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The Grant Writing Guide: A Road Map for Scholars
A practical guide to effective grant writing for researchers at all stages of their academic careers
Grant funding can be a major determinant of promotion and tenure at colleges and universities, yet many scholars receive no training in the crucial skill of grant writing. The Grant Writing Guide is an essential handbook for writing research grants, providing actionable strategies for professionals in every phase of their careers, from PhD students to seasoned researchers.
This easy-to-use guide features writing samples, examples of how researchers use skills, helpful tips, and exercises. Drawing on interviews with scores of grant writers, program officers, researchers, administrators, and writers, it lays out best practices, common questions, and pitfalls to avoid. Betty Lai focuses on skills that are universal to all grant writers, not just specific skills for one type of grant or funder. She explains how to craft phenomenal pitches and align them with your values, structure timelines and drafts, communicate clearly in prose and images, solicit feedback to strengthen your proposals, and much more.
Ideal for course use, The Grant Writing Guide is an indispensable road map to writing fundable grants. This incisive book walks you through every step along the way, from generating ideas to finding the right funder, determining which grants help you create the career you want, and writing in a way that excites reviewers and funders.
Grant funding can be a major determinant of promotion and tenure at colleges and universities, yet many scholars receive no training in the crucial skill of grant writing. The Grant Writing Guide is an essential handbook for writing research grants, providing actionable strategies for professionals in every phase of their careers, from PhD students to seasoned researchers.
This easy-to-use guide features writing samples, examples of how researchers use skills, helpful tips, and exercises. Drawing on interviews with scores of grant writers, program officers, researchers, administrators, and writers, it lays out best practices, common questions, and pitfalls to avoid. Betty Lai focuses on skills that are universal to all grant writers, not just specific skills for one type of grant or funder. She explains how to craft phenomenal pitches and align them with your values, structure timelines and drafts, communicate clearly in prose and images, solicit feedback to strengthen your proposals, and much more.
Ideal for course use, The Grant Writing Guide is an indispensable road map to writing fundable grants. This incisive book walks you through every step along the way, from generating ideas to finding the right funder, determining which grants help you create the career you want, and writing in a way that excites reviewers and funders.
230 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 10, 2023
20 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 29, 2024
This book is courageous, comprehensive, and concise.
Not many supervisors scaffold the very thing graduate students need to get an academic job and get promoted - grants. They are thrown into the water. They are expected to swim. This book explains grants and guides readers through writing them. It is intellectual generosity at its finest.
This book is easy to use during grant writing. The book is in chronological order. Each chapter takes one step of the grant writing process. The instructions are small to easily execute. Important advice is repeated throughout chapters for emphasis. Grant writers can read the book and follow the instructions from beginning to end.
The language used in this book is short and easy. Sentences often do not go over 20 words, there are few compound-complex sentences. Different names of the same concepts into one. Simple language allowed the book to be read quickly, even when on the move using a smartphone.
Advice is concrete. The author provides specific templates, phrases, and questions for interviews and feedback, especially being a great help for second language students. In the introduction, the author presents a framework for grant writing skills. In the appendix, there is a handy checklist to assess my grant.
Graduate students will find that, although grants seem to be only for tenured professors, grants are more diverse than ever. Given that many graduate students attrite due to no funding, this book shares financial support for dissertation research and studies. Researchers will learn not just how grant writing works, but how grant writing can be practiced.
I suggest this book to all graduate students and researchers needing any type of funding.
I shall continue to use it as a reference for grant writing, as well as other genres of writing.
Not many supervisors scaffold the very thing graduate students need to get an academic job and get promoted - grants. They are thrown into the water. They are expected to swim. This book explains grants and guides readers through writing them. It is intellectual generosity at its finest.
This book is easy to use during grant writing. The book is in chronological order. Each chapter takes one step of the grant writing process. The instructions are small to easily execute. Important advice is repeated throughout chapters for emphasis. Grant writers can read the book and follow the instructions from beginning to end.
The language used in this book is short and easy. Sentences often do not go over 20 words, there are few compound-complex sentences. Different names of the same concepts into one. Simple language allowed the book to be read quickly, even when on the move using a smartphone.
Advice is concrete. The author provides specific templates, phrases, and questions for interviews and feedback, especially being a great help for second language students. In the introduction, the author presents a framework for grant writing skills. In the appendix, there is a handy checklist to assess my grant.
Graduate students will find that, although grants seem to be only for tenured professors, grants are more diverse than ever. Given that many graduate students attrite due to no funding, this book shares financial support for dissertation research and studies. Researchers will learn not just how grant writing works, but how grant writing can be practiced.
I suggest this book to all graduate students and researchers needing any type of funding.
I shall continue to use it as a reference for grant writing, as well as other genres of writing.
April 9, 2026
An indispensable roadmap for academics navigating the often opaque world of grant funding. Betty S. Lai breaks down complex grant writing strategies into practical steps, from conceptualizing ideas to polishing a fundable proposal. Filled with real world examples, exercises, and insider tips, this guide is equally valuable for PhD students, early career researchers, and seasoned academics looking to sharpen their funding skills.
April 30, 2023
A joy to read such an approachable book on such a daunting topic.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews