The 4 Rs And Sciences in Grant Writing

For a long time, I did not consider myself a “writer.” Sure I write for a living, but not quite in the way that writers do; I am a grant writer.

As a grant writer, writing is not all that I do though it is the most important skill to possess in my profession. The grant writer must know far more than just how to write.

Before I get into those many skills that a grant writer should know, I will describe how I chose to pursue this professional field.

How I Became A Grant Writer

I was an English major. I graduated with my English degree in Literature when I was 21 years young. I chose the literature track because I didn’t think I could make it as a professional creative writer. My lack of life experience and writing confidence often led me to struggle with writer’s block. But I loved to write, even more than I loved to read.

As a child, I fell in love with reading to study the art of writing. I would fantasize about becoming a published author of books that moved readers in the same way that books moved me as a child.

As a college student, I was told that you can’t do anything with an English degree other than teach, and even teaching you can’t do with just an English degree. So I underwent the Language Arts Teacher Certification program because I needed direction — a backup plan!

My student teaching experience would prove to me that teaching was NOT my calling. But, I felt energized while silently piecing words together using my typewriter — my Brother electric word processor typewriter and previewing each written word on the typewriter’s 2" x 1" dos screen reminiscent of my beeper screen. It was the dawning of the information age and I didn’t use the Internet or email for the first time until my last semester in college.

But what would I do with my English degree if I didn’t want to teach?

How I First Learned About Grant Writing

The concept of grant writing was first introduced to me by my cousin Tom Piz, Ed.D while attending my great-grandmother’s funeral during my junior year in college. At the time, Tommy (as we called him) was making his living as a full-time grant writer. Upon learning of his profession, I thought, ‘Now that is something I can do!’ I felt an immediate sense of relief over my future possibilities as a declared English Major. (To my late cousin, now a guiding angel in heaven, I owe my career).

But what did I know about grants?

Fortunately, my teacher certification coursework would help me attain my first job managing grants. My first gig managing a federally funded educational technology grant was a blessing as it brought me experiential learning on every skill I would ever need to acquire to become a grant writer.

The Skill Set Of The Grant Writer

So what are the skills one should possess in order to become a successful grant writer? One needs to know and apply what I describe as the four Rs and sciences of the grant writing process.

1. Read

One must know how to read and carefully follow the instructions that one reads. The development of every grant application begins with a guidance document also referred to as the solicitation, notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), notice of funding availability (NOFA) or similar. This document should provide written instructions on how one should prepare their application. It is similar to a school book report assignment, a task in which English majors are adept.

How you assemble the narrative will resemble that of an essay exam. You must provide a thorough narrative response to every question asked. Points are often assigned to these questions in accordance with the solicitation's evaluation criteria or rubric. One must provide a thorough narrative response to every question to ensure the likelihood that the proposal will receive as high a score as possible. A high score likely results in a proposal receiving funding consideration. Funding consideration can lead to a successful grant award. That’s when the magic begins.

2. wRite

This one is obvious. Of course, a grant writer needs to know how to write well; but even more important to know is how to edit other people’s writings. Specifically, you need to know how to succinctly paraphrase and remove all the fluff and unnecessary words likely to confuse the reviewers. The reviewers scoring your proposal may comprise people with varying backgrounds and reading aptitudes. How they score your proposal will determine whether your proposal is funded.

If you, as the grant writer, are working with others, including subject experts, to develop your proposal, this editing ability is essential. The final written product must be succinct and clearly understood by readers of all abilities. Use simple terms that people know, when possible. Use the same language in the solicitation to make it easier for the reviewer to score your proposal. Similar to news writing, a grant writer should deploy the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How writing approach. When writing against page limit constraints, which is typical, deploying this strategy is critical.

3. Research

Unless you are the subject expert for the project that you are proposing, you likely won’t know all the background information required to respond to the questions. Hence, the search engine will become your best companion throughout the narrative development process. If you are preparing a federal grant application proposal, you must write about how the project or applicant will abide by said required legislative laws, policies, and procedures.

