Progress Report # 1

Date: 10/17/2006
To: Dr. Homlevick
From: Katie Goergen

Introduction
I am writing two references guides for the Anderson Family Connection. These two manuals will cover what a grant proposal is and how to locate potential grants, as well as address the process of grant writing itself. Both of these manuals are made for the same audience.

Work Completed
As of now, I have completed most of my research. There are two other women I would like to contact, one who works in the Anderson library, and another that writes grants for the Greenville Family Connection. Beyond these two sources, most of my research has concluded. I have started a very rough outline of how to go about starting my manuals. I am starting with the expert manual first, the one that explains the writing process because it will be in depth and the most time consuming. I feel by starting and completing this one first, if I set reasonable deadlines than I will be done with it ahead of schedule. This will leave more time to complete the manual about grant writing.

I need to sit down with it one more time to get a better sense of the deadlines I would like to achieve. This however can and will be done this week. My next progress report will have dates that I would like certain components completed. The better organized I am and the more goals I have to accomplish in a short amount of time the more motivated I become to complete all of the tasks at hand.

Next Steps
I will contact my last two sources which will fully complete my research for the reference guide conerning what a grant proposal is and where to locate one. I will continue drafting out the sections for the expert manual. I had started at the beginning, but I think I will more than likely skip around because the way in which it is divided, the different "chapters" can be approached differently. I had gotten stuck at first, but I think by skipping around I will find that I am completing the chapters a lot more quickly than if I tried to start at the beginning.

Conclusion
I feel very comfortable with what I am doing. I would appreciate any feedback on my proposals because they are the foundation for which I will create these papers. I feel confident that they will serve as a guiding tool for me and enable me to stay on task and follow through with my goals. I am ready to start these papers full force and feel confident that I can finish them in a timely manner and produce a solid project.

All of the workshops we have been doing in class I find to be extremely helpful. It is nice to have a second and third opinion to review my proposal and offer suggestions that could make it clearer. I know that just because what I write makes sense to me doesn't always resonate with others, so it is a good way of judging how well I am conveying my thoughts and ideas.

As of now I feel as though I know exactly what I need to do. I have started preparing my documents. I will type out the pages first, than create the table of contents and begin formatting the layout. With time being a huge factor in all of this I may just use Microsoft Word and Publisher to create the booklets. If I am able to produce the pages in a reasonable amount of time I will try to work on the overall apperance by using InDesign to create the different pages. I have already started to draft out certain sections of the booklet and will continue to refine this process.