Grant writing is one of the most professional and formulated types of writing. It separates itself from other forms of writing because it deters from the rhetorical characteristics of essay writing. It becomes more concise, clean, and specific. In it, there is less persuasion or argumentation for an audience to interpret. You explain your material, illustrate why it applies to the receiver, and request for action. Most granters will provide you with all the necessary bullet points they’d like you to touch on and some may even outline their applications as an exam with boxes to fill in your answer. At first, it seems like a simple task. However, you have to delicately deliver your message in fewer words that you typically need to use. This is because they allow you fewer words/characters to work with. Granters will introduce character caps at 5000 or 300 words. This stiffens the explanation process and forces you to formulate sentences in fewer words with more meaning.

By the use of the paramedic method, I learned to tighten sentences and convey more power and action into text. The paramedic method gets straight to the point and rarely dances. I use this method now in every form of writing. Specifically, with this grant writing assignment, it allowed our group to deliver the message strongly. By the use of hard verbs in lieu of prepositions and adjectives, this method enabled us to keep that clear and concise formula that grants call for.

With grant writing, implementing a professional and genuine form of genre drives your grant the furthest. It is my understanding that this is no longer reading the room (besides looking at their guidelines) or targeting an audience. This is work in the real world. Your reader is someone who is there to look through a stack of these forms and see whose foundations fit their requirements the best ways. In order to be accepted, it would be in your best interest to just put the facts on the paper. It appears to me to be less decorating and more slimming. Instead of prettying up a prompt and spinning it a certain way, you are cutting down the information to the bare bones.

This is not to say that the writing should be boring or dull. As I said before, using the paramedic method tears down all the fillers and replaces wordy sentences with short and powerful ones. Thus, grants should be full of rich sentences and loads of information with the least amount of characters.

Grant