Cite your sources too, whenever applicable. Unlike college essays, it may not be necessary to abide by any particular citation guide unless specifically requested in the guidance document. Choose the style you know well, e.g., MLA, APA, The Bluebook, or use your variation, but use it consistently throughout your proposal.

A basic understanding of evaluation research will also make the job of a grant writer much easier. On grant proposals requiring an evaluation component, you may be required to partner with an independent evaluator sometimes called the research partner or the program evaluator. In those instances, the evaluator will be responsible for that aspect of the writing process.

Yet, for nearly all proposals, you must draft project goals, objectives, outcomes, inputs, and outputs and creatively piece them together in the often required Logic Model. The challenge is to ensure that the project narrative logically supports all these elements. This may sound confusing at first but a good writer will know how to craft these logically and thoughtfully. Like everything else in life, with practice and experience, this aspect of the grant writing process will get easier.

You will also need to know where to search for grant opportunities but that is a topic separate from the writing process; perhaps even a topic for another post.

4. aRithmetic

Every grant application needs to include a line item budget that details the request and if required, the proposer’s matching contribution. As the grant writer, you may not necessarily be the person who develops the budgets. However, once you receive that budget, you will not only need to include it in your final application, but you must also write about the budget.

Every line item in your budget should be justified through a written narrative. This is referred to as the budget narrative or budget justification. In this process of justifying the numbers, you also become the auditor. Every justification narrative requires a breakdown of how the proposer arrived at the line-item cost accompanying a written explanation to support how these funds will be used if awarded. The funding agency wants to know how you plan to use their money.

Simply put, you must know how to perform simple math (or know how to use Excel). You need to audit the numbers you receive so that when you enter them into the required budget forms, they all perfectly add up. You must prove to the funding agency your planned efficient use of their money.

Science & Technology

The days of paper-based snail mail submissions are over and done. Today’s grant writer needs to be technologically literate. For younger writers who have been using smartphones and computer applications since before they were old enough to talk and walk, this aspect should be a walk in the park.

Today’s grant applications are nearly all submitted electronically on a plethora of online application platforms. Adobe Acrobat Pro will become your best friend in the submission process as it will make assembling the documents into one file and numbering the pages in accordance with the application formatting requirements much easier before uploading for submission.

Some of my greatest victories in the timely submission of grant applications have been directly attributed to my tech-savviness and my ability to troubleshoot technology. From text formatting issues, browser glitches, and mastering online systems, my technology skills — those I learned after college — would be my greatest asset in my job as a grant writer, next to the writing naturally.

Depending on the nature of the grant proposal, you may be required to work with scientists, engineers, environmentalists, medical professionals, community planners, etc. to develop a proposal.

In a world with rising sea levels and natural disaster threats, the need to build more resilient communities across the globe may require the grant writer to write about scientific topics. In this respect, writers with relevant scientific backgrounds are commodities that hold even greater value in the grant consulting realm.

Nonetheless, the grant writer has to be versatile and may sometimes need to think like a scientist or computer scientist.

Assignment Variety — It Never Gets Old

What I love about my job is that the lifelong lover of learning in me always learns something new with every new assignment I take on. It never gets monotonous. Every new assignment is like a new adventure. Sometimes I even take field trips to immerse myself in the subject matter of my assignment.

Even the race to the finish line before the looming deadline can bring on quite the rush after you’ve hit the submit button. The overwhelming sense of accomplishment one experiences after successfully submitting the proposal is always satisfying; rivaled only by a sense of pride felt from learning your proposal has been awarded.

The knowledge base I have developed over my lengthy career as a grant writer is priceless. For a writer, such an ever-growing knowledge base can be an empowering source of inspiration.

If you are a multifaceted writer with the ability to master these 4 R’s and Sciences in Grant Writing, I strongly encourage you to consider pursuing a career as a grant writer. Our world needs more grant writers capable of accessing the available monies needed to help make the world a better place to live. Your community will thank you, and so will your conscience.