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Abstract
The facts bear out that the odds are against most scientific researchers and scholars—especially those just starting out—in their attempts to win funding for their research projects through their grant proposals. In this article, the author takes a close look at some of the proposal-related problems and pitfalls that have historically challenged scholarly grant seekers. The intellectual prowess and specialized training of academics can sometimes be their downfall, when it comes to persuading government agencies and foundations to fund their well conceived, but unconvincingly presented projects. In examining numerous studies, surveys, and insightful articles of experts in the genre of the research grant proposal, it becomes evident that technical communicators could quickly become the best friends of scholars, when the former harness the rhetorical and stylistic skills that are almost instinctive to them, and apply them to writing grant proposals, a task which is all too often a disappointing exercise for the latter.
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Other Articles on Communication by This Author
| Lemanski, Steven W. , Where Technical Editing and Journalism Intersect: Stepping into Unknown Subject Matter, Intercom, 59: 8, 2012. Google Scholar | |
| Lemanski, Steven W. , Review of the book “Marconi's Wireless and the Rhetoric of a New Technical,” by Aaron A. Toscano, Technical Communication, 60: 2, 2013. Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Lemanski, Steven W. , Two Decades Since Reich: Emerging Symbolic-Analytic Roles for Technical Communicators, Intercom, 60: 4, 2013. Google Scholar |
