Progress Report

Date: May 29, 2008

To: Professor Holmevik

From: Virginia D. Baird



Introduction

This proposal will develop a course to teach technical and rhetorical skills needed to write research proposals to graduate Ph.D. students and faculty in the field of Landscape Architecture in the focus area of health and design.

Work Completed

I have decided that there is a need to work with Landscape Architecture graduate students and faculty to help them become more effective research proposal writers in the area of health and design, a primary focus for the Department of Landscape Architecture at Clemson University. The University is striving to become a top 20 research university in the United States and is requiring faculty to become much more involved in research than in the past.

The research component has been enhanced in the tenure process and could be a major stumbling block to acquiring and retaining high caliber professors in the field without grantsmanship support. It will also be a necessary component in the education of graduate students in the field to further Clemson's presence in academia another milepost for obtaining status as a top 20 research university.

Adding a research procedure and process proposal writing course would help to solve this problem.

This will be a planning proposal for a course to be offered for graduate students and faculty in Landscape Architecture. After discussions with the Chair of the Department, Professor Nadenicek, I have concluded that is a class that they would like to add to the curriculum. I have secured Professor Cari Goetcheus as my committee chair. She and I have discussed who might serve as the other members of my committee but I have not made any decisions. She has agreed to work with me on this proposal.

I have researched the rhetorical situation and decided that the proposal should be about increasing Landscape Architecture student and faculty abilities to writing research grants in the area of health and design. My purpose will be to produce a course to be added to the graduate curriculum. Since this will be my thesis my primary readers will be my committee and Professor Holmevik who is teaching this course, English 839, Proposal Writing. Secondary readers will be my advisor as she helps me prepare the final proposal for my committee and a number of professors in other content areas who have more experience in grant writing. My tertiary readers will be the students in this class who will be reading my work and comparing it to those of my classmates. Gatekeepers are my advisor as my work will directly reflect on her professional career, the Graduate School who determines the mechanics for all thesis at Clemson University and the program requirements in Landscape Architecture.

My primary readers will be reading this thesis near the end of a semester, a stressful time. They will be looking at the economic feasibility of teaching this course and the number of students that can be accommodated, and they will be concerned with plagiarism in the academic environment. The industry that will be impacted by this course would primarily include two professional groups, The Society of Research Administrators International and the National Council of Research Administrators. In the future I hope to be able to present at conferences on this course and research that I conduct on its effectiveness.

Next Steps

The Master in Landscape Architecture program is quite new and is only in its third year. I need to acquire more information on the specifics of the required thesis/project to be certain I am including all necessary information along with the mechanics of how it should be delivered.

I need to meet with the Chair of Landscape Architecture to discuss my thesis/project and be certain it meets his approval. He has been instrumental in my decision to take my project in this direction. I will also be meeting with the Chair of my committee to work with me on this project and to determine who will be my other committee members.

Conclusion

I think my progress on this project is moving forward well but I look forward to developing an outline.