Some applications have so many different parts, each with its own guidelines, that the process can feel overwhelming. But remember: you only have to work on one piece at a time! Research statements and personal statements are required components in most grant applications, and picking one of those can be a good place to start. […]
Proposal Writing Advice
Proposal Writing Advice
Procrastinating on your Proposal? Try One of These Tips To Get Started (Post 1)
We all procrastinate from time to time. The high standards and minimal structure of many graduate programs can make procrastination especially likely for even the most capable students, and when we slip into feelings of guilt or shame, it can become even harder to kick-start our motivation. Yet deadlines loom, and in the case of […]
Show, Don’t Tell
“Show, don’t tell” is a pretty common saying here at GradFund. But what exactly do we mean by this, and how can it help you write a competitive application? Typically, grant applications consist of more than a research design. Funders want to know who they’re funding, not just what they’re funding. Describing the type of scholar […]
Good Writing Happens in Good Company: Three Benefits of Peer Feedback
Image credit: Photo by Alexis Brown on Unsplash Ever hear of “Lonely Writer Syndrome?” It’s the clinical-sounding term that Writer’s Digest uses to describe the isolation that writers can feel as they toil away by themselves in front of their laptops. But writing does not necessarily have to be a solitary activity. As students who participate in multi-author research can attest, writing can be a highly interactive process, with team members trading drafts back and forth. For those of us […]
Incorporating Parenting Experiences into Your Personal Statement
This is the third post in a series on navigating the world of external funding as a parent in graduate school. Can an experience as normal as parenting be incorporated into your personal statement? The answer is: it depends. On one hand, it might seem that there is nothing interesting about being a parent; it’s […]
Balancing Grad School, Parenting, and Grant Applications
This is the second post in a series on navigating the world of external funding as a parent in graduate school. Being a parent in graduate school brings with it a whole host of time-management challenges. Balancing coursework, research, teaching, and parenting can be overwhelming. And throwing grant applications into the mix might seem impossible. […]
Parents: Here’s Why You Should Make Time to Apply for External Funding
This is the first post of a series on navigating the world of external funding as a parent in graduate school. Students with children undoubtedly face a unique set of challenges and time constraints in graduate school. As graduate students, we’re taking courses; studying for exams; grading exams; teaching classes; conducting, presenting, and publishing our […]
Bringing Your Previous Research Experience into Your Current Application
Many of us have had several research experiences prior to graduate school. These experiences may have been within or outside of the discipline in which we have chosen to pursue our dissertation research. For some lucky few, all of these research experiences connect to one another and center around a clear research focus and trajectory. […]
Unpacking Jargon—Part Two
Part One of this post described reasons to limit jargon in your proposal, and two strategies to help you minimize your use of jargon. Part Two offers more specific advice for addressing jargon in your writing. Define for yourself each term you or your readers have identified as jargon. You may discover that some of […]
Unpacking Jargon—Part One
Jargon serves important functions in any field of activity. It lends accuracy and efficiency to communication within a subfield, and terms that begin as jargon may eventually enter into common use: consider the current popularization of specialized terms like “intersectionality,” “epigenetic,” or “VPN.” But in grant writing, jargon can be risky. The need for precision […]