Writing Successful Science Proposals

by Andrew J. Friedland, Carol L. Folt, C.L. Folt

An authoritative how-to guide that explains every aspect of science proposal writing

This fully revised edition of the authoritative guide to science proposal writing is an essential tool for any researcher embarking on a grant or thesis application. In accessible steps, the authors detail every stage of proposal writing, from conceiving and designing a project to analyzing data, synthesizing results, estimating a budget, and addressing reviewer comments and resubmitting. This new edition is updated to address changes and developments over the past decade, including identifying opportunities and navigating the challenging proposal funding environment. The only how-to book of its kind, it includes exercises to help readers stay on track as they develop their grant proposals and is designed for those in the physical, life, environmental, biomedical, and social sciences, as well as engineering.

Genres: Research, Science, Nonfiction, Academic, Writing

288 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 2000

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and simple but seems to hit things on point.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book tries to be everything for everyone, and as a result ends up not very helpful for anyone. It tries to deal with all the various differences in proposal formats between different fields and different funding agencies, so all of its advice is tempered with "except sometimes" and "check with your own university" and "not necessarily".

Also, there's a sort of saccharine idealism throughout the book, in which the authors speak as though THE ONLY THING that decides whether a proposal is accepted is its scientific quality. Clearly this is a major factor; I'd like to think it's the biggest factor. But equally clearly, there are a lot of good studies that don't get funded and a lot of bad studies that do. One way we could actually improve this situation is by teaching people with good ideas how to make those ideas appealing to funding agencies. As Aristotle said, being persuasive does not make you right, but those who are right have an obligation to be persuasive.

For someone like me who already knows the basics of writing science proposals and is looking for really detailed advice to get past the slush pile, this book isn't helpful. It might be useful to someone who didn't even know where to start.

[Siria · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those looking for a succinct overview on the basic components of proposal writing, this is an excellent choice. Although there are plenty of sources cited throughout and at the end of the text, this is not an in-depth decomposition of the mechanics of writing proposals, manuscripts, or other scientific texts. The authors are careful to keep the reader, that is to say the would-be investigator's, focus on overarching ideas and "frameworks" for writing science as opposed to detailed insight into actually doing it. I found it most useful as an entry point rather than a definitive text, there are exercises at the end of most chapters that are great at provoking thought and to incite productivity.

Overall, a useful if not breezy introductory text for anyone interested in getting started in the grant proposal writing process.

[Xi Xi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite helpful for graduate students writing proposals for the first time.