Allan McDougall's blog

One of my best friends is a professional grant writer. He started out of university working as the manager of a small theatre company, from there he moved on to event planning and grant writing for a local non-profit organization, and from there he got a job as a grant editor at the Office of Research for a university. His grant writing skills secured him this university position and, more broadly, grant writing skills are a huge asset for anyone with an interest working in academia or the non-profit sector. Put it this way: a grant is monetary aid and grant writers have the ability to solicit that aid.

Research

Before writing, a successful grant writer needs to do the right research and answer the right questions:

• Which grants should you apply for?

Where are the guidelines for the grant?

What are the guidelines for these grants?

• What types of projects will they fund?

When are applications do?

What are the application components?

• What, according to each foundation, makes a successful grant?

Are there successful examples of funded grant proposals?

Is there anyone with whom one can discuss the criteria for successful applications?

A grant will be immediately dismissed if it breaches the guidelines set out by the funding body. This is why collecting successful examples of funded grants, reading those examples, and researching why they were successful is so important for grant writers. A successful grant writer will make contacts with funding bodies, ask for advice, make contacts, and network in order to write the best grant possible. Not every grant you write will be a success, in fact, most probably won’t. But don’t be discouraged. My friend the grant writer told me that most of what he learned about grant writing was the result of rejection. He would receive a rejection letter and then follow up with the funding body. They were always happy to answer his questions; like so many things in life, we learn from our mistakes. 

Writing

I’ve posted previously on writing an effective business profile, why self-editing is difficult, and how to effectively self-edit. But I’ll expand and refine some of those points in the context of grant writing. In terms of the audience, imagine that you’re a grant reviewer and you have to read through stacks of proposals to decide who will receive this grant. As that reviewer, you don’t have time for inefficient grant proposals. So, grant writers, get to the point! Be straight-forward, effective, and—based on your research—ensure that you’ve answered the key questions set out by the grant guidelines.

Similarly, and (again) based on your research, pay attention to the verbiage used in the granting agency’s guidelines. If the guidelines ask for a mission statement, a methodology, and a budget, don’t label your subheadings “Our Vision,” “How we’ll do it,” and “Where we’ll spend this money.” Remember that grant reviewer? She doesn’t have the time to read each grant proposal in depth. Grant reviewers are ostensibly scanning these proposals and making a yes pile and a no pile—grants in the yes pile earn a more thorough reading. Using the verbiage from the grant guidelines will immediately catch a reviewers attention, showing them, most importantly, that you’ve followed their guidelines.

A well-written proposal outlines ideas in a clear, linear, simple manner. So also ensure you’ve had your grant proposal proof-read by a few people so, although they’re not familiar with the guidelines, they can point out disjointed sentences or lapses in logic or reasoning.

Ethos

Ethos is the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution. It’s your mission, your vision, and your values all rolled into one; it’s how you present yourself. You want to demonstrate a responsible, professional, and knowledgeable ethos to grant reviewers—why else would they give you money? So, aside from following the guidelines, demonstrate your research in your proposal. Show them that you’re aware of who they’ve given past grants to, who has worked on similar projects, how your project will sustain itself when grant funding runs out, and how you’ll prove the tangible and measurable benefits of your project.

Grants are monetary stipends and therefore require a budget. My friend the grant editor says that one of the biggest red flags for grant reviewers is when the budget doesn’t add up. If a grant applicant can’t even take the time to balance their budget, how can a granting agency trust them to achieve the goals set out by their proposal. Again, this is your ethos—if you present yourself as someone incapable of doing basic math, well . . . Yet, similarly, your budget needs to make sense. Sure, you can easily balance a budget; but are your projections realistic. So, for example, let’s say you’re proposing to build an computer laboratory for an underfunded local library. Your budget, although well balanced, explains that the lab will cost $500. A grant reviewer will see the fault in your logic right away, and question your research rigor (it would be the same if you proposed a $50,000 lab.)

Aside from demonstrating your attentiveness and research, your grant proposal still has to explain how you’re going to make a contribution to society. So demonstrate awareness of the major political, social, cultural, environmental, academic, or scientific issues that your grant proposal speaks to. You need to show that you’re solving an important problem, and doing so in a replicable, sustainable, effective manner. Therefore, your grant proposal should outline how you’ll disseminate your ideas, who you’ll work with, and what your strategy is for achieving these goals.

