A friend recently held a housewarming party and sent around a list of potential gifts if people wanted to bring anything.
One of the items caught my eye.
A medium vase.
She said she had a small one already, so a medium one would be helpful.
The problem?
I had no idea what she meant by small or medium.
If her current vase is 6-inches high, then one between 8 and 12 inches might be considered medium.
But if her existing vase was 10-inches high, then we’re looking at the 12- to 16-inch territory.
And if it was originally a bud vase? All bets are off.
What it comes down to is that what’s small (or medium or large) to me may not be what she had in mind. It’s hard to determine relative measurements if something isn’t used for scale.
Believe it or not, it’s the same thing when it comes to scale in a grant proposal.
“This project will reduce false negatives in ABC medical test.”
Great!
But what is the current rate of false negatives?
By how much will the project potentially reduce the rate?
Without at least an approximation of what the scale of change will be, it is challenging for the reviewer to understand how significant the research is.
In my experience, it’s not that applicants don’t know the scale. It’s that they just don’t think to include it because it’s so obvious to them.
But writing a grant proposal is about making what is implicit to you, explicit to others.
Start by establishing the current rate, then indicate the potential scale of change. This ensures your reviewer is on the same page as you and can easily see the significance of the work.
And the good news?
Adding scale rarely takes more than a sentence or two, but it can increase a reviewer’s confidence in your proposal.
In other words, a small tweak can result in a large impact!