Resource: Science communication tips
Another year, another NSERC DG deadline past. Phew. I’m already on to my next deadline(s) and hopefully shall see the light of day (and my family) in December. (Reading between the lines here, you may (correctly!) presume that posts will remain few and far between over the coming weeks.)
While I’ve put blogging on the backburner in the near term, because I have so much other material to write, I’m still reading (an important thing that everyone needs to do to improve their writing). Yesterday I came across this great article and I just had to share.
In The Scientist, Grant wrote “Right your Writing“, a nice exploration of how to improve your scientific writing and communication skills (and productivity). The primary focus is on writing manuscripts for journals, but most of the tips are relevant to any non-fiction prose including grant applications. The article also includes examples of how you can sharpen your writing techniques and provides suggestions for further reading (for those so inclined).
This year I realized that one of the problems with grant proposals is that the audience is very different from that for manuscripts.
Your articles are read by others immersed in the same debates.
Your grant proposals are read by a committee with a much broader mandate and set of interests.
And an article is read and judged on it’s own merits, whereas a grant proposal is compared and ranked with others in the competition.
This makes a difference to how you write the literature review portion in particular.