grant writing

Karina Stokes' article "Good Money and Good Causes" spells out in great detail some tips on how to write grant proposals. In ten tips, Stokes highlights what she finds to be helpful strategies in how to win the grant award. It seems like many of her tips are not only intuitive but implicit in the writing process, let alone for writing grants. Some of her tips are don't overlook deadlines, read and reread the directions, adhere to length requirements, and read the entire proposal before submitting it. Though these four tips are not bad advice by any means, they are elementary and not exactly enlightening in regards to any type of writing. I found the tips specific to grant proposals much more effective and useful. Some of these more helpful tips are choose a concise, meaningful, and inoffensive title; write effective needs and objectives statements, ensure that the budget is justified, and keep the language simple and direct. These recommendations shed light on the sensitivity with which one should write grant proposals and give concrete examples of how to do so.

interviews and profiles, interviewed profiles, or profiled interviews?

The "How to Conduct an Interview" article from MIT clearly details the appropriate process by which one should conduct a business interview. I found the reconstruction section particularly helpful as it provided tips on how to best preserve the details of the interview that are significant. The one complaint I have about the short article is the lack of color and pictures; though concise and informative, the site is aesthetically unappealing.


Gerald Grow's article "A Formula for Writing a Business Profile Article" uses clear and understandable language to concisely provide an instructional on writing business profiles. The examples are helpful, the directions are logical, and the guide is both direct and effective. The one critique I have for Grow is similar to my former complaint; it would benefit his readers to provide a continuous example of an actual business profile. And maybe some colors or pictures...maybe instructional articles were not meant to be visually engaging, but it sure would be nice.


The article "For Hire: Fine Art Appraiser" by Cate Linberry is an example of a profile article detailing the work of appraiser Nan Chisholm. The text is easy to read, separated in sections by interview question, and Linberry does a decent job of balancing information about the profession and about Chisholm's personal life. It seems like the work of consolidating information for a profile article is reduced greatly by writing in the question-answer format as Linberry does. In terms of the content, I can't say that I am any more drawn to art appraisals having read about Chisholm's life.


In her article "Profile Article of Delancy Street's Director, Dr. Mimi Silbert," Halle Stockton's prose is natural, clear, and extremely easy to read. Her own narration is laced with short snippets of Silbert and others' quotations, creating a smooth and engaging story, broken up enough to keep your attention but coherent enough to follow an unmistakable trajectory. I think I prefer Stockton's prose to Linberry's question and answer format, especially as Silbert's profile provides a narrative of her life instead of a few seemingly disjointed responses.

the new age of technology

Internet pop-ups. Personal advertisements tailored to your interests based on the sites you visit. A minute of commercials for every three minutes of television program you watch. It seems like the world is hurling information at us faster and faster, and, in response, our attention span is becoming shorter and shorter. Nicholas Carr's article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" attempts to identify the ways in which internet and media developments have spawned a world different than the one of a couple decades ago. Carr writes, "In Google’s view, information is a kind of commodity, a utilitarian resource that can be mined and processed with industrial efficiency. The more pieces of information we can 'access' and the faster we can extract their gist, the more productive we become as thinkers." Not only is time a commodity these days, one that becomes more valuable as people increase their capacity for efficiency and convenience, but according to Carr, information is as well. As we increase the amount of data that we access, process, and analyze, we also maximize our productivity and efficiency. Carr appears to see the progression and development of technology, the Internet, and Google as one that as a potential threat to ourselves and our culture. However, the act of that recognition appears to me as an acknowledgement to that possibility. The simple awareness of the power behind our developing world should be enough to keep people from becoming robots. Besides, Carr fails to address innovation, creation, and art--things that information-processing machines cannot replace.


Richard Lanham's chapter "An Alphabet That Thinks" from his book The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information similarly views technology and electronic text as contributing to an age that values convenience and efficiency over depth and art. Lanham recognizes the way in which electronic texts are much more efficient than print but also come with limitations. He writes, "At the deepest level, though, our failure to use digital expression in a fruitful and efficient way comes from a theoretical misunderstanding." The author recognizes the way electronic texts can serve as a beneficial and progressive medium of communication. Again, I think it is vital to recognize the power behind the technology that are at our hands in this new age, but it takes an active and conscientious effort towards richer expression when the media constantly tries to divide our attention and flatten our perspective.