Many scientists approach all writing tasks the same way. But as Adam Przeworski and Frank Salomon note in On the Art of Writing Proposals, writing for research funding “is an art quite different from research work itself.”
Each type of scientific writing (journal articles, literature reviews, grant proposals) has a different goal, and a different reader. Understanding how to clearly communicate the necessary information to a specific reader is the key to successful writing.
Who is the reader?
Your goal is to convince the reader that your research project is well planned and feasible and that you are qualified to conduct it. Przeworski and Salomon state that grant reviewers have three questions in mind:
- What are we going to learn as a result of the proposed project that we do not know now?
- Why is it worth knowing?
- How will we know that the conclusions are valid?
Your goal is to answer these questions in a way that will be clear to your reader. But who is the reader?
You can expect most grant readers to share a few general attributes:
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The reader probably has at least some general knowledge of the discipline to which the grant relates.
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The reader does not want to work to understand your proposal. They will have many other proposals to get through, and if yours is poorly organized or written, they will simply move on to the next one.
Beyond that, the specific requirements for the proposal package are your best clues as to what the reader wants and expects. Study these requirements and do your best to meet them.
What is reader analysis?
As we explain in one of our blogs, Tips to Make your Technical and Scientific Writing More Effective, you should always schedule time to create a solid analysis of the reader. A reader rubric, or checklist, can be a helpful tool. Items to put on the list include
- What knowledge does the reader already have?
- What will need to be explained to them?
- What information do they want, and why?
- What form of content do they expect?
- How will the information be used?
- What are their biases or beliefs?
The more you know about grant writing reader analysis, the more precisely you can communicate your research plans, and the more likely you will win funding.
Yes, you can learn to do this! Call us or email for more information about our training services.
