Resources for Proposal Writing

If you’re interested in seeing what colleagues have done you may:

  • Review Sabbatical Leave Reports from other, perhaps related, disciplines. A copy of each Proposal and Report is placed on the Sabbatical Leave Public SharePoint Site, where they are available as a resource to you.
  • Review your department’s, program’s, or discipline’s goals as they appear in the annual Program Review & Planning Process (PRPP) document. Talk to your Chair about how to get a copy, and reflect on how your ideas might fit into this larger context.
  • Consider the applicable goals and objectives of the District’s Strategic Plan, your department’s educational goals and the goals of Academic Affairs, Student Services, and so forth. Your Dean is a good contact for this piece of the bigger picture you might want to think about in your own planning.

Getting Help

Your own colleagues and the Sabbatical Leave Committee members are good resources for you if you need some assistance in clearly defining your objectives, identifying expected outcomes, or developing evaluative components for your proposal or report. 

Committee Suggestions for Writing Your Proposal

Leave Objectives section:

  • Include brief statements of what you will actively accomplish during the sabbatical period, i.e., conduct research, visit college campuses, attend workshops.
  • Your activities must produce at least one tangible result such a revised/new curriculum or written report based on findings.

Understanding your proposed project hinges on well defined and clearly expressed objectives. Objectives are critical because they:

  • Communicate expectations for the leave. These explicit statements provide a context for what will be learned or achieved.
  • Help you clarify your goals for the leave and give you a framework against which to measure success.
  • Are organized to be useful to not only you, but also to the committee, your proposal reviewers.
  • Must be written as outcome statements answering the question, "What will I be able to do as a consequence of the leave?" This means writing statements that are clear, concise, and concrete (open to limited interpretations). Here’s an example: “I propose to research and observe new visualization techniques in radiological imaging so that I will be able to create, during my leave, three instructional modules and a short format course for the second year students in the program.”

Narrative section:

  • Provide a detailed plan of how you will meet your goal and complete your objectives.  All language should refer to your goal and objectives.
  • All activities must be completed within the official sabbatical period.
  • Language must be positive and specific of what you will do, not what you plan to do. Example: I will write a new text book.  NOT: I plan to write a new textbook.
  • When including an activity that is subject to processes and decisions outside of your control, provide alternative possibilities or preferences. Example: I will travel to Central America to complete 9-12 units of formal study on pre-classic and classic periods of Mayan civilization.  My top choices are the University of Mexico and/or the University of Mesoamerica in Guatemala.

Evaluation Summary section:

  • Re-state the purpose and be prepared to explain how it relates to the SRJC strategic plan and your job assignment.

Abstract section:

  • Reflect all activities you will complete.
  • Describe the tangible result of your sabbatical that benefits the campus community.
  • Must be written in third-person.

Common Committee Feedback: 

The Sabbatical Committee frequently provides the following feedback when reviewing sabbatical proposals and reports.

  • Problems with overall clarity, format and writing.
  • Difficult to identify desired outcome: Request Clarification
  • Outcome is not related to SRJC assignment: Request modification
  • Outcome/Activities do not seem appropriate for requested length of leave: Suggest adjustment of work load or sabbatical length.
  • Activities are not clearly related to desired outcome.
  • It is not clear how outcome will benefit the campus community or further SRJC's Strategic or Department Educational Plan

Proposal Template: 

Download this Template as a Word Document

Proposal Template

Example Proposals:

Best Practices Examples: Filomina Avila, Molly Matheson, Damon Neidlinger

Course Activities Example: Nora Wheeler

Coursework/Certifications Example: Tara Jacobson, Sheryl Cavales Doolan

Course Revision and Update Example: Heidi Saleh

Creative Original Work: Stephanie Sanchez

Curriculum Research and Development Example: Paul Moosman

Development of Shared Resources Example: Bic Ha Dovan

Independent Study: Tom Falbo

Textbook/Open Education Resource Development (OER): Jennifer Royal, George Sturr