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Writing Skills An Essential Element of Successful Grantsmanship

Writing Skills An Essential Element of Successful Grantsmanship. Peter Smith, PhD. Readers (reviewers) have only a certain amount of time and energy to devote to a written work. If they have to work too hard to find the message, it will be missed nearly every time.

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Writing Skills An Essential Element of Successful Grantsmanship

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  1. Writing SkillsAn Essential Element of Successful Grantsmanship Peter Smith, PhD

  2. Readers (reviewers) have only a certain amount of time and energy to devote to a written work. • If they have to work too hard to find the message, it will be missed nearly every time. • If they have to work to hard to get through the proposal, they will resent it.

  3. Writing with a reviewer’s perspective • This is not about you – it’s about them; write for them, not for you. • Be respectful of the reviewers time – never make them work harder than necessary. • Keep it simple – your proposal is likely to be reviewed by someone not in your field. • Use a writing style that makes it easy to understand and minimizes ambiguity.

  4. A good proposal is like a good novel • Immediately captures your interest • It tells a story • The story is told with enthusiasm and excitement • It doesn’t contain unnecessary information that detracts from the story line • Each sentence reads easily and flows smoothly into the next

  5. A good proposal is easy to read, but may be difficult to write The Law of Conservation of Effort A fixed amount of effort is required to adequately write and review a grant application. The less the author puts in, the more the reviewer has to put in. Smith’s Law of Diminishing Returns The harder I have to work at reviewing your grant, the less I like it.

  6. The Science of Scientific WritingIf the reader is to grasp what the writer means,the writer must understand what the reader needsGeorge D. Gopen and Judith A. Swan American Scientist (Nov-Dec 1990), Volume 78, 550-558 http://www.amstat.org/publications/jcgs/sci.pdf

  7. Write for the reader • Keep verb close to the subject • One sentence, one function (point) • Put important information at the end of the sentence (stress position) • Establish context and perspective (whose story is this?) at sentence beginning (topic position) • ‘Old’ information first, ‘new’ information last

  8. Proofread your proposal Errors in writing imply sloppiness: what does that say about the science? If you are not willing to make every effort to optimize your writing, why should the reviewers make an effort in critiquing it?

  9. Application organization and layout • What does your application look like? • Is material easy to find? • Are your topics easily identified? • Do I know what is important or essential?

  10. A Reviewer’sNightmare!

  11. Optimize your layout • Give your reader a break – literally. • Provide weighting to your material – can I pick out the important material just by looking? • Be consistent in your format. • Provide visual interest where possible.

  12. Application density:How much can you take? • You can ALWAYS condense! • What do you REALLY need to say? • Be sensitive to the intellectual density of the material, as well as the physical density. • How many times have you proofread your proposal? Less than 6? Not enough!

  13. Parting thoughts • It’s not just about good science. It has to be packaged and sold. • A reviewer may have a dozen grants to read – make their job as easy as you can. • Step out of your shoes and into theirs.

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