Grantwriting Tip #1

Don't be afraid.

You'll never get beyond your introduction if you don't believe that you have something important to ask for ($ for your great program!).



Approach the grant like a high school persuasive paper - stop panicking, it won't be that scary - think about your thesis, your central argument. In the industry it's called your elevator pitch.

Elevator Pitch. n. Your idea/project boiled down to a nice, neat little 30 second speech that you can rattle off at will.

Keep this in mind when you begin writing. And ask yourself frequently: does this reference my elevator pitch? Am I still talking about the program, or have I veered off into another dimension?

Write a draft all the way through without thinking. Push the fear aside. You can berate yourself later when it's time for the edit. But for right now, allow yourself to just get it all out.

More tips to come...

How to work with a grantwriter

Are you unsure of just what it means to hire a grantwriter?

If so, this is a great article on how to work with a grantwriter, understand the process, and get the best bang for your buck!


After reading, come on over to wordmercenary.com for a free quote!

More Resume Tips

Here's a good article with resume tips clipped from the Tribune. I agree with most of the points in here, especially the following:

1. Spellcheck!
2. Be Brief
3. Include your successes (dollars raised, money saved, etc.)
4. Include technical skills
   

Thanks for the tip, dad!

Again with the Spelling Bee

You've got to love the opening to this piece in the Times of India about the National Spelling Bee.

An "air on inevitability." Gorgeous.

True, the winner, Kavya Shivshankar, was poised beyond belief each time she reached for the microphone. And the tiny smile that appeared on her face as her new word was uttered aloud did seem to foreshadow her win.

Of course, it didn't hurt that her father was in the background with a knowing look, as if to say they had studied that word 100 times before...

Apparently, Indian-American parents have been practicing for this for some time now:

"Why Indian-American kids have begun to dominate Spelling Bee (and its companion event the Geographic Bee) isn’t a mystery anymore. Parental and peer pressure and inspiration have resulted in almost every Indian household pushing their kids into nationwide competitions in every sphere of school life, not just spelling competitions. The results show up in many school-level academic competitions."

A win for "precocious middle-schoolers" everywhere...

Language, not just for adults

My wife and I desperately scribbled down ridiculous spellings of each word that was uttered at the 2009 National Spelling Bee competition.



I may have come close once or twice to getting the right spelling (off by just one letter!) of some simple words like "menhir" and "antonomasia," but words like "hydrargyrum" and "sophrosyne" remained just out of our reach ;)

Sagittarius

It has its roots in the latin, "sagitta," meaning "archer."

"Fffffffffflllllllllllllick" might be the sound of an arrow piercing through the air at top speed...or the sound of your Sagittarian writer (yes, December 3) cutting through difficult prose like a triangular-shaped bullet...(is this mixing metaphors?)

Give us a looksee.

Resume Tips

A few tips to help you along in your next job search:

(1) Keep your bullets in the "present" tense wherever possible
(2) Include accomplishments in bold as a final bullet in a work category you are particularly proud of (i.e. "Raised $1,000,000" or "Responsible for 100 employees"
(3) Leave your educational background at the end of the resume and keep it short and sweet.
(4) Any skills you have in technology can bump you up in the long stack of resumes. Include MS Word, Excel, database software, web design tools, etc.
(5) If an employer asks for references, CALL THEM FIRST. The last thing you want is for one of your references to be caught off guard (or worse, have a poor opinion of you).