Materials extracted from Grantspersonship: An Instruction Manual By Beth A. Fischer and Michael J. Zigmond of the The Survival Skills and Ethics Program, University of Pittsburgh.

• Your frame of mind is important.
  1. A positive view towards the task is essential because this will be revealed in the tone of your writing and the creativity of your ideas.
  2. Talk to your research project advisor and science friends.
  3. A good proposal takes time – ideas may not come quickly and writing a easily understood and interesting document requires effort.  No amount of work on writing a proposal will overcome a weak idea.
     
• Develop a strong concept of your project that FITS
  1. Fills a gap in knowledge
  2. Important to the field and to yourself
  3. Tests a hypothesis (rather than being descriptive)
  4. Short term investment of your time will lead to long term gain for the field
     
• Refine your concept
  1. Do a literature review – As a colleague at Pitt once said, “There is nothing like spending a few hours discovering something in the library when you could accomplish the same by investing three months in the laboratory.”  You need to know what others are thinking and have found.  This is most important for the work of your PI and their collaborators.
  2. Talk to colleagues
  3. Revise your proposal based on what you have learned and your additional hard thinking.
     
• Outline, write, and edit
  1. Develop a thorough outline of your proposal
     1. Specific Aims (short overview of what you aim to accomplish
     2. Background & Significance (why proposed work is important)
     3. Preliminary Date (an example of what you may have already found)
     4. Research Design & Methods (the experiments you will conduct)
        
  2. Write the entire first draft – before you start to edit.
     
     “If you try to write and edit at the same time, you will do neither well.” Charles Sides
     
  3. Get someone else knowledgeable to read your draft. – this is where I can help.
  4. Edit, edit, then edit some more: Revise and refine the text of your application so that it is easily read.  This is a learned skill that can be started now because it will help you throughout your education and career.  The first place it will help is with your GRE test.
     
• Think like a reviewer
  1.  Format the proposal so that it is easy to …
     1. find key points
     2. read and appreciate
  2. Write in paragraphs
     1. Include only one major idea per paragraph
     2. Make the first sentence in a paragraph a topic sentence
     3. Use header frequently
  3. Let your text B-r-e-a-t-h-e
     1. Indent paragraphs
     2. Skip line between paragraphs
        
• Get feedback on your complete proposal and revise.