Manage grant writing processes

1. Find MOMO
(Momentum) &
Manage Grant
Writing
Project
Joe Moxley, Professor of
English
University of South Florida
http://joemoxley.org

2. Topics
• Develop a File Management Strategy
• Manage Revision and Editing
• Use Writing Tools
• Document Sharing (Word, SharePoint)
• Use Bibliography Tools
• Develop a Research Blog
• Create a Writing Community

3. How Much Time Do You Need?
• 3 months to write a proposal
• NIH = 25 ss pages; NSF
15 pages; NEH
• Allow 6 months to receive a
decision
• Allow 3 months to receive
award (although your
university may front you the
money).
• Allow for rejection/revision
and submission to multiple
funding agencies.

4. Establish Priorities and Act Accordingly
Structuring your time without being tense helps writers
find additional time to work and play. If you work with a
sense of structured routine, with a present-orientation
… with effective organization, and with persistence, you
will be more likely to display higher self-esteem, better
health, more optimism, and more efficient work habits.
Without learning the language of time, you risk
depression, psychological distress, anxiety,
neuroticism, and physical symptoms of illness.
(Robert Boice)

5. Write Daily > Benefits of Daily Writing
Bob Boice, 1989 Manuscript pages written
or revised per year
Controls
Experimentals I
(30 min/day)

6. Date Hours
Worked
Number f
Words
Written
Class of
Writing
Writing/
Research
Activities
Feelings
about
Day's
Writing
Goals/ Accomplishments People to Contact
Research to Conduct Revising Goals
9/1/00 1 300 3 Writing Good Project goals part 1
9/2/00 1 339 9/3/00 Write 3 371 Daily 3 Writing Good Project 3 > Log Writing Your Good Writing Work
goals part 2
goals
9/4/00 3 317 3 Writing Good Using Outline/Tracking feature
9/5/00 1.5 366 2 Writing Good Review of PM Networks article
9/7/00 2 224 3 Revision Good Incorporate cmts to goals
9/8/00 3 224 3 Revision Good Finalize goal
9/9/00 2 319 3 Writing Good Analyze my project
9/10/00 1.9 358 3 Writing Good Discussing Chapter 4
9/11/00 2 269 3 Writing Good Drafted para 4.1
9/14/00 1.5 331 3 Writing Good Drafted para 4.2 Version 1
9/15/00 2 263 3 Writing Good Drafted para 4.2 Version 2
9/16/00 3 311 3 Writing Good Drafted para 4.2 Version 3
9/17/00 2 363 3 Writing Good Addressed Dr. Moxley's cmts
9/18/00 1.5 378 3 Writing Good Attempt at hypotheses
9/19/00 1 191 1 Writing Good Status on good writers
9/20/00 2 535 3 Writing Good Status on good writers cont'
9/21/00 2 394 3 Writing Good Hypothesis analysis
9/22/00 2 353 3 Writing Good Hypothesis analysis
9/23/00 2 449 3 Writing Good Hypothesis analysis
9/26/00 2 308 3 Writing Good Conference abstract
9/28/00 2.5 412 3 Writing Good Methodology analysis
9/29/00 2 260 3 Writing Good Article review
10/1/00 2 335 3 Writing Good Article summary
10/2/00 1.5 421 3 Writing Good First paragraph paraphrase
10/3/00 2 324 3 Rewrite Good Incorp Dr. M's cmts in Conf Abstract
10/5/00 2 377 3 Write Good Drafted para 4.3
10/6/00 1.5 381 3 Write Good Drafted para 4.4
10/7/00 1.5 266 3 Write Good Drafted para 4.5

7. Inventing > Freewriting
The positive force is the surprise of
discovery. Writers are born at the moment
they write what they do not expect . . . They
are hooked because the act of writing that, in
the past, had revealed their ignorance, now
reveals that they know more than they had
thought they knew.
- Donald Murray.

8. Inventing > Looping
Freewrite a draft.
Re-read the draft and attempt to identify the "center of gravity"--the
place where your content is most original. Identify effective
metaphors, images, sentences. Circle the language that you
find to be of value.
Begin a second freewrite after rewriting the "center of gravity" at
the top of the page. As you draft again, repeat the language
you find helpful from the first draft, using these passages as a
creative point of departure.
Repeat the "looping" process as necessary.

9. Inventing > Think Visually
Examples of Maps
Using Visuals
Clustering/Spider Maps
Systems Concept Maps
Time Line/Flowchart Maps
Hierarchy Concept Maps
Modeling/Theory Maps

10. Spider Maps

11. Spider Maps

12. Systems Maps

14. Revise Your Work
• Revise Your Work at the Rhetorical Level

15. Edit Your Work
• Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace by
Joseph M. Williams.
• Editing Strategies

16. Manage Revision and Editing
1. Don’t accept everything you hear. Ignore
the cranks. Like bad drivers, there are too
many cranks for you to police.
2. Be your own worst critic. No one will take
your work as seriously as you do.
3. Don’t try to critique your work at the last
minute.

17. Trying Again
If and when you submit a second time, send a
revised proposal and indicate that you took
their advice, i.e.: “It was so rewarding to
hear the panel appreciated this, and it was
helpful to hear they were concerned about
X, so we have …”

18. Understanding Writing>
Playing the Believing Game
Believing Doubting

19. Use Writing Tools Wisely
• Use software tools to facilitate collaboration:
• MSFT Tutorial | BU Tutorial | Tools for Writers
• SharePoint
• Blogs
• http://www.lessig.org/blog/
• http://markbernstein.org/
• PhDweblogs.net
• Wikis: TeachingWiki, WritingWiki

20. Develop a Research Blog
• http://markbernstein.org/
• PhDweblogs.net
• http://www.lessig.org/blog/

21. Create a Writing Community
•Meet regularly
(monthly, semi-monthly):
•Face-to-face
•Online
•Blogging community.