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Helpful Writing Tips
Shopping Conundrum
A girl has exactly enough money to buy three sweaters and two skirts, or three skirts and no sweaters. All sweaters are the same price, and all skirts are the same price. What is the maximum number of sweaters she can buy if she only buys one skirt? Look at page 12 for the solution to this shopping conundrum!
Writing with Style: 12 Basic Rules, adaptive from The Only Grant-Writing Book You'll Ever Need
Rule 1: Before you write a word, create an outline that exactly follows the funder’s guidelines, questions, or selection criteria for the proposal.
Rule 2: Write as you speak (or as you should speak). Not as a Shakespearean actor or as your awesome 14-year-old nephew.
Rule 3: Double (and triple) think your choice of words. Never accidently or on purpose fall back on slang.
Rule 4: Don’t exaggerate.
Rule 5: Buy a grammar book and use it when in doubt.
Rule 6: …and a dictionary and thesaurus while you’re at it!
Rule 7: Stick to the active voice. It is not only a straight forward way to write, it is the only way to keep from getting tripped up – or tripping up your reader – in a grant proposal.
Rule 8: Keep your value judgements, controversial ideas, political points of view, and sense of humor out!
Rule 9: Limit the (yawn) adjectives. Readers stop believing them very quickly when you keep tossing more into the sentence.
Rule: 10: A grant proposal is neither a personal essay nor an autobiography. Save “I”, “We,” and “Our” for your memoirs.
Rule 11: Unless you are trying to confuse the grantmaker, abbreviations and acronyms have no place in a proposal.
Rule 12: Very few things you write are common knowledge, even if they seem obvious to you. Grantmakers want to see backup information, proof that what you say is true.
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