Differentiating between (Class) Papers & Conference Proposals

I have finished my coursework, so thankfully, I will not be writing (another) class paper any time soon. However, one thing I realized over the course of this year is that class papers and conference proposals differ quite a bit. ​

Here are some lessons learned in how I've translated my class papers to conference papers~

1. Class papers are focused on whether you learned, digested, applied whatever content from the class. As such, the (social science) papers you write that are upwards to 15, 20 pages will be centered on the theoretical framework, or the methods you decide to use, etc. But proposals don't care about what you learned, they care about whether your stuff matters. Proposals focus on the significance of your research and how it pushes the field forward. As such, if you aren't able to answer "how will this contribute to the field" or relatedly, "why is your research significant," your class papers will remain just that: class papers. 

2. I will admit that I have pontificated plenty, when it came to class papers (and generous page limits certainly did not help curb this temptation.) But proposals are not the time to be a mouthful; they are the time to be short, succinct, and to the point. 

3. And yet, what I have learned from both is, if there are examples or rubrics, read through them. I recently had the chance to review proposals for ASHE (the Association for the Study of Higher Education) and the examples that they gave, followed the rubric that I used to score and rank proposals.