450 - Needs Statement Assignment

©: Evelyn Daniel, 1997. All rights reserved.
Page revised 6/28/97.

LIS 450RR: GRANTSMANSHIP

NEEDS STATEMENT, GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ASSIGNMENT

For this assignment, you may use the idea you developed in your first concept paper or you can examine a new problem. You will find it helpful to read Chapter 11 of your Bauer textbook paying particular attention to the section beginning on p.105 called "Documentation of Need" and the following section beginning on p.107 entitled "What You Propose to Study or Change." Chapters 7 & 8 of the Miner and Griffith cover much the same material.

Your task is to write a short paper (2-3 pages long) in which you identify a problem area and discuss the following questions about it:

What is the problem that requires a solution?
What happens if the need is not addressed?
What is the gap between what is and what ought to be?
Why is it necessary to solve the problem now?

For the problem that you select, please write two to three arguments telling us why this problem should be solved and why it is urgent to solve it now. To develop your arguments, you may find it useful to document your case using one or more of the following ways of demonstrating your knowledgeability about the problem. This follows the discussion in Bauer.

Key informants (experts)
Community forum (testimony at public meeting)
Case studies (real examples of the need)
Statistical data (data from public records)
Survey data (data generated by questions to a random selection of relevant population)
Studies (articles, research reports from the literature)

At the end of your needs statement, summarize what your goal is to solve the problem, in other words, state your solution (i.e., your proposal). Follow this with a set of objectives for your proposed project. If you can, use the technique for objective writing described on pp. 108-109 of the Bauer text. Your objectives should describe the end results of your project -- what you hope to accomplish. Thus, they should include:

Expected result area(s)
Measurement indicators
Performance standards
Time frame
Cost frame
Objective format

"To [action verb and statement reflecting measurement indicator] by [performance standard] by [deadline] at a cost of no more than [cost frame]"
Evaluate objectives

Note: This list is taken from the 7 step technique elaborated by Bauer on pp. 108-109.

In practice, it may not be possible to include all these elements but you should certainly include the result area -- that is, where you expect to see change as a result of your project. Measurement indicators are very useful as is your speficication of the level on that measurement indicator that you hope to achieve (the performance standard). The time frame may be congruent with the beginning and end dates of your project and so may not need to be included. Only include cost if you can isolate specific costs for individual cases.

This assignment calls for a lot of creativity and hard thinking. It is a useful exercise for a lot of other work areas in addition to grantwriting and thus is worth investing a substantial amount of time.

It will be helpful for me if you include a paragraph at the beginning -- perhaps taken from your Concept Paper in which you describe the organizational context from which you are viewing the problem and attempting to solve it.

This assignment is for all students, whether you are taking it for 1/2 or 1 credit. It may be done as a team or individually.

As you did before, please create your paper as a web page on SiteEdit and let us know, either via the Web Board or the listserv, when you have completed the assignment and what the URL is. This will be important because the next assignment will be to critique the needs statements of some of your colleagues.

This assignment was originally due on June 30 but I want to give you a little more time. Let us make the new due date Thursday, July 3 to complete it. Early completions are always welcome.