Chapter 4, Describing the Current Situation

The importance of describing the current situation accurately for the reader - A proposal is a pattern. The proposal genre includes:.

• Introduction
• Current Situation
• Project Plan
• Qualifications
• Costs and Benefits
• Conclusion

Guidelines for drafting the current situation, explaining cause and effect of the problem.

• Problems are the effects of causes
• Ignored problems tend to grow worse
• Blame change, not people

Explain the what caused the change in the current situation to create the problem using logical mapping. Identify major causes, then identify minor causes that created the major causes. Keep asking "what changed". Ignored problems continue to change and create urgency. Blaming people will always create friction, blame the change.

Mapping points research in the direction highlighted by the logical relationships that structure the problem. Triangulation cross-references sources.

• Electronic sources
• Print sources
• Empirical sources
• Typical section -
  
• Opening, subject, purpose or main point (usually one paragraph)

Typical section -

• Opening, subject, purpose or main point (usually one paragraph)
• Body, provides the major details mapped (one or more paragraphs)
  
• Casual approach- causes of the problem, education readers
• Effects approach- effects of not taking action, urgency of the problem
• Narrative approach - tells the story of how the change created the situation, evolved over time
• Closing- summarize the main point of the section and transition to the next section
• Causal or Narrative - discuss some of the effects of not taking action
• Effects - generally discuss the need to solve the problem

Special case - Research grants and literature reviews, research proposals suggest ways to solve problems, gaps or inconsistencies in our current knowledge of the subject.
Current situation is referred to as background, research problem, or literature review
Goals:

• show where proposed research adds to or differs from prior research on the subject
• discuss significance of the research and its potential impact
• establish credibility of the study and authors
  

To meet these goals -

• summarize previous research on the subject
• identify a gap in the knowledge base
• raise questions about prior results

Two types of information needed are

• a review of the existing literature
• a summary of the principle investigator's prior research

Literature Review - published research that has been done on the subject
Prior Research - describes the empirical research into the subject

The current situation section either explains the problem in detail or if the problem is understood along with its causes and effects, it proves you understand the situation.

1. In a research proposal, how do you use logical mapping?
2. As you map out the effects of the problem, if you could hit a emotional hot spot with the funder. How do you avoid that situation?
3. Are you blaming people for a situation if you use positions, not individuals?