BASIC HINTS TO KEEP IN MIND:

· Keep your text as short as possible.Long sentences will do nothing to help you so keep it brief.

· Clearly state the problem with your finances and your solution. You want to anticipate the questions that you will be asked and answer them.

· Credit other people in the field where this would fit.Do not take credit for someone else’s ideas.

· Do not leave out important information (e.g. budget justifications, vitae, etc) Doing this will make things much more complicated.

· Do not inflate the budget to get more money because they will expect this and look for it.

· Visit your own grants officeto help ensure that all required forms are prepared before the proposal is sent to the Government.

USE AN EASY TO READ FONT

This is an easy thing to day.If your work is so important that you need to use teeny fonts in order to get all the information within the page limit,then you are seen as writing with an attitude.Reviewers are annonyed when they need to use a magnifying glass to look right into you.

BE CHARMING

Don't write a grant with an attitude problem.It is an interesting fact of getting on the reviewers nerves rarely a good idea.You want the reviewers to think of you as a honest person that they can trust to do right by their moneyYOu shoul really think
of it as a job interview in that you have to show your best foot every time you speak to people.

KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BIG PICTURE

This means that you have to place your work in the larger context of your field.You need to able to look ahead and then project what you see to the grant agency.

CLEARLY EXPLAIN WHAT YOU PROPOSE

You have to remember that the reviewer is not inside your head.What you intend to do with the money has to be as clear as possible to them as it is clear as crystal to you. Have someone you trust review your proposal for clarity.The harder a reviewer has to work to understand your proposal, the more annoyed they are going to get.Annoyance is not going to work in your favor.

SPELL AND GRAMMAR CHECK IT

This rule should be obvious, but we create an incredible number of misspelled documents without even thinking about it.Remember that reviewers have a tendency to correlate bad spelling with bad investments

HAVE SOMEONE REVIEW YOUR PROPOSAL

You will miss the obvious problems in your proposal because you are too close to them.It is better to have someone that you trust to review your proposal so that you can get an objective opinion.

WRITE CLEARLY

You have to remember that reviewers tend to correlate bad prose with bad science.This means that if you write badly,you will not be taken seriously.Who would invest their money in a person who seems oblivious to reading and writing?