Project Title: Prepared By: * Project Class Size (1-5):

Enter the project title. Enter the name of the person completing the proposal. Date: * DRB Review: Required Not Required

SMT Review? (Class 3 & up)

Required Not Required

Situation/Problem/Opportunity: Briefly summarize the problem or opportunity you propose to address. This statement provides a basis for the rest of the document. Write this in terms of the organizational problem discovered, not in terms of the solution needed. Purpose Statement (Goals): This is what you intend to do to address the problem or opportunity identified above. This is the solution you propose. A project has one goal that gives purpose and direction to the project. This will be used as a continual point of reference for any questions that arise regarding scope or purpose. This section should be written in language that is easy for everyone to understand. It describes what will be implemented, corrected, installed, replaced or otherwise addressed to solve the problem. Objectives/Deliverables(if known): Objectives and deliverables are a more detailed version of the purpose (goals) statement. They outline what will be accomplished in this project. Objective statements will clarify the boundaries of the purpose statement and define boundaries of the scope of the project. Every objective must be accomplished in order to reach the goal and accomplish the purpose of this project. Consider including as objectives / deliverables: o o o o o Your requirements gathering process A formal implementation plan Service definition work Handoffs / recommendations to other teams Accessibility incorporation what is your plan for ensuring accessibility for users with disabilities?

Methods/Approach: How will you complete this project? What is your strategy for completion? What tools will you use? Will you procure or otherwise acquire hardware, software or people services? Will this project change or impact a defined ITS service? If so, how will you manage the transition to operations? What options / alternatives have / will you consider for the overall approach? Examples include open source vs. licensed software, extending existing services vs. building from scratch, and collaborations with other campuses.

Success Criteria: This is the measurable business value resulting from doing this project. What state must exist for the client to say the project was a success? Address quantitative and tangible business benefits in terms of what will be improved, what problems will be reduced or what benefit will this be to the organization.

Risks and Dependencies: Identify any factors that can affect the outcome of the project including major dependencies on other events or actions. These factors can affect deliverables, success, and completion of the project. Record anything that can go wrong during this project and the probability.

Required Consultations: The following consultations may be useful for any project. Identify which consultation should be required for your project: Functional requirements from client community Budget and Resource Management Group budget review Technical requirements

Jane Viking Thesis Proposal

CRM Technical and client impact review Design Review Board (DRB) IT Security Policy

Resources: People project staff, participants and those impacted (general classifications OK), technical lead (if necessary) and functional lead (if necessary) Time - what is the time frame for this project? How long will it take? Dollars - direct and indirect costs, e.g., out of pocket expenses and absorbed overhead Other software, expertise, procured items, outside expertise, etc. Project Budget (est):

Project Duration (est):

To Be Completed by Appropriate Manager - Proposals will be reviewed by the sponsor and manager and forwarded to ITS/PMG by the manager. If known, enter the project sponsors name. Project Sponsor: SMT Sponsor (if applicable): Project Manager: If known, enter the managers name.

* Useful project proposal references:

Project classification matrix (http://its.ucsc.edu/project-management/docs/pm-docs/classmatrix.pdf) DRB review criteria (http://its.ucsc.edu/ea/drp/index.html)

Jane Viking Thesis Proposal

Introduction
This is a template for a thesis proposal. It includes figure numbering logic and functions. It also demonstrates the use of Styles and contains other tips for writing (but not content-related stuff). In your actual introduction, you would describe the problem that you will be trying to solve, including why the problem is worth solving.

