I wrote an article this morning on the Top 5 Mistakes of Novice Grant Writers. Click on the link to go to my Hub page for that article.
The article summarizes the mistakes most often made by novices, even those who are good writers. If you avoid those errors, you’ll be sure to improve your grant writing success.
At the end of the article, leave a comment. Let me know what you think!
Tomorrow is a big grant deadline for us. This competition requires an online submittal through http://www.grants.gov/, so we’re trying to get one of these grants finished and uploaded tonight so we won’t have too much to do tomorrow.
Whenever I am at this stage in the grant writing process (final proofreading, editing, assembly, etc.) I am amazed at how important the details are. Not only are the details in the narrative extremely important (making sure all the numbers are correct, matching the project activities to the budget, etc.), but it’s also important to watch for details involved in assembling the appendices and following the assembly checklist.
The problem is that when you get to this final stage in the grant preparation process, you think you are finished, but the reality is that you are far from finished. This is when the greatest mistakes are made because you have let down your guard and you think the hard work is done. It is at this stage that I force myself to act against my instincts. I want to rush through and slap it together now, but I force myself to slow down – take it step by step – focus on one small task at a time. I check my documents thoroughly. I check them again. I ask someone else to check them. And then just when I am ready to submit the proposal, I stop and check them again.
Obsessive? Maybe. Successful? Absolutely!
Tomorrow is a big grant deadline for us. This competition requires an online submittal through http://www.grants.gov/, so we’re trying to get one of these grants finished and uploaded tonight so we won’t have too much to do tomorrow.
Whenever I am at this stage in the grant writing process (final proofreading, editing, assembly, etc.) I am amazed at how important the details are. Not only are the details in the narrative extremely important (making sure all the numbers are correct, matching the project activities to the budget, etc.), but it’s also important to watch for details involved in assembling the appendices and following the assembly checklist.
The problem is that when you get to this final stage in the grant preparation process, you think you are finished, but the reality is that you are far from finished. This is when the greatest mistakes are made because you have let down your guard and you think the hard work is done. It is at this stage that I force myself to act against my instincts. I want to rush through and slap it together now, but I force myself to slow down – take it step by step – focus on one small task at a time. I check my documents thoroughly. I check them again. I ask someone else to check them. And then just when I am ready to submit the proposal, I stop and check them again.
Obsessive? Maybe. Successful? Absolutely!