More Information

Believe it or not, there are college programs available on just grant writing; but, as my friend would say, the best way to learn is to try it. Is there a local non-profit organization that you’re interested in helping. Approach them and ask if they’re looking for a grant writer. There are also a lot of resources online, and when you’re writing your early grants, the Internet will be an invaluable resource for researching the funding organization.

Hi all,

I’m guest blogging for Changing Lives, Changing Minds.  My latest post is a book review of Maggie De Vries’ Missing Sarah. Here’s the link.

Keep checking in for a forthcoming post on Grant Writing. 

I’ve mentioned in two previous posts that I am a researcher using discourse analysis to study end-of-life interviews with palliative care patients. These posts gave a high-level introduction to the methodology I use, but I should have started with a post explaining about more about the theoretical background I work from. At the onset I’ll answer the question my post poses: discourse analysis is a method of analysing the structure of texts that takes into account both their content and their context. Let me explain what that means:

Discourse analysis is a method of analysing the structure of texts . . .

The first important fundamental of discourse analysis is that the word text is unsuitably defined. A text is more than just, as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) would have it, “the wording of anything written or printed; the structure formed by the words in their order; the very words, phrases, and sentences as written.” Although it is true that most texts are words printed on a page (i.e., books, newspapers, websites, recipes, lists), this definition excludes the idea that texts are socially produced. For example, a book is the conventional design for delivering a text, yet books are socially produced objects. Like toys or vehicles, an economy of supply and demand determines the production of texts; like songs or works of art, various genres divide, categorize, and organize texts; and, like a conversation or political speech, the reader interprets and responds to the authors’ words—in the form of a text.

Texts share the properties of a conversation: they are the interchange of thoughts and words. Although readers don’t explicitly exchange their thoughts and words with the content of a text (or, by extension, the thoughts of the author), readers are implicitly a part of the society that necessitates, demands, and generates a texts’ social production. Therefore, a discourse analysis approach takes all organized groupings of language, both written and spoken, to comprise the definition of the word text. Discourse analysis studies texts, but defines a text as “the wording of anything written, printed, or spoken; the structure formed by the words in their order; the very words, phrases, and sentences as written or spoken.”

. . . that takes into account their content and context.

A text’s context is either the “whole structure of a connected passage regarded in its bearing upon any of the parts which constitute it” or, more broadly and more appropriately for our purposes here, “the parts of a text which immediately precede or follow any particular passage or ‘text’ and determine its meaning.” Yet both of these standard definitions from the OED of context disregard the social aspects of textual production that determine meaning. What I mean is that a text’s popularity, controversialness (yes, it’s a word; I wasn’t sure at first looked it up), and generic categorization, aren’t “parts of a text,” and yet they do impact the way texts are interpreted by readers.

One example I like to use to illustrate how context influences meaning is the controversy around James Frey’s “Million Little Pieces.” Frey’s book was categorized as an autobiographical memoir, and thus hyped by Oprah’s Book Club as a harrowing journey through the trials of drug and alcohol addiction. Yet when The Smoking Gun published an article disproving several impactful claims Frey makes in the novel—specifically regarding his criminal record and a section detailing dental work without anesthetics. A media frenzy erupted surrounding these allegations of dishonest and suddenly a debate about integrity and generic classification of books was being discussed by media celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Steven Levitt.

Oprah had James Frey back on the show and told him that she felt “duped” and that he “betrayed millions of readers.” So here we have a book’s context brought into popular culture and now when readers buy Frey’s book—and millions have since this controversy—this controversy will in many cases act as a context for reading the book.

What is Discourse Analysis?

So, discourse analysis is a method of analysing the structure of texts that takes into account both their content and their context. Discourse analysis finds patterns of text features that point to relations between texts and context—they have linguistic integrity and contextual value; they can be any feature in a text or a set of texts that points to the way that meaning is embedded into that text in connection to its context. And so, in my research, I use verb tense and aspect to argue that the context of dying impacts the way texts (stories) are created (told) in end-of-life interviews by patients. I hope this clears up some questions about the theoretical background behind my research. But if you have anymore questions, please post them as a comment attached to this post.

On the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh hour, Canadians honour the soldiers that fought for and continue to fight for freedom from tyranny. The symbol that represents Remembrance Day for Canadians is the poppy; the poem we memorize as a tribute to our soldiers’ sacrifices was written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae in 1915:

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

In Britain, they recite the the Ode of Remembrance, which I’ve shared with you here to provide context for the title of today’s post. To those who have fallen and those who continue to fight: thank you.

 

The Ode of Remembrance

 

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

 

Lest we forget.