Styles
This template uses the Styles functions of MS ord. !ou should" too" not only for the headings" but also for the te#t. Styles pro$ide you a number of clear ad$antages% (1) It &eeps your styles consistent throughout the document" with only a little effort' (2) It allows documentwide alteration of a style' (() It ma&es using the outline mode and document map easy" both of which are great' and ()) If you use Styles in a smart way" MS ord will ma&e your Table of *ontents for you" +uic&ly and easily (this applies to your thesis" not your proposal" but it,s best to start early-) Styles will sa$e you a great deal of effort and hassle later on. hen you change a style" it should automatically change all instances of that style (be sure you can $iew styles in the formatting palette or a toolbar). If it doesn,t" then highlight the paragraph whose style you changed" go to the style in the styles list" and clic& the menu and select ./pdate to Match Selection0 Try this now% 1et,s say you want a different font for each of the main headings in the document. 2ighlight the whole .Introduction0 at the top of this page (including the paragraph return at the end of the line)" and go to 3ormat 4 3ont. *hange the font color to red. 5ow page through the document" and note that all the 2eadings will ha$e a red font color. Try undoing what you did" and notice that now only the Introduction is red. /ndo again" and the red is gone. I ha$e tried to create a bunch of useful styles for you" but you might need to ma&e some new ones for yourself. 2ere are some useful ones% 6n e+uation li&e 78m c2 (1) might need a style" and the following paragraph (this one) needs a separate style because it should not be indented" since it is not actually a new paragraph content-wise" nor e$en a new sentence. 5ote that you can set tab stops for a style" so you don,t need a bunch of &ludgy tabs to place things correctly (see Tips section below).

Jane Viking Thesis Proposal

Dynamic Figure Numbering

The basic idea is that you can use MS ord,s .field codes0 (little calculations) to &eep numbers in se+uence on a non-printed page of the document" and then ha$e the actual references in the document use field codes to refer to these se+uenced numbers. This allows you to $ery +uic&ly reorder" add" or remo$e figures" and all the figure numbers in the document will automatically ad9ust including citations to those figures in the te#t. The ne#t sections describe how to do this from scratch" to gi$e you a good idea of how it wor&s" but this document already has the system set up : you need only to adapt it to your actual figure list.

MAKE A LIST OF FIGURES

This would not be your figure list that goes in the front of the thesis" but a nonprinting page at the end of the document. 2ere you ma&e a list of figures" one per line" with a brief description (not the whole caption generally" although you could if you wish). 2owe$er" instead of typing an actual number" you put in a field code (Insert 4 3ield...) with the contents ;S7< 3igs; (you can put anything you li&e in for the ;3igs; part). The S7< code 9ust means a se+uence" so e$ery time it is found in the document" it increments the number. !ou can ha$e multiple se+uences 9ust by changing the tag (the ;3igs; part). So you could ha$e a separate se+uence for Tables" and yet another for e+uations or chemical reactions for e#ample. 5ote that the last page of this document has such a list already set up for testing.

INSERT BOOKMARKS
5ow" in order to ha$e the te#t be able to access these se+uenced numbers" we need to boo&mar& each one. So select each number (not the spaces or other te#t around it) and insert a boo&mar& (Insert4=oo&mar&). 5ame it something descripti$e li&e ;3ig>?egionalMap; (no spaces are allowed in boo&mar& names). @o not name it ;3igure(;" because the point is that you canAt rely on what you now consider to be figure ( to remain figure (. ThatAs the whole point of this- !ou might decide to reorder things. 5ote that these are already set up for the figures on the last page of this document.

INSERT TEXT REFERENCES

!ouAre nearly done - now when you want to insert a figure reference (or table or e+uation" etc.) instead of typing the figure number itself" you insert a reference to the boo&mar&. To do this" you insert a field (Insert 4 3ield...) and type ;?73 3ig>?egionalMap; (or whate$er the boo&mar& name you chose for that figure was). If you forget" you can type ;?73 ; and then hit the options button" and you will ha$e access to a list of all the boo&mar&s in your document. @ouble clic& one and it will be inserted into the bo# after the ;?73 ;.

SAMPLE TEXT FOR DEMONSTRATION

This is some te#t that refers to a regional map (3ig. 7rror% ?eference source not found). The number in the preceding figure reference is gi$en by the field code .?73 3ig>?egionalMap0. That way" if you change the order in the 3igure list page at the end" this number will ad9ust to match that order. )

Jane Viking Thesis Proposal

This is some te#t that refers to a local map (3ig. 7rror% ?eference source not found). This is some te#t that refers to a photomicrograph of sample B*C2( (3ig. 7rror% ?eference source not found).

