Real-Life Communication
Grant writing by nature demands polished written communication skills.
First and foremost, a grant writer has to be a good writer.
"Obviously,
writing is the main thing," says Colleen Miron. "A lot of being a successful
grant writer is really just being a strong writer. Your writing has to be
interesting, but also very concise. There's page limits to keep in mind,
so it's more like technical writing than creative writing."
Miron
adds that spoken and interpersonal skills are also crucial to the job.
"Oral
communication is also important because usually you're collaborating
with other people, so you have to be able to listen to their ideas and talk
about things, then translate that into writing. So there's a crossover
there."
As they write detailed proposals, teaching and presenting also
come into play in a grant writer's day. Peter Trotscha says being able
to communicate with graphics is as important as using words.
"You have
to be able to communicate not only literally and orally, but graphically as
well," says Trotscha. "Graphic information is very important when you're
communicating your research to clients."
You are a grant writer for
a small publishing house trying to get on its feet in the industry. It's
your responsibility to seek out private and public sources of funds for the
company, and to explain grant criteria to the board.
You're writing
a proposal for board members at your company regarding a prospective government
grant you want the company to apply for. You need to state how the company
easily meets the grant's criteria.
Write answers to these three
frequently asked questions for the board to see in your proposal's introduction:
- How much does the grant offer?
- What are applicant companies judged on?
- Do we meet the criteria for the grant?
Base your answers on the following points of grant eligibility:
- Grant amounts are based upon the previous two years' production and
stated future intentions.
- Grants are for publishers who have already produced four to 15 eligible
titles.
- Funding is granted on an annual basis in amounts of $5,000, $10,000, $15,000,
$20,000 or $25,000 as recommended by the assessment committee.
- Assessed will be the quality of the publishing program, such as the selection
of authors, editorial choices and excellence of the writing and the quality
of the editing.
- Also assessed will be the quality of the presentation, such as the page
and cover design, printing quality and the quality of marketing and distribution.
- The recommended amount of the grant is based on an assessment of the merit
of a house's production, its professionalism and the recent and projected
title output.