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( summer of code project proposal )

Register as a student with Google and submit a project proposal. Some helpful hints to think about when submitting your proposal to Google...

( what's in a proposal )

Briefly, a proposal should more or less contain the following:

  • Abstract
  • Introduction (include community benefits)
  • Narrative - the guts of what it is.
  • Detailed Plan - you get extra points for this.
  • Short biography
  • References - if any

At minimum you should have no less than two sentences per section. If your propsoal is short it's best not to label or highlight the sections.

( proposal hints )

  • Do your homework - ping LispNYC if you have any questions, we're usually hanging around #summmeroflisp on irc.freenode.net

  • Answer any remaining questions as best you can.

  • Use plain english, even with technical papers. It's much easier to read.

  • Use present tense whenever you can, past tense has a shelf-life.

  • Avoid using the first-person tense ("I", "me", "my"). This might even feel painful in your bio so here is a short example:

    Doe, John - is the laboratory director of the Washington State of Investigation. He has more than 15 years of experience in bloodstain pattern analysis. John has been teaching classes in bloodstain pattern analysis for more than 8 years and has taught at forensic laboratories, universities and professional organizations in more than fourteen states and Canada. John is currently the chairmen of the IAI Bloodstain Pattern Identification Sub-Committee and is certified by the IAI as a Senior Crime Scene Analyst, Certified Bloodstain Pattern Examiner and a Certified Latent Print Examiner.

  • If you have a plan, break your deliverables down no smaller than 2-week increments.

  • Keep the total application under 7500 characters in length.

  • Read Google's idea of what a student abstract should look like.

  • Leave out unnecessary phrases and sentences: "...nobody thought it would work, but by-golly the experiment ran correctly the first time!"

  • Spell check!

  • Remember: People from Google read these, and they have to read a LOT of them so be concise and keep it easy to read.

Good luck!

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