TEA BREAK

ACEING ACADEMIA #9: Avoid Irrelevant Content

One of the very first phone calls I received when I was a new portfolio manager at EPSRC was from a distraught researcher who hadn’t been funded at a recent panel. He was unhappy with the reviewer comments because they had questions about a topic that his project wasn’t about, and he didn’t understand why they mentioned it.

Because I was new and I hadn’t processed the grant, I really didn’t know what to say. So I said nothing. Instead, I ended up listening to him for several minutes as I made encouraging noises. I could hear him leafing through his proposal while complaining about the reviews, but suddenly he stopped and said “Oh”.

Because he had mentioned that topic in what he then described to me as a throwaway paragraph, and no, it didn’t really have much to do with the project at hand. He just thought it would be interesting to include. However, it was enough to distract the reviewers because he wasn’t clear in connecting it to the aim of his research.

Although this was the first time I dealt with a situation like this, it would not be the last. Which brings me to ACEing Academia #9: avoid irrelevant content.

Of course, this is often easier said than done. No one intentionally includes irrelevant content. Like in the example above, he thought it would be interesting, not confusing. However, knowing what to leave out is just as important as knowing what to include, so to avoid this problem, give these tips a try:

1️⃣ QUESTION EVERYTHING: Ask “so what?” Every word, sentence, and paragraph in a grant proposal needs to be justified. Once you’ve written the first draft, question why you’ve included what you have. Does it all link to the main message you want to get across in the proposal? Does the reviewer need to understand the concept to grasp your project … or is it a nice-to-have?

2️⃣ NOTHING CAN BE “THROWAWAY”: This tip is straightforward: don’t pad out a proposal with throwaway sentences or paragraphs. Sometimes applicants feel they need to hit the word or page limit, but this can introduce irrelevant information and distract the reviewers.  

3️⃣ WATCH OUT FOR FEAR: If you find yourself wanting to include something because you’re afraid not to, it’s a good sign that you need to need to step away from the proposal for a moment and really consider whether it’s relevant.

In many ways, I could stop the ACEing Academia series right here with a question that will help applicants avoid many common errors: “How does what I’ve written help the reviewer understand my research?”

I will be sharing more tips over the coming weeks … but that question is always a good one to come back to.

See the other posts in the ACEing Academia series:

♠  Content
♦  Clarity
♣  Structure
♥  Style