How to write well and get grants every time

Would you like to double your chances of getting a grant funded? Would you like to triple your odds of earning a position at a great lab? How about making sure your paper gets published?

OK, then. Can I tell you a secret? Being a good scientist isn't enough. You've got to be a good writer, too.

I run a lab at Harvard Medical School. On weekends I spend hours editing papers and grants. Most are so poorly written I want to pull my hair out.

Many students and even some professors don't know their writing doesn't have to be so formal. Many try too hard to sound smart. Their work ends up sounding like it was written by a robot.

An insecure robot.

With a thesaurus.

And a hatred for clarity.

Good writing isn't easy. It takes work. It's an art and a science. In that way, it's not so different from good research: both require a combination of creativity and an ability to learn the basic rules.

If you're a good researcher you can also become a good writer. The problem is that no one teaches you the basic rules.

"If you're a good researcher you can also become a good writer. The problem is that no one teaches you the basic rules."

Over the past 25 years I've compiled a long list of common writing mistakes made by students and postdocs I've mentored. Here are some of tips I offer them:

Writing Habits for Researchers (Part I)

1. Read what you've written OUT LOUD. If it sounds strange, delete it and try again. Well-written work should sound like the spoken word.
2. Let other people read it. Great grants and papers go through 20 or more revisions. My students often want to kill me by the end of the process. But no written work is great the first time you write it. Or the third. One grant application took me a year of revisions before I submitted it. If you visit our lab you'll see our papers are framed on the hallway walls because we are so proud of every study and every word we publish.
3. Don't write "like a scientist." Complex words and sentences don't make you seem smart. Most grants are reviewed by people from outside of your specific field anyway. If they can't easily understand your proposal, they're not going to read it over and over—they're just going to move on to the next application.
4. When using field-specific jargon, define it clearly. I italicize key parts so the reader doesn't miss it while skimming the work.
5. Write as though you are speaking to your grandparents, or to your own 12-year-old child—these are smart people who are interested in what you do, but they don't do what you do.
6. Write as though your reader is skim-reading, BECAUSE YOUR READER IS PROBABLY SKIM-READING. Long, complicated and opaque sentences just frustrate readers, especially if those readers just happen to be people who have just been through a bunch of other documents with long, complicated and opaque sentences.
7. Never use the words “proving” or “prove.” We're scientists, not criminal prosecutors. Nothing is ever “proven” by science. Use “indicate” or “suggest.”
8. When reporting results, use the past tense.
9. Are you writing a letter of recommendation for someone? "Smart" can be assumed. So can "hard-working" and "skilled." Be specific and give specific examples of excellence.
10. Consider these two sentences:

• The most important part of a sentence comes at the end, in general.
• In general, the most important part of a sentence comes at the end.

The first sentence emphasizes the words "in general," inferring that while this might be a good rule of thumb, there are exceptions. The second sentence emphasizes the words "at the end," meaning that while there might be exceptions, this is a good rule to follow. The words you want to stress should go at the end of your sentence.

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If there is a decent response to this post, I will post more. In the meantime, I suggest reading The Lively Art of Writing by Lucile Vaughan. This book changed my life.

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Did you like this post? Head over to Twitter and let me know—I'm @davidasinclair. While you're there, follow my friend and collaborator, Matthew D. LaPlante—he's @mdlaplante, and I've learned a lot about writing from him. We are co-authoring a book, set to be published by Simon & Schuster in 2019, about the science of longevity and its coming impact on our lives, the economy, and the planet. What is the book going to be called? We're not sure yet. Want to suggest a title? Here's what to do!