In my third column, I listed some guidelines for grant application text development. Remember, I recommended creating and using the Grant Writing Guide (GWG) of GrantSuccess. The GWG includes information from the Request for Funding Proposal (RFP) organized by sections of the narrative.

You should be using the Key Vocabulary List to help you integrate terms and phrases from the RFP into your grant application text. Below is a quick review of my text development suggestions.

1. Name your project
2. Write project goals first
3. Don’t use personal pronouns
4. Block paragraphs
5. Write for clarity
6. Write for technical impression
7. Organize text with white space and graphics
8. Write with terms that suggest leadership
9. Write with terms and phrases from the RFP 

Novice grant writers “tell stories.” They almost never get funded. Experienced grant evaluators can tell immediately what they are about to read. The first impression is negative and it is hard to recover from in other sections of the narrative. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it is probably a duck. 

Project Turning Point (Novice Example)

Description:

I am a third grade teacher at New Frontier School in Oxford. This is our fourth year being opened in a low-income neighborhood. As you know, beginning in third grade students start taking the Ohio Achievement Tests. This is my second year as a teacher and I am trying to find different assessment tools that work to support my student’s achievement. I have found a technology assessment tool that would engage my students and enhance their learning. While furthering my professional development, I attended a Technology Conference and observed the data that proved this tool works. These turning point response card sets are interactive and aligned to the Ohio Standards. This kit gives 32 response cards, the guidelines and set up manual, and a Pro-Ohio questions bank aligned to the standards.  This system works best when you have a smart board, which I already have. The teacher makes up questions, graphs, time lines, ect. and then the students each have their own response card to answer the question on. The response is recorded on the smart board and then the teacher can immediately go over the answer with the students and see the results. This innovative assessment tool provides educators with the ability to record and assess student achievement in many different ways.

Experienced grant writers are less personal in their applications and make the goals of their project easy to understand by placing them where they can be seen and understood by grant evaluators.

Project Turning Point (Experienced Grant Writer Example)

Description:

Project Turning Point has three objectives: 1) increase 3rd grade math performance; 2) improve student math assessment using a rubric-based assessment tool; and 3) improve the alignment between instructional goals, instructional methods and assessment. Turning Point is a mathematics software tool that includes response card sets that are interactive and aligned to the Ohio Standards. This kit gives 32 response cards, the guidelines and set up manual, and a Pro-Ohio question bank. The Turning Point system will integrate with an existing classroom SmartBoard system. The teacher makes up questions, graphs and timelines. Students have individual response cards to answer questions. Student responses are recorded on the SmartBoard. The teacher can immediately review the answer with the students and show the process that produced the correct answer. This innovative assessment system will enhance teacher ability to record and assess student achievement.

The most obvious difference between these two examples is that I have made the objectives more clear and I placed them at the beginning of the description section.  I have taken out all the personal pronouns.  I have shortened the sentences. My inclination is to write any section like an abstract, summary or description from text that has already been developed in other sections of the narrative. I copy and paste the most descriptive sentences from each section of the narrative into the abstract, summary or description. It saves time and adds clarity for the evaluator. I have reduced the section by 74 words.  I have saved 4 lines of text.  I have given the evaluator an opportunity to be excited about Project Turning Point because I have made it easy for him or her to understand. The first example will not get funded. The second one has a better chance.

Next time, I will discuss how I add “Technical Feel” to a grant application.  

Dr. Douglas Brooks  is a Professor in the School of Education, Health and Society at Miami University. He teaches graduate and online courses in grant writing and consults with school districts to build grant writing capacity.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment