Throughout my journey as a grant writer, reviewer, and mentor to aspiring grant writers, I have had multiple opportunities to read grant proposals that received funding—and many more that did not. One question I often get from novice grant writers is: “How do I get my proposal funded?” To address this question, it is helpful to examine strategies that successful grant writers have in common. Here, I highlight seven basic strategies that I consider “musts” when it comes to preparing grant proposals.
4 Tips to help you lose the stress and enhance your writing
At the 2017 TAA conference, Robert Barlow shared “10 Tips to Enhance Your Writing & Take the Stress Out of Polishing Your Work”. Among the tips a common theme of planning and preparation provide the key to reducing the stress of the writing process.
Although the tips related to preparing for your audience and the style of your discipline are effective in framing the destination of your manuscript, and the grammatical tips are foundational, the four organization tips (organize, research, scaffold, and review) were the key takeaways for managing stress throughout the writing process.
Call for Proposals: Textbook and academic authoring conference
TAA’s 31st Annual Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference will be held at La Fonda on the Plaza, Santa Fe, NM, June 15-16, 2018. The conference is attended by authors and aspiring authors of textbooks, journal articles, and other academic works, as well as by industry professionals from across the country.
TAA invites the submission of presentations relevant to authoring and publishing textbooks and academic works (journal articles, books, and monographs).
7 steps to creating a new writing habit
es when we try to create a habit or a change in behavior, we try and create or change too much at once. Unfortunately this overreach is often not sustainable and we crash and burn in failure.
Fall is a great time to start fresh and focus on forming new behaviors. With the right steps to follow, along with determination and commitment, you can work to create a new writing habit that sticks.
How to field those horrible questions about your academic project
Whether you’re writing your dissertation or post-dissertation, sweating through the first article from it, a book chapter, or an entire book, at least one person always turns up among your family or friends who shamelessly asks those questions that make you squirm. They’re right up there with the in-your-face “How come you’re still single?” or “When are you going to have kids?”
To help you field the equivalent questions about your academic project, maintain your self-respect, and even jab a little in return, here are several of the most common questions, and variations. I’ve collected these from my academic coaching clients who are agonizing through writing their dissertations, articles, and books.
Give your faculty authors a boost: Host a TAA sponsored writing workshop at your institution
During the 2017-18 academic year, TAA will help sponsor a limited number of faculty writing workshops at universities and colleges across the country. TAA’s sponsorship covers the majority of the cost of bringing a presenter to your institution. The host institution is responsible for a fee of $1,650, which includes up to 75 TAA faculty memberships, available to faculty whether or not they attend the workshop. TAA provides an online institutional membership application process that makes joining TAA easy for both the institution and faculty.