INTRODUCTION

For the observational astronomer, the importance of securing observing time at world-class instruments cannot be overstated. It is fair to say that scientific (and ultimately career) success or failure depends firstly and solidly on quality of data. The ability to obtain telescope time is sometimes even specified as a necessary qualification in job advertisements. Given that this begins with the observing proposal, it is surprising that so little has been written about this process. I found a grand total of two papers which were even remotely related to writing a good proposal - one directed at James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) users (Avery and MacLeod 1987) and some brief comments directed at Very Large Array users (Bridle 1985). I suspect that this topic has been left largely untouched because writing a good observing proposal requires essentially two skills: the ability to generate good ideas, and the ability to communicate those ideas to someone else. The former falls into the realm of ``creativity", which is a rather nebulous concept to most concrete-thinking, goal-oriented scientists, and the latter is usually considered to be someone else's job to teach. In this paper, I also will not attempt to instruct about creative ideas or solid writing skills. However, anyone can make their proposal more convincing by ensuring that all appropriate information is presented in a reasonably coherent fashion. It is the purpose of this paper to assist in this process, firstly by explaining how telescope time is allocated on the JCMT () and secondly, by outlining some ways in which the proposal itself can be improved ()Note: information is current as of Spring, 1994.. Although comments are directed, in the first instance, to Canadian JCMT users, many will be generally applicable to any observing proposal. Much of the information and ideas presented here were acquired while serving a term with the Canadian Time Allocation Group (C-TAG) for the JCMT. An earlier version of this paper specifically directed towards graduate students can be found in the proceedings of the Third McMaster Graduate Student Astronomy Workshop, Observing Techniques at Millimetre and Submillimetre Wavelengths. If you cannot read through this paper in its entirety, it may be worthwhile to look only at the Check List in .3.4.