Chapter 3 Discussion

In this chapter, we learn the importance of strategic planning before writing proposals. We need to consider the rhetorical situation.

1. As proposal writers, we are naturally enthusiastic about our topic. How do we determine which information is "need to know" and which is "want to tell?" We may think the audience needs to know a lot more than they actually do. On the other hand, as experts in the field, we may assume the audience is already familiar with our subject and leave out important explanatory information. To solve this dilemma, we probably need to have other readers look at our proposal to tell us if we giving too much information or not enough.
2. We need to consider all our readers: primary, secondary, tertiary, and the gatekeepers. Honestly, I hadn't considered tertiary readers. How are we supposed to imagine which people who might want to use our proposal? And how can we cater to these people if we don't know who they are? It seems like tertiary readers just refer to everyone else, which is too broad a category.
3. Before this class, I hadn't thought much about context. It seems especially difficult to consider the ethical and political contexts. It seems that every proposal has the potential for some sort of ethical problems. Internal Review Boards exist to minimize the harm that will come to human subjects in research, but sometimes even they can't foresee possible damage. The political context of MAPC faculty will affect how I choose my committee. I already know that some professors in the department don't get along at all. I need to do some investigating beforehand to make sure my committee can work well together.