Write a Proposal

Once you’ve chosen a device page stub and conducted some preliminary research, the next step is to send us a proposal. The proposal doesn’t need to be long, but we’ll use it to help start your project off in the right direction.

A proposal is required for the project, even if it is informal. Proposals allow us to give you the necessary privileges to work on the site without problems—and to verify that no one else has selected the same project as yours. You can find a sample proposal here. Also, make sure to include a brief message in the email's body to provide context for your proposal.

Important things to include in your proposal:

• The title of your device page stub
  Titles include the full device name followed by the word “Repair.” For example, the title of this device page stub is “Cosmed MicroQuark Repair.”

• A link to your device page stub
  Include the full URL to the page you’d like to work on. Also, formatting this as a clickable link will also save us the trouble of copying and pasting it into our web browser.

• Description of the stub’s current state
  Briefly describe any information that already exists on the page stub. Are there Support Questions? PDFs of service manuals? Links to repair guides? Any text, images, or additional information? How about flags?

• Why this device page is necessary
  Briefly explain why you’ve chosen to improve this particular page and how your efforts will help real people.

• Intended Audience
  Briefly describe who would be interested in finding repair information about your device. (Hint: If it’s a medical device that might be found in hospitals, biomedical technicians—or BMETs, as they are often called—are most likely the primary audience.)

• Links to reliable sources of information
  Include the links that you found during your preliminary research, and briefly explain why each is a trustworthy source of information about your device. Try to find a minimum of three reliable links.

• Two alternate device page stubs
  We can't always approve your first choice, so include two backup device page stubs in case your first choice has already been assigned to another student team. You don't need to include a full proposal for these other stubs. Just list the titles and links to the two alternate pages in order of preference.

• Links to each team member’s profile page
  We suggest linking to each member’s profile page in the signature portion of your proposal. (See sample proposal for example.)

Please include a header at the top of your proposal in this format:

• SEO Writing Project: Cosmed MicroQuark Repair (or whatever page stub you’ve chosen)

• Team tag: CPSU-DOE-F21S1G1

• Group email addresses: abc@university.edu, etc. (These must be the same email addresses that you and your team members used to create your iFixit accounts.)

Email your proposal in PDF format to techwriting[at]ifixit[dot]com. Include your team tag in the email's Subject field, as well as a brief message in the email body. (It's a nice professional touch—and a general courtesy—to not send a blank email with an attachment.)

Please note: It can take the iFixit technical writing team up to two business days to respond to your email, so make sure to plan accordingly.

If everything looks good, we’ll flag your chosen device page stub as student work, so that you can edit freely. This also prevents anyone outside of your team from editing your page while you are working on it.

Once you've received the go-ahead from our tech writing team, you're clear to proceed to Stage 2!

Don't forget: include your team tag in the subject line of your email, CC your teammates and instructor, and include a brief message in the email's body to provide context for your proposal.