8 Grant Writing Tips & Tricks From the Pros

 

8 Grant Writing Tips & Tricks From the Pros

• 1.  Commit to a writing group.

(make sure is a good-fit for you and for them, trustworthy, committed)

• 2.  Review & edit as many grants as you can

(get involved- you’ll learn the process, strategies, & main industry pros)

• 3.  Know the RFP and follow it exactly.
  

(you want happy reviewers.  Happy reviewers = better chances)

• 4.  Focus on the Narrative – “Make it excellent”.

(hook the reviewer’s attention and show significance of your work)

• 5.  Contact the program officer and confirm any questions.

(avoid annoying them, but seek guidance and clarify ambiguities)

• 6.  Budget Narrative is critical.

(it’s all about the money, so tell a story, describe how you determined that budget, & the significance for the budget)   “Sell your plan”

• 7.  Determine author order & author roles very early.

(avoid future conflict and set clear expectations and author roles)

• 8.  Agree to structured timelines & benchmarks.

(commit to your group’s timeline and finish early before application is due)

For the full POP club PowerPoint presented during the February meeting, email POP President, Tara Madden-Dent at taramadden1@gmail.com.

Next Publish or Perish Meeting:

• Date:  March 28^th, 2013    Room:  William Raggio Building, room: TBA   Time: 7 pm
• Theme:      Conference Presentations & Papers + a Writing Workshop
  
• Any interested attendees in the writing workshop are encouraged to email Tara (taramadden1@gmail.com) and share their writing, poster, or presentation interests.
  • Tara will introduce like-minded POP members before the workshop (via email)  who have similar goals and might want to discuss possible coauthor or co-presenter opportunities.

POP’s January Guest Speaker: Matt Becker

Publish or Perish’s guest speaker, Matt Becker, Senior Acquisitions Editor of University of Nevada Press, taught POP members about academic publishing on January 28th.  Transforming dissertations into books is a skillful art that requires much preparation and organization.  The following short series of bullet-points describe the main discussion topics from January’s meeting:

3 Tips: Turning Your Dissertation into a Book:

• 1. Know your audience
• 2. Design the dissertation to easily organize later (or simultaneously) into a book
• 3. Get to the point- share the main concepts faster in a book version.

Difference Between a Dissertation and a Book (to prepare for differences before you finish writing the dissertation):

• Dissertation: Extensive and defensive (must defend theory, significance, methods, results).  Shares more about other research and researchers.
• Book: Shorter/limited literature review, theoretical details, narrative notes, and footnotes. Different audience. Can be written in more entertaining styles. Less quotes and citation.

3 Key Writing Tips: 

1. Commit to a writing group that:

• Is a personal good-fit for you
• A group of people you enjoy
• A group of writers that you trust

2. Get involved to keep your publishing options open:

• Try as many research/writing activities, job responsibilities, club, and projects that you can appropriately manage.
• Meet like-minded researchers/writers
• Keep reading, editing, and writing on a regular basis

3. Find an example book that inspires you and/or helps to structure your goals.

Steps to Publish a Book:

• Find the right publishing press for your industry
• Check proposal guidelines on the publisher’s website
• Explain the significance of your topic in your introduction
• Share what similar research is out in circulation
• Avoid illustrations or too many special graphs
• Provide a sample chapter

(Tip: Consider bringing your sample chapter to conferences)

Recommended Book to Read:

• From Dissertation to Book  written by William Germano

Contact Matt Becker:

Check out Dr. Barone’s Helpful Interview Responses to POP’s October Interview

The Publish or Perish Club at the University of Nevada:

Increasing student and faculty publication rates through a culture of collaborative research/writing by means of workshops, peer collaboration, faculty advising, guest speakers, and co-authored publications.

The following five videos are individual questions that POP asked Dr. Barone about writing, research, and publication.  Enjoy.

1. Top 3

 

2. Acceptance

3. Do’s and Dont’s

 

4. Competitiveness

5. Politics

Direct any questions to POP President, Tara Madden-Dent at tmadden@unr.edu