CHECK FIGURE NUMBERING

!our references to figures must occur in numerical order. That is the first reference to figure number ) should be prior to the first reference to figure number D" and you should not s&ip any figure numbers. I ha$e included in this document a script that will chec& this for you. In the special toolbar that should open with this document" there is a button ( ) that creates a report highlighting errors in the order of figure citation. *lic& that button now to get a figure citation report. 5ow" try switching the order of the references to 3igures 2 and ( in the section 9ust abo$e and run the report again to see what happens when you,$e made an error.

Tips from Dave

2ere are some general tips for using the communication tools that will help you write better. Eust as you ma&e an effort to learn the tools of geology to do your research effecti$ely" you should ma&e an effort to learn the tools of writing to do your communication effecti$ely.

ENDNOTE
@ealing with references is a huge hassle. The tric&y part is that the hassle doesn,t really happen as you,re writing. hile you are writing it,s fairly easy to stic& in references" especially if you are really thoroughly familiar with the literature. The problem is that the hassle happens at the crunch time" when you are trying to get the paper really finally finished at 2%(F in the morning" and you ha$e to go through e$ery single reference to chec& and see if you remembered to put it in the ?eferences *ited list" or to ma&e sure you,$e put the references in the correct order in each of your citations. To a$oid that" it,s best to use a program li&e 7nd5ote" which will &eep a library of references for you" and deal with all aspects of the citation style and the reference list. It,s hard to o$erstate how useful 7nd5ote is in scientific writing. !ou can e$en ma&e notes on each paper to remind yourself about its content.

FIGURES ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR

6dobe Illustrator is the best program out there for doing figures. 6ny $ector-based graphics program will do pretty well" though. 5ote that Ghotoshop and programs li&e it are not $ector-based" and are not good choices for doing figures' they will produce huge files that are difficult to edit. The best strategy is to ha$e a separate file for each figure" and ha$e each figure be on its own page in your document. In your thesis" these should be interlea$ed with the te#t' in your proposal" it,s simplest to put them all at the end. 7ach page should ha$e a

Jane Viking Thesis Proposal

caption" ideally in the same font as the main document. !ou should supply your figures to your ad$isor and committee as a single G@3" and this is where Illustrator is especially great. 6dobe 6crobat Grofessional can import a directory of figure files in Illustrator format" and combine them into a single G@3 document. Supplying the figures as a G@3 is useful because the committee can ma&e comments in the G@3 itself if they wish" and the file siHe is smaller than a set of indi$idual files" particularly if you IptimiHe the G@3 in 6crobat Grofessional after ma&ing it (loo& in the menus for .G@3 IptimiHer0). 7ducational copies of Illustrator are a$ailable for students, personal computers at substantially reduced cost" and in a pinch" (F-day full-featured demo $ersions can be downloaded from 6dobe.com. Figure Caption umbering !elp The dynamic figure numbering system I,$e created for this document and described abo$e ma&es it $ery easy to re-order" add" or delete figures from the standpoint of the te#t" but what about the captions that are in the figure documents themsel$esJ If you do as I suggest and use 6dobe Illustrator" you can ta&e ad$antage of another script I wrote. Information about this is posted here% http%KKalmandine.geol.wwu.eduKLda$eKotherKhowto>6I>figure*aptions.shtml

VIEW INVISIBLES
In the toolbar there is a paragraph mar& ( ). *lic&ing it will toggle the $isibility of spaces" tabs" paragraph ends" page brea&s" etc. !ou should always lea$e this on as you write" so you can see the structure of your document. If you don,t" you are liable to muc& things up and ma&e it difficult to get the document loo&ing the way you want it to loo&.

IF YOU HAVE MULTIPLE TABS OR PARAGRAPH RETURNS, YOURE DOING

SOMETHING WRONG

6 rule of thumb that I use to &eep myself organiHed" is that if you find yourself typing more than two spaces or one tab or one paragraph brea& in a row" then you are not using the Styles effecti$ely. Spaces and tabs can be condensed into a single tab (3ormat 4 Tabs)' multiple paragraphs to ma&e spaces can be replaced by either a single paragraph with appropriate spacing before or after (good)" or 9ust changing the before spacing of the paragraph that follows the space you are trying to create. In either case" howe$er" be sure you are not altering a style that you ha$e used elsewhere (unless that is your goal).

Jane Viking Thesis Proposal