presentation of research results at the annual CCCC’s WPA breakfast in the year during which the award is granted.
3. Grantees are expected to submit a final written report of their research outcomes to the Chair of the Research Grants Committee by June 15 of the year after they receive the award. Ordinarily, reports will be 5-7 pages in length. In some circumstances, grantees may need some more space, in which case a report of up to 10 pages is acceptable. These reports should outline specific plans for submitting an article reporting the results to the WPA journal as well as other plans for dissemination.

Please send four copies of the proposal to Meg Morgan at the address below, postmarked no later than January 30, 2004

Meg Morgan
Chair, WPA Research Grant Committee
Department of English
University of North Carolina Charlotte
9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001

You may also submit proposals online to mpmorgan@email.uncc.edu. They must be sent by 5:00 pm on January 30, 2004.

Winners will be announced at the 2004 WPA breakfast in San Antonio.

WPA RESEARCH GRANTS

ANNOTATED SAMPLE PROPOSAL

To help prospective applicants for WPA research grants, we have created annotated versions of a proposal that received funding in the past. We hope that by revealing the judgments and comments of the Research Grants Committee on various aspects of the proposal, we can more effectively explain the criteria that are used to make funding decisions.

When you open the proposal, you will see the text exactly as it was submitted to the WPA Research Grants Committee, with no annotations. At the bottom of the proposal, the five criteria used to judge proposals appear as links. When you click on one of the links, you will be taken to a copy of the proposal that contains highlighted words and phrases. Passing your cursor over these highlights will open boxes that contain the Committee's thoughts about the criterion in question and how it is addressed in the proposal. Although both the proposals were successful, the Committee has also included suggestions for making them even stronger.

Above is WPA's most recent call for proposals, which contains a description of the criteria used to judge proposals. By providing information about these criteria, we hope they can become more formative and productive, rather than purely evaluative.

SAMPLE PROPOSAL #1